Fundamentals of Astronomy: A guide for Olympiads

Excellent book for the USAAAO first round--really helpful. Got me to NAC.

This book is one of the cheapest astronomy books that you can get on the market, and probably one of the best ones. Every chapter is highly detailed, with concise and attractive text. One thing I really liked about it is the way the author distributed the questions. They are divided into exercises and problems. Exercises are a way to sum up and revise the chapter, and problems require a more advanced usage of the concepts. These are a great resource for regional astronomy olympiads and IAO and IOAA. P.S. For someone really passionate about astronomy/astrophysics olympiads, check out Everaise Academy.

I wish this book had been written sooner - i'll definitely be using it in my preparation for the IOAA. The explanations are clear and concise, making it very easy to grasp concepts that I have previously struggled with. A nice added touch is the fact that no previous knowledge is assumed, which makes the book suitable for a range of ages, from middle to high school, international olympiads and beyond. The Kindle version is especially helpful, since it allows the reader to pick and choose which topics to read, if in need of a quick astronomy fix. A minor issue: the hyperlinks seem to work on my Android tablet, but not on my iOS phone, not sure why - it might be a mistake on my end. However, this in no way takes from the merits of the book. A friendly and comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of astronomy - I'll definitely recommend this book to my classmates!

This is one of the most sorted out and genuinely priced astronomy book available on amazon for Indian astronomy Olympiad aspirants. The very first fetching mark of the book is its detailed index, with book divided into 4 parts extending from chapter 1 to 15 where each chapter is further divided into sub topics. the sub topics like 7.4 Black Body is further detailed into parts viz. wien's law and stefan-boltzmann law. The book focuses on reviewing the knowledge gained as each chapter ends with exercises and problems.

This book takes the reader from strong school level physics to the important physics that underpins astrophysics. Its genesis and motivation has come from the Astronomy Olympiad. It is a wonderfully lucidly written book. It sets out the fundamentals - the geometry of the sky, brightness scales, distance, . . . very well - something I regret not having as a younger reader myself. It then moves on to the physics needed to understand the huge range of phenomena that make astronomy so fascinating. Cannot recommend too warmly! I have bought copies for student libraries I am responsible for.

A good book to start with the fundamentals of astronomy. Contains many problems from various Olympiads and the segregation by the author of the problems into different categories is really helpful.