Reviews for The complete idiot's guide to astronomy

The average rating for The complete idiot's guide to astronomy based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-11-21 00:00:00 Todd Burrow When I started reading Asimov's book this week, written over 30 years ago, I figured I'd be the better-informed, having absorbed current scientific knowledge in over a decade of technical education and more so for being a geek in general. Turns out I was wrong. Asimov writes about cosmic phenomena with heavy emphasis on basic concepts, without ever going over the head of the layman, while imparting new knowledge in almost every page. I learned so many things about the Earth, planets, the solar system, stars and the Universe in general that I feel humbled. None of this material should be new to a well-informed denizen of the 21st century but, surprisingly, is. This book is an absolute gem for every person, whether amateur astronomer, geek or just the kind who likes to stare at the night sky and wonder about the sparkly bits. On a side-note, the first chapter talks about atomic and nuclear structure and forces and can seem a bit dry to start with. Persist! It's worth it!

Review # 2 was written on 2010-12-11 00:00:00 Jesus Rios It's been three decades since I first read this book. I decided to read it again after having just read Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson because it seemed that Asimov had told a similar story, but in the opposite order in terms of mass. That is, the latter books starts with the universe and works its way down to planets, and Asimov's starts with the smallest objects, working its way progressively up to the most massive and the universe as a whole. Asimov explains the difference between planets, stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, etc. in such a clear and logical manner that it puts the whole range of states of matter in a context that even lay persons like myself can understand. The differences in densities of the various celestial bodies alone is truly amazing, as is the eventual triumph of the weakest of the four forces, gravity, over the other three. At the time of the book's publication Dark Matter and Dark Energy had yet to be proposed or confirmed, Inflation Theory had not been proposed, Black Holes were still theoretical, and Pluto was still one of the major planets with an estimated mass double that of Mercury and 50 times its current estimate. But still, even today with all that has been learned since the book was published, I feel it is still a worthwhile and enjoyable read for anyone wanting to understand the universe and our unique place in it.