{"id":13509,"date":"2016-11-15T00:53:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T05:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13509"},"modified":"2016-11-15T00:53:05","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T05:53:05","slug":"new-astronomy-textbook-available-for-free-download-from-openstax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13509","title":{"rendered":"New Astronomy textbook available for free download from OpenStax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Checkout the free new\u00a0Astronomy textbook<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0OpenStax<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A Free, Professionally-edited, Non-profit Introductory Astronomy Textbook<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new introductory textbook called Astronomy has just been published by OpenStax, a national, non-profit project to develop high-quality, introductory textbooks that are free to students.\u00a0 The publisher is located at Rice University and supported by several major foundations (including the Gates and Hewlett Foundations.)\u00a0 They have already done over 20 free textbooks in other fields, used by hundreds of thousands of students around the country.<\/p>\n

\"astronomy_ch1page1\"<\/a>
Figure 1.1. Distant Galaxies. These two interacting islands of stars (galaxies) are so far away that their light takes hundreds of millions of years to reach us on Earth (photographed with the Hubble Space Telescope). (credit: modification of work by NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScl\/ AURA)-ESA\/Hubble Collaboration, and K. Noll (STScl))<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Senior authors for the new non-technical astronomy text are Andrew Fraknoi (Foothill College), David Morrison (NASA Ames Research Ctr.), and Sidney Wolff (National Optical Astronomy Observatory), who have had many years of experience writing texts and educational materials.\u00a0 The project had the help of over 75 astronomers and astronomy educators, to make sure that the text is up-to-date, authoritative, and educationally sound.\u00a0 None of the authors receive one penny of royalties.<\/p>\n

The book is free to students in the electronic version, and can be custom printed on demand \u2013 at cost. Even more interesting, the book is open source, which means professors can use it as is, or develop their own electronic version of it, selecting only the sections they teach and adding course-specific curriculum materials.<\/p>\n

The textbook is now available for review and adoption at: https:\/\/openstax.org\/details\/astronomy<\/a><\/p>\n

Featuring such current topics as the results from the New Horizons exploration of Pluto, the classification of exoplanets from Kepler and other projects, and the discovery of gravitational waves, the book is current and easily updated electronically.\u00a0 At the same time, it is written in everyday language specifically for non-science majors, with many analogies drawn from students\u2019 lives, clear diagrams, the latest color images, and occasional touches of humor.<\/p>\n

Math boxes throughout the chapters put topics on a quantitative footing for those who want to use math in their courses.\u00a0 Each chapter has math problems at the end.\u00a0 However, if a course doesn\u2019t use math, these boxes and problems can easily be skipped.\u00a0 Chapters also include suggested collaborative group activities (especially useful for discussion sections), links to web resources, biographies of astronomers, interdisciplinary connections, and much more.<\/p>\n

Ancillary materials are also being developed and the book will be compatible with several class management software systems.<\/p>\n

At a time when both students and professors have so often thrown up their hands in despair over the growing cost of astronomy textbooks, OpenStax Astronomy makes a professionally-edited, high-quality text available world-wide without charge.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

Andrew Fraknoi
\nChair, Astronomy Department
\nWeb site: www.foothill.edu\/ast<\/a>
\nAstroProf Facebook Pages: www.facebook.com\/Fraknoi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Checkout the free new\u00a0Astronomy textbook\u00a0at\u00a0OpenStax: A Free, Professionally-edited, Non-profit Introductory Astronomy Textbook A new introductory textbook called Astronomy has just been published by OpenStax, a national, non-profit project to develop high-quality, introductory textbooks that are free to students.\u00a0 The publisher is located at Rice University and supported by several major foundations (including the Gates and … Continue reading New Astronomy textbook available for free download from OpenStax<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3vT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7665,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=7665","url_meta":{"origin":13509,"position":0},"title":"Resource guides: Astronomy of Many Cultures + Women in Astronomy","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Prof. Andrew Fraknoi of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College passed along this item: Two New Resource Guides for Those Who Teach or Explain Astronomy \u201cUnheard Voices,\u201d a set of resource guides about the astronomy of many cultures and about the contributions of women to astronomy, is now available on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":744,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=744","url_meta":{"origin":13509,"position":1},"title":"Videos: Intro to Astronomy – Planetary Society","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0The Planetary Society offers a variety of videos including a\u00a0 couple of videos from an introductory astronomy course taught by Bruce Betts at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Intro Astronomy 2013. Class 1: Tour of the Solar System | The Planetary Society http:\/\/youtu.be\/_n0QxJcnDKU Intro Astronomy 2013. Class 2: How We Explore\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/_n0QxJcnDKU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7526,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=7526","url_meta":{"origin":13509,"position":2},"title":"Video: Intro. astronomy class on exoplanets, solar system origin, & formation","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce Betts of the Planetary Society continues with his on line\u00a0introductory\u00a0astronomy course. In this session he talks with\u00a0Debra Fischer of Yale University about exoplanets:\u00a0Intro Astronomy 2014. Class 11: Exoplanets and Solar System Origin and Formation - The Planetary Society http:\/\/youtu.be\/aumHGY4A3PA","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/aumHGY4A3PA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5350,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5350","url_meta":{"origin":13509,"position":3},"title":"New Resources about Astronomy and Space Science – Andrew Fraknoi","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Andrew Fraknoi\u00a0(\"The AstroProf\") \u00a0at Foothill College distributed this list of astronomy and space science resources: 1.\u00a0 Talks by Noted Astronomers Now on YouTube The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, featuring astronomers giving nontechnical lectures on recent developments in astronomy, are now available on their own YouTube Channel, at\u00a0http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/SVAstronomyLectures\/ The talks include:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6432,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=6432","url_meta":{"origin":13509,"position":4},"title":"The Astronomy Legacy Project – digitizing more than a century of astronomical photos","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Astronomy Legacy Project, supported by the nonprofit\u00a0Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI),\u00a0has opened an\u00a0Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign\u00a0to raise $60,000 to finance their program of digitizing stellar photographic films and plates: Before the invention of digital cameras in the 1990's, and for more than 120 years before that, astronomers put in several\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1695,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=1695","url_meta":{"origin":13509,"position":5},"title":"Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures available on line","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"An announcement from Andrew Fraknoi, chairman of the Astronomy program at Foothill College: Popular Astronomy Lectures Can Now Be Seen on YouTube We are happy to announce that the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, featuring noted scientists giving nontechnical illustrated lectures on recent developments in astronomy, are now available on their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13511,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509\/revisions\/13511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}