Abell's Exploration of the Universe

This is an update of the classic introductory text for scientists by the late George Abell. It is demanding for a general reader, but perfect for a science major. In general, there is a big gap between the general astronomy text for the nonscientist (these tend to have color pictures on every page, and to either leave out quantitative reasoning all together or to stick all the equations together in a little isolated box), and the more advanced astrophysics books by Zeilik and Gregory and Carroll and Ostlie. This text clearly identifies the more quantitative secions by placing them in slight smaller typeface, but they are still there for the interested reader or instructor. There are plenty of books out there for those who, like some reviewers here, found this text too difficult. There is definitely a market for this book.

I used this book to complete my Space Science degree. The first half of the book is dedicated to the explanation of the physics invloved in space. The author explains complicated concepts in a way that is easy to understand. The second half focuses on planets of the solar system and astronomy. There are really nice pictures and drawings. I used it a lot.