Peter Schneider is a Full Professor for Astrophysics at the University of Bonn and Founding Director of the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Bonn. He is one of the internationally most respected German astrophysicists, well known for his research on gravitational lensing (strong and weak) and cosmology, and author of 3 successful Springer books.

"An obvious difference from many other roughly similar books is the large number of illustrations, many in colour. ... I recommend the book both to students and to those who work in fields other than those covered by the book ... . It is up to date, quite detailed for an introduction, and the numerous figures with references are particularly useful as jumping-off points to the original literature." (Phillip Helbig, The Observatory, April, 2016)

• Introduction and overview.- The Milky Way as a galaxy.- The World of Galaxies.- Cosmology I: Homogeneous isotropic world models.- Active galactic nuclei.- Clusters and groups of galaxies.- Cosmology II: Inhomogeneities in the Universe.- Cosmology III: The cosmological parameters.- The Universe at high redshift.- Galaxy evolution.- Outlook.- A: The electromagnetic radiation field.- B: Properties of stars.- C: Units and constants.- D: Recommended literature.- Index.

Peter Schneider is a Full Professor for Astrophysics at the University of Bonn and Founding Director of the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Bonn. He is one of the internationally most respected German astrophysicists, well known for his research on gravitational lensing (strong and weak) and cosmology, and author of 3 successful Springer books.

"An obvious difference from many other roughly similar books is the large number of illustrations, many in colour. ... I recommend the book both to students and to those who work in fields other than those covered by the book ... . It is up to date, quite detailed for an introduction, and the numerous figures with references are particularly useful as jumping-off points to the original literature." (Phillip Helbig, The Observatory, April, 2016)

• Introduction and overview.- The Milky Way as a galaxy.- The World of Galaxies.- Cosmology I: Homogeneous isotropic world models.- Active galactic nuclei.- Clusters and groups of galaxies.- Cosmology II: Inhomogeneities in the Universe.- Cosmology III: The cosmological parameters.- The Universe at high redshift.- Galaxy evolution.- Outlook.- A: The electromagnetic radiation field.- B: Properties of stars.- C: Units and constants.- D: Recommended literature.- Index.

Peter Schneider is a Full Professor for Astrophysics at the University of Bonn and Founding Director of the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Bonn. He is one of the internationally most respected German astrophysicists, well known for his research on gravitational lensing (strong and weak) and cosmology, and author of 3 successful Springer books.

"An obvious difference from many other roughly similar books is the large number of illustrations, many in colour. ... I recommend the book both to students and to those who work in fields other than those covered by the book ... . It is up to date, quite detailed for an introduction, and the numerous figures with references are particularly useful as jumping-off points to the original literature." (Phillip Helbig, The Observatory, April, 2016)

• Introduction and overview.- The Milky Way as a galaxy.- The World of Galaxies.- Cosmology I: Homogeneous isotropic world models.- Active galactic nuclei.- Clusters and groups of galaxies.- Cosmology II: Inhomogeneities in the Universe.- Cosmology III: The cosmological parameters.- The Universe at high redshift.- Galaxy evolution.- Outlook.- A: The electromagnetic radiation field.- B: Properties of stars.- C: Units and constants.- D: Recommended literature.- Index.