Nearest Star

Leon Golub is a Senior Astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and has been studying the Sun and solar-type stars since the Skylab missions in 1973-4 and the Einstein Observatory in 1978. He is the head of the Solar-Stellar X-ray Group at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and has been involved in building and flying cutting-edge space instrumentation for the past thirty years. He is Chair of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society and has written many popular articles on subjects ranging from astronomy and philosophy to music criticism. Jay Pasachoff is a Professor of Astronomy at Williams College. He is a veteran of 56 solar eclipse expeditions, which have taken him all over the world to study the sun over the sunspot cycle. He received the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society. His undergraduate textbooks in astronomy have been widely used. He is already involved in planning for education and public outreach for the 2017 total solar eclipse for which totality will stretch from Oregon to South Carolina and for which the whole of the continental United States and Canada will see at least a partial eclipse.

Review of the first edition: 'In Nearest Star, two of the world's leading solar scientists give us a fascinating and informative account of our sun as a star … Golub and Pasachoff do not simply present an account of scientific fact. Rather, they show us how the process of science works … Throughout, the authors emphasize why and how we study the sun at many different wavelengths and what has been discovered by looking at the sun in each of these wavelength regimes. Nearest Star is a delight to read. Golub and Pasachoff transmit not only their obvious expertise but also a genuine affection for the subject. Nearest Star will surely leave you with a renewed appreciation for the beauty, complexity, and importance of our nearest star, the Sun.' Jennifer Birriel, Astronomy

• Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. The Sun; 2. The once and future Sun; 3. What we see: the solar disk; 4. What we don't see; 5. Eclipses; 6. Space missions; 7. Between fire and ice; 8. Space weather; Bibliography; Glossary; Index.