A History of Astronomy: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

A History of Astronomy, credited to Walter W. Bryant, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of A History of Astronomy by Walter W. Bryant. Read in English by LibriVox volunteers. In this book, Walter W. Bryant traces the history of astronomy through the ages. We start at the very beginning, where astronomy was an occupation of priests, move with the help of the Arabs through the middle ages to the (re-) discovery of the heliocentric system by Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo. A discussion of Newton and his laws follows as well as a description of the biographies and works of successors like Halley, Herschel, and Bessel. The second half of the book deals with (at the time) recent discoveries with respect to our solar system and the comets, meteors, and stars beyond. (Summary by Ava)

Recording facts

• Recording title: A History of Astronomy
• Author credits: Walter W. Bryant
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 34
• Listed recording duration: 10:00:44

Catalogue topics

• nonfiction
• science
• physics
• stars
• astronomy
• solar system
• astronomers
• moon

Opening tracks: first 24 of 34

1. 00 - Preface — 2:20
2. 01 - I Early Notions — 11:28
3. 02 - II The Eastern Nations of Antiquity — 10:21
4. 03 - III The Greeks — 20:16
5. 04 - IV The Arabs — 6:24
6. 05 - V The Revival - Copernicus - Tycho Brahe — 19:12
7. 06 - VI Kepler - Galileo — 14:16
8. 07 - VII Newton — 10:53
9. 08 - VIII Newton's Successors: Laplace — 16:36
10. 09 - IX Flamsteed - Halley - Bradley - Herschel — 18:38
11. 10 - X The Early Nineteenth Century - Neptune — 15:50
12. 11 - XI Herschel - Bessel - Struve — 23:21
13. 12 - XII Comets — 12:19
14. 13 - XIII The Sun - Eclipses - Parallax — 22:58
15. 14 - XIV General Astronomy and Celestial Mechanics — 24:58
16. 15 - XV Observatories and Instruments — 15:32
17. 16 - XVI Adjustment of Observations - Personal Errors — 7:54
18. 17 - XVII The Sun — 24:02
19. 18 - XVIII Solar Spectroscopy — 21:30
20. 19 - XIX Solar Eclipses - Spectroscopy — 26:16
21. 20 - XX The Moon — 13:40
22. 21 - XXI The Earth — 12:40
23. 22 - XXII The Interior Planets — 14:03
24. 23 - XXIII Mars — 18:39

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.