Good astrophysics text

[Damburger]

I'm doing some astrophysics modules for the third year of my physics degree, but I haven't done many such modules in the previous years. I'm covering cosmology, galaxies, and stellar evolution.

Can anyone recommend any book(s) to get me started on these topics? As I said, I've already done two years of the course so I understand basic physics and I am quite happy with something that is maths-heavy.

[tusenfem]

Astrophysics I and II by Bowers & Deeming is very good.

[StupendousMan]

I refer to "An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics," by Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie (Hardcover - 2nd edition 2006) very frequently.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Astrophysics I and II by Bowers & Deeming is very good.

...if one can put up with all the typos in the equations. That isn't to say these are indeed excellent volumes (with lots of maths and and use of effective graphs and tables) -- they are indeed. However, IMO these two volumes are inadequate in developing of physical intuition and understanding for newbies to astrophysical concepts. I do use them as a secondary reference.

I find that Carroll & Ostlie mentioned by Stupendous Man do a pretty darned good job in explaining the physical concepts. This was certainly an explicit goal of theirs, but almost certainly not that of Bowers & Deeming.

[ngc3314]

For the cosmology part, John Peacock's Cosmological Physics includes everything I can imagine ever needing and more. (One of his former students has described him as having a brain the size of six planets). I find this especially impressive, since being head of an institute must have cost at least a planets' worth of brain in aggravation.

[Damburger]

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm going with Carroll and Ostlie for the time being.

[parejkoj]

I was also going to recommend Carroll & Ostlie. It's one of the most referred-to books on my shelf (by other students, anyway). Though my copy is rather out of date at this point...

[Messier Tidy Upper]

Well anything by James B. Kaler when it comes to stellar astrophysics! He's the expert & a very good writer and bloke as well! His website :

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/sowlist.html

is well worth checking out if you haven't already.

I'd suggest :

Kaler, James B., ‘Extreme Stars’, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Kaler, James B., Stars, W.H. Freeman, 1992.
Kaler, James B., ’The Hundred Greatest Stars’, Copernicus books, 2002.

Esp. for stellar evolution. Fred Schaaf's , ‘The Brightest Stars’, (Wiley, 2008) is also superb. Most of Patrick Moore's works are great too although some of his books are a little outdated.
Cosmology-wise, its a bit old too but I think you can get revised & updated versions versions of Stephen Hawking's 'A breif history of Time' for cosmology, again presuming you don't already have it.

Plus Timothy Ferris has a brilliant cosmology book (not sure I'd call it a text book but its still well worth reading..) titled 'The Whole Sheebang.' Or something like that, afraid I don't have a copy myself to give you the other details.) Actually Tim Ferris has a number of awesome books notably one of my favourites ‘Seeing in the Dark : How Backyard Stargazers are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril’ published by Simon & Schuster, 2002.

When it comes to supernova I'd highly recommend Murdin, Paul, ‘End in Fire’, Cambridge Uni. Press, 1990.
When it comes to galaxies (& stars again) I'd urge you to try Henbest, Nigel & Couper, Heather, 'The Guide To The Galaxy', Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Then there's Ken Croswell's 'The Alchemy of the Heavens', Oxford University Press, 1996.

There's Malin, David & Murdin, Paul, Colours of the Galaxies, Cambridge University Press, 1984.

There's Motz, Lloyd & Nathanson, Carol, Constellations, (Aurum Press, 1991) which has a lot on stellar astrophysics & stellar evolution in it too.

& a whole lot of others too.

But you know who I'd be asking about this first? Your lecturer! ;-)

(Of course you may already have done that too!)

PS. Hmm .. None of these are really maths heavy & most are more popular level so may not be quite what you're after. Still they good books worth reading IMHON. Hope you find something useful from this anyhow.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I will say that IMO there are better texts (than C & O) overall regarding the are of cosmology, or at least better places for the astrophysics students to start.