Challenges of Astronomy in a unique collection of thirty astronomy experiments ranging from ancient astronomy to cosmology. Each of the experiments contains one or more challenges for the reader. The progression is from the Earth outward through the solar system to the stellar and galactic realm. Topics include the shape of the sky, Stonehenge as a stoneage abacus, determination of the size of the Earth, the distance of the Moon and planets, Kepler's laws, planetary mass and density, the temperatures and atmospheres of planets, the speed of light, the distances of stars, the nature of...

In the two decades since the development of the first eclipsing-binary modeling code, new analytic techniques and the availability of powerful, sometimes dedicated computing facilities have made possible vastly improved determinations of fundamental and even transient stellar parameters. The scale of these developments, of course, raises questions about modeling tools, techniques, and philosophies, such as: Who will maintain and upgrade the codes? Will the codes be open to improvement by outsiders, and if so, how? And, indeed, what should be the goals of a modeling program? Such questions had...

Challenges of Astronomy in a unique collection of thirty astronomy experiments ranging from ancient astronomy to cosmology. Each of the experiments contains one or more challenges for the reader. The progression is from the Earth outward through the solar system to the stellar and galactic realm. Topics include the shape of the sky, Stonehenge as a stoneage abacus, determination of the size of the Earth, the distance of the Moon and planets, Kepler's laws, planetary mass and density, the temperatures and atmospheres of planets, the speed of light, the distances of stars, the nature of...