The recommended text book for this course is Astronomy: Principles
and Practice by A. E. Roy and D. Clarke (Institute of Physics
Publishing, ISBN: 0750309172). This book is currently in its fourth
edition and you should be able to find a new paperback copy for around
32 pounds. You will also find this book useful for some of your other
courses, so it is recommended that you purchase your own copy
(although the main library does have a few copies and there is also a
copy in the Astronomy Lab). The Celestial Sphere part of the PHY105
half-module follows the material in Part 2 of Roy and Clarke fairly
closely, and the Telescopes part of PHY105 follows Part 3. You should
note, however, that there is some material in this lecture course
which you will not find in Roy and Clarke.
For a good non-mathematical introduction to the subject, I would
also recommend The Ever-Changing Sky by James Kaler
(Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 0521499186), which is currently in its
first edition and available in paperback for around 30 pounds.
©Vik Dhillon, 30th September 2009
