books by Neil F. Comins (universe edition voyages)

books by Neil F. Comins

books:

8 reviews
Neil F. Comins, William J. Kaufmann

W. H. Freeman, 2008

Great Textbook
This beautiful, full-color, highly-informative textbook has been great for my Astronomy class. Completely up-to-date (well, with the exception of the possible two new planets, one of which has been confirmed only recently and definitely since the text's Spring 2005 publication), it teaches astronomy equally well to the physics major and the humanities student (such as myslef) who is taking the ...

Discovering the Essential Universe (2nd Edition)
Neil F. Comins

W. H. Freeman, 2003

This book is an ideal first introduction to students with a limited science background. The sections are well-written and the figures and photos are plentiful and well-explained.

Discovering the Essential Universe

2 reviews
Neil F. Comins

W. H. Freeman, 2006

Ideal for beginning astronomy students
I have found this book to be an ideal first introduction to students with a limited science background. The sections are well-written and the figures and photos are plentiful and well-explained. I have introduced this book to a number of other colleagues and they too have found it to be a delight to use in our intruectory astronomy class. It is almost exactly the right length for a one semester ...

What If the Moon Didn't Exist?: Voyages to Earths That Might Have Been

7 reviews
Neil F. Comins

Harper Perennial, 1995

Incredibly interesting
In this book, Neil Comins walks a fascinating tightrope between science and science fiction. He presents ten carefully detailed scenarios, in which intriguing astronomical "what ifs" are asked. Each scenario is alloted about 25 or 30 pages, on average. The title scenario, dealing with a posited Earth without a moon, is the longets essay, weighing in at 50 pages. One of my favorite sections ...

Heavenly Errors

3 reviews
Neil F. Comins

Columbia University Press, 2001

Heavens above! The stars don't twinkle?
This book refutes many fond misconceptions of the universe, such as "twinkling" stars, our Sun always rising directly in the East and only the Moon causing tides. Next, though it is not addressed in this book, we'll be told the Earth isn't flat and it doesn't rest of the back of a giant turtle, which stands on the back of an even larger turtle, which stands on an even larger turtle ... and so ...