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Telescopes: A Very Short Introduction

Geoff Cottrell

December 2016

ISBN: 9780198745860

168 pages
Paperback
174x111mm

In Stock

Very Short Introductions

Price: £7.99

Geoffrey Cottrell describes the rise of telescopes from early optical examples to the sophisticated range of modern telescopes on Earth and in space, opening up the cosmos in views from radio waves to gamma rays. Looking forward, he discusses the possibilities of the new generation of telescopes in construction today.

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Description

Geoffrey Cottrell describes the rise of telescopes from early optical examples to the sophisticated range of modern telescopes on Earth and in space, opening up the cosmos in views from radio waves to gamma rays. Looking forward, he discusses the possibilities of the new generation of telescopes in construction today.

  • Explains the principles behind telescopes of different types from optical and radio to X ray and gamma ray, and the main events in their history
  • Describes the range of modern telescopes, Earth-based and in space, and the major discoveries made with them
  • Discusses the new generation telescopes, such as ALMA, and those planned for the next decade
  • Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over seven million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

Geoff Cottrell, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and visiting scientist at Rutherford Appleton laboratories, and at the Oxford University Astrophysics Department.

Dr. Geoff Cottrell began his career as a radio astronomer at Cambridge, observing colliding galaxies. He then moved to plasma physics, to Culham Centre For Fusion Energy and the Joint European Torus (JET) project, working on magnetically confined plasmas, hotter than the centre of the Sun, where he identified a new form of super-thermal radio emission from fusion alpha-particles. He was Director of the Culham International Summer School for Plasma Physics from 2006-2011. He has now returned to his first love, astrophysics, and in recent years has worked with Chris Lintott at Oxford University on the citizen science project, Galaxy Zoo. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and visiting scientist at Rutherford Appleton laboratories, and at the Oxford University Astrophysics Department.

Table of Contents

    Introduction
    1:Grasping light
    2:Through the looking glass
    3:Windows in the sky
    4:Instruments of light
    5:A mirror held up to nature
    6:The radio sky
    7:Telescopes in space
    8:The next telescopes
    Further Reading
    Index

Reviews

"The prose is authoritative and insightful" - Ben Evans, BBC Sky At Night

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