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Book Reviews


Introduction to Astronomy and Cosmology
Authors: Ian Morison

Publisher: Wiley

ISBN: 978-0470033340

Price: £32.50 (Pb), 341pp


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There's a lot to understand about modern astronomy, and this handily sized book has a good go at covering pretty much all of it in just 341 pages! It's not the first to embark on a complete introduction to astronomy and cosmology, but it's certainly one of the better offerings.

Morison's text, which began life as a series of lectures, is, successfully supplemented with a rich picking of glossy photographs that provide added interest and explanation. Only occasionally sounding a little dry, the text is bang up-to-date, and all cut up into convenient, self-contained sections that can be read in a dip-in, dip-out sort of way. Morison deals with everything from the big bang and dark energy to the different designs of telescope.

There are a few bloopers, though; he wags a finger at people who use the term 'The Theory of General Relativity', as we should be using 'The General Theory of Relativity'. Amusingly, on the very next page, he uses the wrong version!

What I felt Morison isn't so good at is making the maths, which makes regular and appropriate appearances in the text, as easy to understand as it could be. This is an introductory text, and I did think some clearer explanation of how the equations are manipulated might help many readers. Some of the explanatory diagrams are also a bit on the vague side. The diagram of the Sun's proton-proton nuclear reactions, for example, was difficult to grasp, even though I've studied them previously! On the plus side, he has a Technicolor Hertzsprung-Russell diagram to be proud of!


Inevitably, a book like this has to be compared with what I think are the very best of introductory texts, the Open University's Astronomy and Planetary Science course books.
Other than falling a bit flat on the maths explanations, I think there's very little on which to mark Morison down, so he's a close second to the OU; quite an achievement! Overall, it is a very well thought-out book that lucidly covers a comprehensive range of topics in an attractive format.

John Rowlands

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