Kurzbeschreibung

This is the first non-technical book on spectroscopy written specifically for practical amateur astronomers. It includes all the science necessary for a qualitative understanding of stellar spectra, but avoids a mathematical treatment.

Beschreibung

This is the first non-technical book on spectroscopy written specifically for practical amateur astronomers. It includes all the science necessary for a qualitative understanding of stellar spectra, but avoids a mathematical treatment which would alienate many of its intended readers. Any amateur astronomer who carries out observational spectroscopy and who wants a non-technical account of the physical processes which determine the intensity and profile morphology of lines in stellar spectra will find this is the only book written specially for them. It is an ideal companion to existing books on observational amateur astronomical spectroscopy.

Inhaltsangabe

Spectroscopy A New Golden Age for Amateur Astronomy.- The Basic Stuff Light Radiation and Atoms.- Behind the Lines The Magnificent Energy Level Structure of an Atom.- Our Old Friend the Doppler Effect.- When Is a Spectral Line Not a Spectral Line?.- Stellar Spectra and That Famous Mnemonic.- Cool but not Smooth The Molecular Spectra of Red Stars.- Glows in the Dark Emission Lines and Nebulae.- Glowing Vortices Accretion Disks.- The P Cygni Profile and Friends.- Spectral Magnetism The Zeeman Effect.- How Much Gold in Them There Stars? The Curve of Growth.

Klappentext

More can be learned about physical processes going on in stars and nebulae by understanding and analyzing their spectra than by any other means.

Many amateur astronomers who use CCD cameras are taking up spectroscopy as part of their observational program, but until now the physics that underlies astronomical spectroscopy has been confined to advanced academic books.

Not any more!

In Spectroscopy - the Key to the Stars, Keith Robinson describes the physics and physical processes that cause the stellar spectra to be as they are... spectra that amateur astronomers can image with today's commercially-made equipment. Written specifically for amateur astronomers, this book assumes only a basic knowledge of physics but looks in detail at many topics, including energy levels in atoms, the molecular spectra of red stars, emission lines in nebulae, and much, much more.

Here is everything you need to know about how the atomic processes in stars and nebulae produce the spectra that amateur astronomers can image, and why spectroscopy is such a powerful tool for astronomers.