Milky Way as a Galaxy

By Gerard Gilmore, Ivan R. King, Gerard Gilmore

This is a comprehensive view of Galactic astronomy, written from a global point of view. The three authors have collaborated to produce a new synthesis of the forefront of knowledge about our Galaxy -... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0935702628
• ISBN13: 9780935702620
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: University Science Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.7" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A Somewhat Dated Classic

Published in 1990, this now classic text has missed a few big discoveries by the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. For those who are familiar with the Swiss Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics, this book is number 19 in the SAAS-fee Advanced Course Lecture Series. It differs from older SAAS lecture series proceedings because of the unusually strong synergy between the principal contributors. It is one of the best organized and written of the entire series. Our understanding of the Milky Way is tenuous at best because we are on the inside looking out. We can't see the whole of the Milky way and vast parts of it are obscured by vast clouds of gas and dust. This volume is an up to minute account (that minute being sometime in 1990) of the state of knowledge of our home galaxy. This includes early Hubbell and data gathered by radio telescopes. A good example of how this book is dated compared to more up to date information- there is one page that discusses galactic bars. Today we know that the Milky Way has a large bar which indicates that the Milky Way is a younger galaxy than we thought. This book and the pair by Binney: "Galactic Astronomy" and "Galactic Dynamics" are requisite texts for any serious study of the subject by grad student or professional. The text is also very math heavy with some knowledge of calculus, differential equations and the mathematics of physics.