The purpose of this book is to give a detailed description of the planetary nebulae including the relevant astronomical observations and their interpretation. Considerable attention is given to the evolution of these objects as well as to their physical characteristics. I t is hoped that the book be useful to both advanced research workers and to students with some background in astronomy. In this regard, the book should serve as a text as well as a reference work. The many tables included are expected to be useful for both purposes. The references are generally not included in the text...

The purpose of this book is to give a detailed description of the planetary nebulae including the relevant astronomical observations and their interpretation. Considerable attention is given to the evolution of these objects as well as to their physical characteristics. I t is hoped that the book be useful to both advanced research workers and to students with some background in astronomy. In this regard, the book should serve as a text as well as a reference work. The many tables included are expected to be useful for both purposes. The references are generally not included in the text...

Over the last decade we have witnessed a rapid change in our understanding of the late stages of stellar evolution. A major stimulus to this has been the synthesis of observational data from different wavebands of the electromagnetic spectrum. The advent of infrared astronomy has led to the discovery of many luminous. late-type stars obscured by their circumstellar dust envelope. Sources discovered in the IRC and AFGL infrared sky surveys were followed up by radio observa- tions, leading to the widespread use of the OH and CO molecules as probes of the circumstellar envelopes. Advances in the...