Panos Photinos has been a Professor of Physics at Southern Oregon University (SOU) since 1989 where he teaches Introductory Astronomy, Observational Astronomy and Cosmology. Prior to joining SOU he held faculty appointments at the Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent, Ohio; St Francis Xavier, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada; and the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was visiting faculty at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the University of Patras, Greece, Victoria University at Wellington, New Zealand. Panos completed his undergraduate degree in physics at the National University of Athens, Greece, and received his doctorate in physics from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. He started naked-eye observations as a child in the Red Sea, and later upgraded to a pair of Merchant brass binoculars in Alexandria, Egypt, and his homeland, the island Ikaria, Greece. Ever since he has visited and stargazed from all five continents, and shared his fascination with the night sky with students of all ages. He lives near Mt Ashland where he enjoys the beautify skies of S. Oregon from his backyard with his wife Shelley. This is Panos’ first book in astronomy.

Introduction / The Celestial Sphere and Apparent Motion of the Sun / Coordinate Systems / Motion and Phases of the Moon / The Planets / Comets, Meteoroids, and Meteor Showers / Constellations, Asterisms and Star Names / Star Properties / Telescopes / Appendix A: Measuring Angles / Appendix B: Measuring Distance in Astronomy / Appendix C: Time Keeping / Star Magnitude Systems and Distance Modulus