Double and Multiple Stars and How to Observe Them

Description

Publisher     Springer
ISBN:    1-85233-751-6
Author:    James Mullaney
Publication Year   2005
Number of Pages   224 Pages

Dimensions
Item Length  10 in.
Item Height    0.45 in.
Item Width  7.01 in.
Item Weight  16 Oz

ASTRONOMERS’ OBSERVING GUIDES provide up-to-date information for amateur astronomers who want to know all about what it is they are observing. This is the basis of the first part of the book. The second part details observing techniques for practical astronomers, working with a range of different instruments.

Double and Multiple stars are among the most fascinating astronomical objects. They range from ‘optical binaries’ that can be easily observed with a modest telescope, to distant and complex multiple systems that challenge even professional observers.

The first part of Jim Mullaney’s book provides a comprehensive review of the different classes of double and multiple systems, along with a look at the astrophysics of these objects. This is followed by a detailed guide for amateur astronomers, describing how to observe them – using a variety of different techniques – and outlining how to record the observations.

In one book, here is all you need to observe double and multiple stars, and to understand the systems you are looking at.

James Mullaney is an astronomy writer, lecturer and consultant who has published more than 500 articles and five books on observing the wonders of the heavens, and logged over 20,000 hours of stargazing time with the unaided eye, binoculars and telescopes. Formerly Curator of the Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science in Pittsburgh and more recently Director of the DuPont Planetarium, he served as staff astronomer at the University of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Observatory and for Spitz Space Systems. He has also been an editor for Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and Star & Sky magazines. One of the contributors to Carl Sagan’s award-winning Cosmos PBS-Television series, his work has received recognition from such notables as Sir Arthur Clarke, Johnny Carson, Ray Bradbury, Dr. Wernher von Braun, and former student – NASA scientist/astronaut Dr. Jay Apt. In February of 2005, he was elected a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Astronomical Society of London.

Authors and Affiliations

• Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, Pittsburgh

James Mullaney

• University of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Observatory, Pittsburgh