Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Stars in general; 3. Rotating variable stars; 4. Eclipsing variable stars; 5. Pulsating variable stars; 6. Cataclysmic variable stars; 7. Young variable stars; 8. Miscellaneous variable stars; 9. Applications of variable stars; 10. Epilogue; Appendices.

Promotional Information

A concise introduction and overview of variable stars, for undergraduate students and experienced amateur astronomers, first published in 2007.

About the Author

John R. Percy is Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. He is the world authority on variable star observation and author of books on astronomy and science education (especially astronomy).

Reviews

'If you want a comprehensive guide to the science of variable stars, you can't go wrong with a book written by John Percy, a world authority on variable star observation.' BBC Sky at Night Magazine 'tightly written, and frequently interspersed with figures and graphs, the book contains an enormity of fact and discussion ... a foremost authority on Variable Stars, and is a marvellous repository of information. As such it is an ideal textbook for a serious student, or a reference book for the amateur astronomer.' Astronomy & Space '... the book achieves its aim of providing an overview of variable-star astronomy, and given the size of the field this is no mean feat. It comes with an excellent index ...' The Observatory 'It seems likely to me that Understanding Variable Stars was written with the American Association of Variable Star Observers members in mind. ...It is certainly the most up-to-date readable description of the various types of starts and what is known about each. ...Basically, if you observe variable starts, you should read and probably own this book. Thank you Dr. Percy!' American Association of Variable Star Observers Bookstore