Maran - Astronomy for Dummies

Astronomy For Dummies, 3rd Edition

by Stephen P. Maran, PhD

Astronomy For Dummies, 3rd Edition

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Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2012948997

ISBN 978-1-118-37697-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-37694-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-37695-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-37696-6 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Stephen P. Maran, PhD, a 36-year veteran of the space program, has been honored with the NASA Medal for Exceptional Achievement. He received the Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy, the George Van Biesbroeck Prize of the American Astronomical Society, for long-term extraordinary or unselfish service to astronomy, and the Andrew W. Gemant Award of the American Institute of Physics for significant contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic dimension of physics.

In 2000, the International Astronomical Union named an asteroid (Minor Planet 9768) Stephenmaran for Dr. Maran.

Dr. Maran began practicing astronomy from rooftops in Brooklyn and at a deserted golf course in the far reaches of the Bronx. He graduated to conduct professional research with telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia, the Palomar Observatory in California, and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. He also conducted research with instruments in space, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Ultraviolet Explorer. He helped design and develop two instruments that flew in space aboard Hubble.

Hes also taught astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Maryland, College Park. As press officer of the American Astronomical Society for many years, he presided over media briefings that brought news of astronomical discoveries to people worldwide.

Dr. Maran observed total eclipses of the sun from the Gasp Peninsula and elsewhere in Quebec; Baja California in Mexico; the Sahara desert in Libya; at sea off New Caledonia and Singapore in the eastern Pacific; and the shores of the U.S.

In the course of spreading the good word about astronomy, Maran has lectured on black holes in a bar in Tahiti and explained an eclipse of the sun on NBCs show. Hes also spoken on eclipse and comet cruises aboard Cunards and Sitmar Lines , and MSC Cruises Sinfonia. Hes addressed audiences ranging from inner-city Seattle school children and Atherton, California, Girl Scouts to the National Academy of Engineering in Washington, D.C. and subcommittees of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Dr. Maran is editor of and has co-authored or edited ten other books on those subjects, including two recent works written jointly with Laurence A. Marschall, and He has written many articles for and magazines and served as a writer and consultant for the National Geographic Society and Time-Life Books.

Dr. Maran is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in New York City (where he served a full season on the Math Team without incurring serious injury) and of Brooklyn College. He received both his MA and PhD in astronomy from the University of Michigan. Maran is married to Sally Scott Maran, a journalist. They have three children.

Dedication

To Sally, Michael, Enid, and Elissa with all my love.

Authors Acknowledgments

Thanks first to my family and friends who put up with me in the writing of this book. Thanks also to my agent, Skip Barker, who goaded and guided me in this project, and to Stacy Collins for her faith in the original project and Lindsay Lefevre for championing this substantially revised edition.

Im grateful to Ron Cowen and Dr. Seth Shostak for their past contributions to this book; to Kathy Cox, Georgette Beatty, Josh Dials, and Jennifer Moore, who organized and edited it; and to their skilled colleagues on the editorial and production teams at Wiley Publishing who made the book better and brighter. A special thanks to Laurence Marschall for suggestions that improved the accuracy and thoroughness of the book.