and Cosmology

D. Recommended Literature
433
In the following, we will give some recommendations
for further study of the literature on astrophysics. For
readers who have been in touch with astronomy only
occasionally until now, the general textbooks may be
of particular interest. The choice of literature presented
here is a very subjective one which represents the preferences
of the author, and of course it represents only
a small selection of the many astronomy texts available.
D.1 General Textbooks
There exist a large selection of general textbooks in
astronomy which present an overview of the field at
a non-technical level. A classic one and an excellent
presentation of astronomy is
• F. Shu: The Physical Universe: An Introduction
to Astronomy, University Science Books, Sausalito,
1982.
Turning to more technical books, at about the level of
the present text, my favorite is
• B.W. Carroll & D.A. Ostlie: An Introduction to
Modern Astrophysics, Addison Wesley, Reading,
1996;
its ∼ 1400 pages cover the whole range of astronomy.
The text
• M.L. Kutner: Astronomy: A Physical Perspective,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003
also covers the whole field of astronomy. A text with
a particular focus on stellar and Galactic astronomy is
• A. Unsöld & B. Baschek: The New Cosmos,
Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2002.
The recently published book
• M.H. Jones & R.J.A. Lambourne: An Introduction
to Galaxies and Cosmology, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 2003
covers the topics described in this book and is also
highly recommended; it is less technical than the present
text.
D.2 More Specific Literature
More specific monographs and textbooks exist for the
individual topics covered in this book, some of which
shall be suggested below. Again, this is just a brief
selection. The technical level varies substantially among
these books and, in general, exceeds that of the present
text.
Astrophysical Processes
• M. Harwit: Astrophysical Concepts, Springer, New-
York, 1988,
• G.B. Rybicki & A.P. Lightman: Radiative Processes
in Astrophysics, John Wiley & Sons, New York,
1979,
• F. Shu: The Physics of Astrophysics I: Radiation,
University Science Books, Mill Valley, 1991,
• F. Shu: The Physics of Astrophysics II: Gas
Dynamics, University Science Books, Mill Valley,
1991,
• S.N. Shore: The Tapestry of Modern Astrophysics,
Wiley-VCH, Berlin, 2002,
• D.E. Osterbrock: Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae
and Active Galactic Nuclei, University Science
Books, Mill Valley, 1989.
Furthermore, there is a three-volume set of books,
• T. Padmanabhan: Theoretical Astrophysics: I. Astrophysical
Processes. II. Stars and Stellar Systems.
III. Galaxies and Cosmology, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 2000.
Galaxies and Gravitational Lenses
• L.S. Sparke & J.S. Gallagher: Galaxies in the Universe:
An Introduction, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 2000,
• J. Binney & M. Merrifield: Galactic Astronomy,
Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1998,
• J. Binney & S. Tremaine: Galactic Dynamics,
Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1987,
Peter Schneider, Recommended Literature.
In: Peter Schneider, Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology. pp. 433–435 (2006)
DOI: 10.1007/11614371_D © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006