All stars are born in groups. The origin of these groups has long been a key question in astronomy, one that interests researchers in star formation, the interstellar medium, and cosmology. This volume summarizes current progress in the field, and includes contributions from both theorists and observers. Star clusters appear with a wide range of properties, and are born in a variety of physical conditions. Yet the key question remains: How do diffuse clouds of gas condense into the collections of luminous objects we call stars? This book will benefit graduate students, newcomers to the field, and also experienced scientists seeking a convenient reference.

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Astronomy enthusiasts will all appreciate the detailed yet easily-assimilated description of star clusters, how they were formed as our Milky Way galaxy, how they evolved, and how they are classified. The latest research has revealed a vast amount of fascinating information about the clusters, along with some spectacular photographs. Modern commercially-made telescopes enable amateur astronomers to see a surprising amount of detail, and to record – using CCD cameras, video, webcams or even film – some remarkably beautiful and detailed images. Contained here also is detailed information on using refractors, reflectors, and, of course, Meade and Celestron’s ubiquitous range of computer-controlled SCT telescopes.

Amateur astronomers of all expertise from beginner to experienced will find this a thorough star cluster atlas perfect for easy use at the telescope or through binoculars. It enables practical observers to locate the approximate positions of objects in the sky, organized by constellation. This book was specifically designed as an atlas and written for easy use in field conditions. The maps are in black-and-white so that they can be read by the light of a red LED observer’s reading light. The clusters and their names/numbers are printed in bold black, against a “grayed-out” background of stars and constellation figures. To be used as a self-contained reference, the book provides the reader with detailed and up-to-date coverage of objects visible with small-, medium-, and large-aperture telescopes, and is equally useful for simple and computer-controlled telescopes. In practice, GO-TO telescopes can usually locate clusters accurately enough to be seen in a low-magnification eyepiece, but this of course first requires that the observer knows what is visible in the sky at a given time and from a given location, so as to input a locatable object. This is where "The Observer's Guide to Star Clusters" steps in as an essential aid to finding star clusters to observe and an essential piece of equipment for all amateur astronomers.

Providing the first comprehensive historical study of the New General Catalogue, this book is an important resource to all those interested in the history of modern astronomy and visual deep-sky observing. It covers the people, observatories, instruments and methods involved in nineteenth-century visual deep-sky observing, as well as prominent deep-sky objects.

This volume reviews recent progress in the study of dynamics of star clusters. The meeting focused on the enormous progress of both the observation and the theoretical modeling of star clusters. New results from the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope (HST) include the mass function down to the hydrogen burning limits, white dwarf sequence, and central density profiles of `post-collapse' clusters by star counts. On the theoretical side, this symposium saw the first direct evidence of gravothermal oscillation through N-body simulation, which was made possible by GRAPE-4, the dedicated special-purpose computer for N-body simulation. Numerical techniques to combine stellar evolution and dynamical evolution of the cluster were presented. The book will be of primary interest to astrophysicists.