| Introduction | p. xi |
| The Universe | p. 1 |
| The first 15 billion years in 15 minutes | p. 3 |
| In the beginning | p. 3 |
| The birth of the solar system | p. 9 |
| At the end of it all | p. 13 |
| Getting around the sky | p. 16 |
| Charting the celestial globe | p. 16 |
| What's out there | p. 19 |
| What moves and what doesn't | p. 20 |
| Tools of the trade | p. 23 |
| Here comes the Sun | p. 29 |
| Warming up to the Sun | p. 29 |
| A tour of the Sun | p. 32 |
| On the surface and above | p. 34 |
| Eclipses of the Sun | p. 37 |
| Using a telescope to view the Sun | p. 40 |
| Meet the Moon | p. 43 |
| The birth and early life of the Moon | p. 43 |
| Locked together but drifting apart | p. 46 |
| Walking on the Moon | p. 48 |
| Viewing the Moon | p. 52 |
| The Moon through the telescope | p. 57 |
| Down to Earth | p. 64 |
| What makes the Earth unique? | p. 64 |
| Digging deep | p. 67 |
| The Earth as an astronomical object | p. 70 |
| Mercury and Venus--frantic speed, fatal beauty | p. 74 |
| Mercury | p. 74 |
| Venus--dangerous beauty | p. 80 |
| Looking at Mercury and Venus | p. 88 |
| Finding Mercury | p. 89 |
| Regarding Venus | p. 92 |
| Mars--the red planet | p. 96 |
| The real Mars | p. 96 |
| Observing Mars | p. 107 |
| Jupiter--king of the planets | p. 112 |
| Jovian atmosphere | p. 113 |
| The Galilean moons | p. 116 |
| Viewing Jupiter | p. 122 |
| Viewing the Galilean moons | p. 125 |
| Saturn--the ringed planet | p. 126 |
| The rings of Saturn | p. 126 |
| The planet itself | p. 131 |
| The moons of Saturn | p. 131 |
| Observing Saturn | p. 135 |
| Uranus, Neptune and Pluto--the newcomers | p. 137 |
| Discoveries, accidental and otherwise | p. 137 |
| Uranus and Neptune--turbulent twins | p. 141 |
| Pluto--the outer limits | p. 149 |
| Observing the newcomers | p. 152 |
| Comets, asteroids and meteors | p. 153 |
| Comets | p. 153 |
| Meteors | p. 158 |
| Asteroids | p. 160 |
| Searching for comets | p. 163 |
| Observing asteroids | p. 166 |
| Looking for meteors | p. 167 |
| Stars and their lives | p. 169 |
| Plotting the stars | p. 170 |
| A star is born | p. 171 |
| The life of a star | p. 173 |
| Death of a star (the low mass version) | p. 175 |
| Death of a star (the high mass version) | p. 177 |
| Variable stars | p. 179 |
| Binary stars | p. 181 |
| The Milky Way and other galaxies | p. 184 |
| The Milky Way--our home galaxy | p. 184 |
| How galaxies form | p. 188 |
| Active galactic nuclei | p. 194 |
| Clusters | p. 197 |
| Our strange universe | p. 199 |
| Black Holes--deep, dark mysteries | p. 199 |
| Dark matter | p. 203 |
| Antimatter--not just science fiction | p. 205 |
| Extra-Solar Planets | p. 206 |
| The search for extraterrestrial life | p. 209 |
| Star Charts | p. 215 |
| Star Charts and how to read them | p. 217 |
| Northern hemisphere chart | p. 222 |
| Southern hemisphere chart | p. 224 |
| Andromeda--Virgo | p. 226 |
| Resources | p. 362 |
| Books | p. 365 |
| General astronomy | p. 365 |
| Advanced amateur sky-watching | p. 366 |
| Websites | p. 367 |
| News, magazines and infromation | p. 367 |
| Telecopes and instruments | p. 368 |
| Astronomical software | p. 369 |
| The night sky | p. 369 |
| The solar system | p. 370 |
| Associations and clubs | p. 371 |
| Space agencies | p. 372 |
| Photo and multimedia galleries | p. 373 |
| Observatories amd museums | p. 374 |
| Planetaria | p. 376 |
| Sites for kids | p. 379 |
| Other interesting sites | p. 380 |
| Index | p. 381 |
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