Peter Duffett-Smith is a physicist by training, and a radio astronomer by trade. He is a Reader in Experimental Radio Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and is a fellow of Downing College and the Royal Astronomical Society. Jonathan Zwart is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory in New York, and a co-founder and former editor of Cambridge's science magazine, BlueSci.

'The biggest change from previous editions is the inclusion of spreadsheets for nearly every calculation … All in all, this book does a good job at what it sets out to do. The formulas and algorithms are presented clearly and with an appropriate level of detail, and the spreadsheets supplement the text by showing an additional way to perform the computations without having to resort to a scientific calculator or writing your own programs.' Michael Coren, AstroMart.com

• Time; Coordinate systems; The Sun; The planets, comets and binary stars; The Moon and eclipses; Index.

Peter Duffett-Smith is a physicist by training, and a radio astronomer by trade. He is a Reader in Experimental Radio Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and is a fellow of Downing College and the Royal Astronomical Society. Jonathan Zwart is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory in New York, and a co-founder and former editor of Cambridge's science magazine, BlueSci.

'The biggest change from previous editions is the inclusion of spreadsheets for nearly every calculation … All in all, this book does a good job at what it sets out to do. The formulas and algorithms are presented clearly and with an appropriate level of detail, and the spreadsheets supplement the text by showing an additional way to perform the computations without having to resort to a scientific calculator or writing your own programs.' Michael Coren, AstroMart.com

• Time; Coordinate systems; The Sun; The planets, comets and binary stars; The Moon and eclipses; Index.