David Falkner first became interested in Astronomy as a pre-teen when his father took him to a show at the Holcolm Planetarium in Indianapolis, IN. He became hooked and has loved astronomy ever since. When he was a teenager he inherited a home-made Newtonian telescope that needed the primary mirror. He ground a 6" mirror and completed his first telescope, which gave him years of pleasure observing the heavens. In 1973 David joined the US Navy and became an officer in 1980. In 1986 as a Naval Officer stationed in Monterey, California, he was involved with the Friends of MIRA (Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy) where he conducted outreach to local schools associated with the return of Halley's Comet. David retired from the US Navy in 1993 and settled in Minnesota, where he continues his love of astronomy. He has taught introductory astronomy at a local community college and does extensive astronomy outreach both with the Minnesota Astronomical Society and as aNASA Solar System Ambassador.

Chronicles the lives of influential pioneers in astronomy and their study of the stars

Includes supplementary resources for direct observation of mentioned stars

Provides an introduction to spectroscopy

Chapter 1. Observing the Night Sky and the Celestial Sphere.- Chapter 2. The Spring/Fall Sky.- Chapter 3. The Summer/Winter Sky.- Chapter 4. The Fall/Spring Sky.- Chapter 5. The Winter/Summer Sky.- Chapter 6. Anaxagoras and Hans Albrecht Bethe - The Sun.- Chapter 7. Tycho Brahe - SN 1572.- Chapter 8. Johannes Kepler - SN 1604.- Chapter 9. Thomas Henderson - Alpha Centauri.- Chapter 10. Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel - 61 Cygni.- Chapter 11. Benedetto Castelli and J. B. Liebknecht - Mizar, Alcor and Sidus Ludoviciana.- Chapter 12. John Goodricke - Algol.- Chapter 13. A Brief History of Astrophotography.- Chapter 14. The Pioneers of Spectroscopy.- Chapter 15. Stellar Spectral Types and the H-R Diagram.- Chapter 16. Edward Charles Pickering - Mizar.- Chapter 17. Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet - Wolf-Rayet Stars.- Chapter 18. Angelo Secchi - Carbon Stars .- Chapter 19. Blue Stragglers.- Chapter 20. Measuring Cosmic Distances.- Chapter 21. Edward Pigott, John Goodricke, and Henrietta Swan - Cepheid Variable Stars.- Chapter 22. Jacobus Kapteyn, E. C. Pickering, and Williamina Fleming - RR Lyrae Variable Stars.- Chapter 23. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Mark Phillips - Type Ia Supernovae.- Chapter 24. Other Standard Candles.- Chapter 25. Star Names, Designations and Catalogs.- Appendix.- Glossary.- Index.