Night Vision : Exploring the Infrared Universe

In this accessible and well-illustrated guide, Michael Rowan-Robinson provides a comprehensive history of infrared astronomy, offering a unique look at how astronomers reveal some of the Universe's most fascinating phenomena. Written for the general reader and amateur astronomer, Rowan-Robinson's notes and references will also appeal to researchers in astronomy and the history of science.

"Drawing on exciting discoveries of the last forty years, Night Vision explores how infrared astronomy, an essential tool for modern astrophysics and cosmology, helps astronomers reveal our Universe''s most fascinating phenomena - from the birth of stars in dense clouds of gas to black holes and distant colliding galaxies and the traffic of interstellar dust from the formation of our Solar System. While surveying the progress in infrared observation, astronomer Michael Rowan-Robinson introduces readers tothe pioneering scientists and engineers who painstakingly developed infrared astronomy over the past two hundred years. Accessible and well illustrated, this comprehensive volume is written for the interested science reader, amateur astronomer or university student, while researchers in astronomy and the history of science will find Rowan-Robinson''s detailed notes and references a valuable resource"--