Cambridge Dictionary of Astronomy

Held up by the heliopause? Floored by the flatness problem? Intimidated by MACHOs? With the Cambridge Astronomy Dictionary you'll no longer be defeated by such astronomical jargon! These and 3,200 additional words, names, and abbreviations used in amateur and professional astronomy, are clearly and concisely defined. Entries include information from modern and classical astronomy, including:

• A comprehensive selection of specialist terms
• All the constellations, planets, and moons of the solar system
• Comets, stars, asteroids, nebulae, and galaxies
• Telescopes, observatories, spacecraft, and space missions

Published internationally as The Penguin Dictionary of Astronomy, it is considered the classic reference work in its field. This edition has been completely revised and includes many new entries. Anyone involved with astronomy, either professionally or as a hobby, will find the Cambridge Astronomy Dictionary a handy and invaluable reference. Jacqueline Mitton's interest in astronomy began when she was a child and she had her first telescope as a teenager. She graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in physics, then obtained her PhD in astronomy at the University of Cambridge. In 1989 she became the Press Officer of the Royal Astronomical Society. She is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a member of the International Astronomical Union, and a Member of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. She is the author or co-author of 16 astronomy books and writes for both children and adults.

Handy and invaluable reference book for anyone involved with astronomy, either professionally or as a leisure interest.

Library Journal

Mitton (The Scholastic Encyclopedia of Space), press officer of the British Astronomical Association, has substantially revised The Penguin Dictionary of Astronomy (1993) under a new title. This authoritative work provides definitions of over 3200 words, names, and abbreviations commonly found in astronomy, from Foucault's Pendulum to WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) to mice astronomers' slang for two interacting galaxies. The definitions vary in length from a few sentences to several paragraphs and are clearly written and very informative. Appendixes include tables providing data on the constellations, planets, natural satellites, planetary ring systems, and brightest stars, but the only illustrations are 57 line diagrams. This work is very similar in scope and quality to Dictionary of Astronomy (Oxford Univ., 1997), which has more entries (4000, to be precise) and includes biographical entries that are unfortunately missing from Mitton's. The two sources complement each other, often providing different details or focus on the same subject, but some libraries may not want to own both. However, both amateur and professional astronomers will find the Cambridge Dictionary useful, and it is an important resource for public and academic libraries libraries that need a current and complete astronomy collection. Teresa Berry, Univ. of Tennessee Lib., Knoxville Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Jacqueline Mitton's interest in astronomy began when she was a small child and she had her first telescope as a teenager. She graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in physics, then obtained her PhD in astronomy at the University of Cambridge. In 1989 she became the Press Officer of the Royal Astronomical Society. She is the author or co-author of 16 astronomy books published since 1978, and writes for both children and adults. Her recent books include The Scholastic Encyclopedia of Space (with Simon Mitton, 1999), Pluto and Charon (with Alan Stern, Wiley, 1997 & 1999) and Zoo in the Sky (National Geographic, 1998).