Mapping the Sky : The Essential Guide for New Astronomers Book

	Foreword	8
Part 1	Unlocking Astronomy	10
1	The Celestial Sphere	12
1.	The Work of the Gods	14
	The Creation of the World	14
	The Organization of the Sky	15
	The Mythical Architecture of the Cosmos	17
2.	The Worldly Sphere	18
	Precursors	18
	The Pythagoreans	19
	Plato's Universe	20
	The Model of the Universe	21
3.	The Sphere of Fixed Stars	22
	Observation of the Stars	22
	The Celestial Sphere	28
2	Guides to the Sky	30
1.	The Constellations	31
	The World and Its Many Skies	31
	Imaginary Lines	33
2.	The Route of the Sun	36
	The Apparent Movements of the Sun	38
	The Ecliptic	44
	The Equatorial Coordinates	45
3	Mapping the Universe	48
1.	The Great Ancestors	49
	Hipparchus	49
	Ptolemy	51
2.	Under the Sun of Islam	54
	The Stars Renamed	55
	The Observatories of Islam	56
3.	Tycho Brahe, Prince of Stars	57
	The New Star	57
	Uraniborg	58
	The Man with the Golden Nose	58
4.	Artificial Eyes	59
	A Mad World!	59
	Nebulae	60
	Hipparcos	61
4	Time	64
1.	At the Tone, the Time Will Be...	66
	Dividing Day from Night	66
	What Time Is It?	68
2.	The Secret of Longitude	72
	A War of Positions	73
	If Every Sailor in the World...	76
3.	From One Time to Another	77
	The True Solar Day	78
	The Mean Solar Day	78
	Standard Time	79
	Universal Time	80
	Atomic Time	80
5	The Calendar	82
1.	Lunar Time	83
	Beneath the Moonlight	84
	Lunar Calendars	84
2.	Time and the Seasons	88
	The Seasonal Year	88
	Time and the Stars	89
	The Egyptian Calendar	91
3.	From Julius to Gregory	94
	The Julian Calendar	95
	The Gregorian Calendar	96
6	The Planets	98
1.	The Movements of the Planets	99
2.	Universal Systems	103
	Keeping Up Appearances	103
	The Geocentric System	104
	The Heliocentric System	109
3.	Kepler's Three Laws	111
	"Poor" Kepler	112
	Kepler's Laws	116
7	Celestial Mechanics	122
1.	Gravitational Theory	123
	Newton's Apple	124
	Universal Gravity	127
	And There Was Light...	128
	Sir Isaac Newton	132
2.	Celestial Mechanics	133
	All Bodies Attract...	133
	The Theory of Disturbances	134
	The Theory of General Relativity	140
8	The End of the Fixed Stars	142
1.	The Cosmic Onion	143
	Aristotle's World	143
	The Spheres Implode	146
2.	The Movement of the Stars	150
	Finite or Infinite?	150
	Farewell to the Fixed Stars	154
	Epilogue	155
Part 2	Keys to the Sky	156
1	Observation with the Naked Eye	158
1.	Observation: An Instruction Manual	158
	Choosing Your Site	159
	A Comfortable Setup	160
2.	First Steps	162
	The Four Horizons	162
	Star or Planet?	166
3.	Review of the Constellations	168
2	Tools of Astronomy	176
1.	Binoculars: Pocket Eyes	177
	Luminosity and Depth	177
	Why Binoculars?	178
2.	Telescopes: Night Vision	180
	Light and Optics	180
	Characteristics of Telescopes	181
	Which One to Choose?	184
3.	Telescopes: Light Traps	184
	Anatomy of a Reflector	184
	Two Great Families	185
	Big, Bigger, Biggest	187
3	The Solar System	200
1.	Ephemerides	201
	Day and Night	201
2.	The Sun and the Moon	205
	Observing the Sun	206
	A Guided Tour of the Moon	207
3.	Observation of the Planets	212
	Venus and Mercury, the Sun's Neighbors	213
	The Martian Orange	213
	Giant Jupiter	215
	Saturn and Its Rings	215
	At the Edge of the Solar System	217
4	Deep Space	218
1.	The Stars	219
	A Stellar Way of Life	221
	The Communities of Stars	222
2.	The Nebulae	224
	Varieties of Nebulae	224
	How to Spot Them	224
	Where Can You Observe Nebulae?	226
3.	The Galaxies	228
5	Astrophotography	232
1.	First Steps	232
2.	Instruments and Photography	233
3.	Digital Astrophotography	235
	Acknowledgments	238