Based on the very popular liberal arts course Bob Bless has
taught at University of Wisconsin for many years, this
book provides a rich, historical approach to introductory
astronomy. It is ideal for use in an introductory astronomy
course for nonmajors. In the fifteen years since the first edition of this text
was published, several new concepts such as dark matter, dark energy, and
an incredible expansion of the universe (inflation) have been developed.
Furthermore, many of the exotic effects predicted by General Relativity
(e.g. black holes, warped space) have gone from being interesting theoretical
speculations to useful practical tools for understanding the universe. This
book aims to give an overview of astronomy, but in such a way that the
non-science major can get a feeling for how science actually developed with its
false starts and wrong turns, which observational evidence eventually corrected,
and also to describe the incredible recent developments in our understanding of
the physical universe. Several
chapters of this 2nd edition have been extensively revised to include
these recent developments.



Because it has become increasingly difficult to "cover" all of
astronomy in a one-semester course, this edition has largely omitted coverage of
the physical nature of the objects in our, and other, planetary systems,
although a discussion of the possibility of life elsewhere closes the book.