Preface
Prelude

Pt. I The Solar System
1 Celestial Mechanics and the Solar System
2 The Solar System in Perspective
3 The Dynamics of the Earth
4 The Earth-Moon System
5 The Terrestrial Planets: Mercury, Venus, and Mars
6 The Jovian Planets and Pluto
7 Small Bodies and the Origin of the Solar System

Pt. II The Stars
8 Electromagnetic Radiation and Matter
9 Telescopes and Detectors
10 The Sun: A Model Star
11 Stars: Distances and Magnitudes
12 Stars: Binary Systems
13 Stars: The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

Pt. III The Milky Way Galaxy
14 Our Galaxy: A Preview
15 The Interstellar Medium and Star Birth
16 The Evolution of Stars
17 Star Deaths
18 Variable and Violent Stars
19 Galactic Rotation: Stellar Motions
20 The Evolution of Our Galaxy

Pt. IV The Universe
21 Galaxies Beyond the Milky Way
22 Hubble's Law and the Distance Scale
23 Large-Scale Structure in the Universe
24 Active Galaxies and Quasars
25 Cosmology: The Big Bang and Beyond
26 The New Cosmology

Comet Update
App. 1 The Messier Catalog A-1
App. 2 Constellations A-4
App. 3 Solar System Data A-7
App. 4 Stellar Data A-10
App. 5 Atomic Elements A-13
App. 6 Conversion of Units A-15
App. 7 Constants and Units A-17
App. 8 The Greek Alphabet A-19
App. 9 Mathematical Operations A-20
App. 10 The Celestial Sphere A-32
Glossary G-1
Index I-1