An Introduction to Galaxies and Cosmology

Pan Galactic Marvel Blaster. Lego Guide to Galaxy Building. Build your own Galaxy. Scholarly, Colorful, Readable, Step by Step

I love these OU books, designed for students at home, they are clear, have a good lay out, questions and answers, the lot. Their contents level is rare as well. Most Astronomy books out there are either the simple ones for people who just start looking up for the first time at the night sky, or complicated astrophysics books of a 1000 pages + at prices of over 100 euro's, so this book (and the others in its series) is a gem, as it sits right in between the simple and the rocket science stuff.

An amazing book for beginners interested in cosmology, explains everything properly and clearly, helps one to get along the things very easily, well written with beautiful pictures, very up to date, can only recommend this book!

Brilliant! For degree level and general interest and reading! A great buy! Easy to read, understand and well laid out! Starts from laymen terms and works up. Would definitely recommend.

Excellent, interesting material presented in a very clear way.

I am recently keep reading this book and found that it's quite easy to follow the paragraph. Content inside is quite difficult and i do think the text is mentioning it clearly though.

Perfect condition.

I bought this book for personal use in self-study and can recommend it to all interested parties whether non formally trained scientists, undergraduates, graduates with an interest but perhaps working outside the field or like me a graduate working a million miles away from the subject matter of the book. If you have a background in the physical sciences this book will make an excellent refresher and reference source for summaries, diagrams and overviews of the relevant arguments. If you don't have a background in the physical sciences this book will help you gain an understanding of the main physical processes governing the formation and evolution of Galaxies (including our own Milky Way galaxy) along with the observational techniques used in obtaining real data to test the theoretical predictions for other Galaxies and the main current Cosmological models. The book is illustrated throughout with beautiful diagrams, photographs and real experimental data and it's fun using the formulae within the book to calculate numbers that you can then see on the experimental graphs and plots. The book contains summary sections at the end of each chapter and these are excellent, providing not only a reminder of the main points that you've just worked through but a useful "taster" of what's to come before you dive into each chapter. In addition, the book contains many questions in each chapter with answers at the end. These problems are fun to work through and having the answers is a real advantage and a positive asset of the book - there's nothing worse when learning from a book questions being posed but no answers being provided. On the production of the book, I can't fault it. It's not a massive tomb so I had no problems with the binding splitting - something that can happen with very large paperback text books once opened beyond the first few chapters when the weight of the book splits the binding. In addition to this book I purchased 2 other books on related topics and have the same comments on them - all 3 books are beautifully illustrated throughout, contain questions with worked solutions and pitch their subject matter at the right level. The books in question are: An Introduction to the Sun and Stars by Simon F Green Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology by Robert J. A. Lambourne

Arrived in good condition, if a bit well-used (which was no surprise). The pages are clean, only the edges are slightly soiled and worn. Briefly paged through: the book is well illustrated. The approach and coverage / pedagogy seems appropriate for an undergraduate course for non-majors, i.e. as a breadth course. As with any cosmology astrophysics text printed over five years ago, it is a bit dated, but the basics (aka hot bang physics) is perfectly current (= there still is no answer as to what dark matter or dark energy are other than variables in an equation).

Very useful, full course of the Galaxies evolution and Cosmology. I strongly recommend it to anyone who are interesting in this topic.

Captivating and well written, great level of detail (compared to many texts you can find on market). I did truly appreciate the description of the Milky Way and of the galaxies in the universe, never found anywhere else in such detail. (I'm not an astronomy student, I'm just an interested reader with some physical and matemathical background from scientific studies some thirty years ago...)

De fácil lectura el inglés en el que está escrito, Libro de texto, accesible con alguna base. Obra excepcional, bien explicado y solo las fórmulas elementales. Diagramas y fotos en color. Cada capítulo con descripciones de los autores de la materia descrita, con "box" para ampliación de los contenidos, preguntas/respuesta, problemas "Question" y al final de cada capítulo un sumario de lo tratado. Al final del libro, soluciones a las "questions"). Apéndice. Glosario. Índice alfabético, Bibliografía. Encuadernación excelente, calidad del papel con letra grande y clara. Sin duda aprenderás y mucho con esta obra y su complementaria "An Introduction to the Sun and Stars" de S.F. Green y M.H. Jones. Describe la estructura e historia detallada de nuestra galaxia (Vía Láctea). Otras Galaxias (tipos, características, propiedades, origen, evolución). Modelos cosmológicos (Einstein, De Sitter, Lemaître, FRW). Big Bang (modelo, evolución, verificaciones). Parámetros (H0, q0, R(t), z, Ʌ, Ω(t) ,etc.), masas, densidades, diámetros, edades, constantes del universo. CMB, Nucleosíntesis, Recombinación, Materia y energía oscuras, problemas del Horizonte y de la Planitud, Universo primordial, etc. etc.

I found AN INTRODUCTION TO GALAXIES AND COSMOLOGY to be an excellent book! It is especially geared to a person who wants more than just a superficial description of this branch of astronomy and yet it avoids complex mathematics making it perfect for a person who does not need to see the mathematical step-by-step development of all the equations involved in the topic. The book consists of 2 parts: Part 1 (Chapters 1-4) has a detailed discussion of the structures of our own Milky Way Galaxy and goes on to introduce normal and active galaxies. Part 2 (Chapters 5-8) gets into the wide range of Cosmological Models and discusses the Big Bang and expansion of the Universe. Chapter titles are: Ch1 The Milky Way-Our Galaxy Ch2 Normal Galaxies Ch3 Active Galaxies Ch4 The Spacial Distribution of Galaxies Ch5 Introducing Cosmology-The Science of the Universe Ch6 Big Bang Cosmology Ch7 Observational Cosmology- Measuring the Universe Ch8 Questioning Cosmology- Problems About the Universe Although the book avoids showing the complex mathematics behind important formulas, it does not neglect showing many formulas and gives student exercises using them to calculate various important quantities. Full solutions to each one are given in the back of the book. The book correctly advertises itself as being understandable to anyone who has completed beginning undergraduate physics courses. The book does not require calculus in its problem solving. I highly recommend it!