An Introduction to the Theory of Stellar Structure and Evolution

This book is your usual horribly written textbook. I'm sorry if you're taking an astrophysics class, and you're required to read it. The 1st chapter was easy enough to understand, but from the 2nd chapter onward it's almost incomprehensible. Very few pictures, diagrams or examples to explain the ideas, instead you get walls of text and sudden mathematical derivations. Very often I find myself saying,"woah hold up there, why are we doing two pages of math again?"

This book is written explicitly for undergraduates, but is certainly a good reference for the graduate student getting started in astronomy/astrophysics with no previous experience. The chapters flow together very well and the information is presented in a clear and concise manner. The problems in each chapter connect points from previous chapters to the new material the current chapter. Solutions to the problems are located in the appendix; while this may be good when you get stuck, I can imagine some students utilizing it too regularly and not learning the material.

I find that the material doesn't have a lot of context, so I found it hard to actually understand the physical meaning behind the processes that are described. Confusing diagrams too...

In good condition when I received it. It assumes readers have preliminary background in astro.

I am a physicist by training who has retired three years ago after a long career mostly in the electronics industry. Among my new hobbies I recently took up astronomy. I always had regrets about not being able to take course in astrophysics during my undergraduate studies so I decided to purchase this book in order to better understand the nature and physics of the things I was observing with my telescope. The book met all my expectations in regards to introducing me to the physics of star formation and evolution. As highlighted by the author in the introduction, I quickly found that the interesting thing about astrophysics is that it brings together many different fields of physical science such as mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism and quantum physics which, when taught to the new science student, may seem so disparate at first. The book is aimed at undergraduate students in their second or third year of physics and therefore requires a basic knowledge of the disciplines mentioned above as well as calculus. It covers all aspects of star formation and evolution and the very specific subjects I wanted to know more about: evolution of stars of varying mass within the H-R diagram, brown and white dwarfs, red giants and supergiants, novae and supernovae, neutron stars and pulsars, black holes, nuclear mechanisms responsible for the formation of heavy elements as well as the nature of variable stars of different kinds (Cepheids, LL Lyrae, Miras). The book goes through detailed equations and physical interpretations illustrated with figures and diagrams as well as a small number of black and white pictures of celestial phenomena. I found particularly useful to use this book in conjunction with the book "Universe" (10th ed.) by Freedman, Geller and Kaufmann. The latter has several chapters devoted to stars; while it does not go into the in-depth equations like the former it takes a much more qualitative approach with an extensive use of coloured pictures and figures that, for me at least, nicely complemented the other book.

Libro en perfecto estado. Enviado en tiempo.

The exposure of the different contents is easy to understand although some times a single addition of more clear description should be mentioned. The solutions to all the exercises are a very good support to get a stronger understanding of the total description of the book. I found this book, second edition, very professionally written and also very clear in the English expression. I will recommend this book to any one who has interest in learning the exciting aspect of our universe.

e che si capisce quasi tutto. Gli do quattro stelle sulla fiducia, la quinta solo se la figlia passa l'esame!

Very good quality both outside and inside. The price was amazingly cheap compared with previous editions. Highly recommended for people looking for an introduction in the stellar evolution topic.