Foundations of Astrophysics

Book arrived in a very timely manner and was in excellent condition (like new).

This book although very slightly simple for me ,since I have struggled numerous and uncountable hours, with Seidelmann's (also noted as a explanatory) Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac for scientists! This work is the best I have ever seen. It also has very clear derivations of the historical numbers reached by the Greeks, together with the modern day exact equations that anyone past advanced calculus can do him/her self! Simply stated just buy it now. You will grow into this book as your educational level increases!

I really might give only 3.5 stars. Foundations of Astrophysics is packed full of information that should be mastered by any aspiring astrophysicist. Kepler's laws, properties of stars, the role and limitations of telescopes in astronomy, and other relevant topic areas are covered in detail sufficient for a one semester upper level, or a two semester 200 level undergraduate course. A notable shortcoming is the complete lack of answers to problems at the end of each chapter. Also, sample problems are not worked within each chapter. Consequently, I would not recommend this book for a self study program. I also found the text to be excessively chatty, with a frequent excess of words and/or phrases that added 30% to my reading time and 0% to my comprehension. However, the breadth and depth of coverage is impressive, and errors in the text are few.

Great book for teaching undergraduate level into Astrophysics. No advanced ODE's or PDE's necessary. In fact, hardly any math at all. This book covers all the necessary theory and observations for intro and gives you an excellent feel for the size of the numbers you're working with.

I just took an entry level course in astrophysics which required the use of this book. The book overall is a good effort to combine many different areas of foundational astrophysics while trying to go in depth in a few areas, but more often than not one can get lost in trying to follow along some of the derivations, even with a decent knowledge in math, physics, and mechanics. There are essentially no actual example questions to gain practice from, and the exercise questions at the end of each chapter are extremely vague and poorly worded. Descriptions of many topics are indeed in depth and easy to read, so essentially its like reading the same topics off wikipedia. It has a lot of information, but when it gets to the exercises and math, its just not complete.The course I took was good, but this book was not a great resource.

This is a very nice book. The content is very detail , fully explain concepts and derive formulas, which make it much easier to digest. It goes from the most basic astronomical knowledge of the Celestial Sphere to deriving the luminosity formula. I bought it and I have had no regrets so far!

This book is written at the level of second semester freshman and/or first semester sophmore year. In general the writing style is very elementary and confusing.When formulas are derived that have more than one independent variable it is often derived with one independent variable and at the end say the equation really is this. Often, an advanced undergraduate student will know what is being done is incorrect and becomed confused and bored in the process.For example, the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium is derived exactly like you do in a freshman class (using only the radial component). There is no mention that this equation is really three dimention (ignoring the dependent component) but much of the time you see it as one dimensional in astrophysics due to symmetry. A junior/senior should know this for possible future use.The problems at the end of the chapters are a complete disaster. Most of the problems are of the numerical nature (plug and chug) that can put you to sleep in about five minutes. The other problems are often written in a confusing style.Even considering the new paperback edition, considering what you get for you money this is probably the most expensive introductory astrophysics available today.The real value to this book is simply this: "It shows you how good Carroll and Ostlie really is".Update 8/2/11: Let me clarify some of what I have stated above.The book provides a glimpaw (and only a glimpse) of what astrophysics is about. It lacks the detail a junior physics major needs to be exposed to for more advanced classes in astrophysics. However, its explanations are easy to understand (although lacking in detail and thus would be good for self study. The book could also be of value for a sophmore to get an idea of what astophysics is about to see if he/she wants to do additional study in this area.It may also be used for a high school AP class in astronomy for students whom have complete one year of AP Calculus and one year of AP Physics.The exercises are straight forward and thus do not help a student develop the required insite into this comples subject to stude more advanced courses.

This is a really good book for if you have a basic idea about most astrophysics concepts, but would like to know more.

One of the best physics books I've read, very entertaining and informative. Even great for people who don't know much about the material (probably).