Preface (Draft)

Please excuse the roughness of this hyper-textbook. It is nowhere near polished condition.

**** Quote Whitman poetry here (Could someone email When I Heard the Learned Astronomer Speak****)

Whenever I hear this poem recited there is always a twinge of sadness that runs through me. As astronomers, we see and learn such wonderful and beautiful things in the sky, and it is tragedy of monumental proportions that the general public is unable to join in our discoveries.

This hyper-textbook is an attempt to use the new technologies of hypertext and computer networks to bridge the gap between the general public and the latest research.

There are several advantages to hypertext over conventional text:

It's cheaper. Internet allows distribution of this textbook without the overhead associated with printing costs and transport.
It's more accurate and up-to-date. Errors in the text can be corrected and the latest research can be added instantaneously.
It allows for collaborative writing. One thing that the general public often does not realize is how narrowly focused most scientists are. Hypertext allows different people to write in their field of specialty.
It allows for students to give feedback more easily.

The biggest problem with creating a hypertextbook is the newness of the media. Very little is known about how to organizing a hypertextbook to maxmimize its usefulness to readers. In this sense, this hypertextbook represents an exploration of the unknown and an experiment in the possibilities that computer networks bring to science education.

Above all, I would like this textbook to be "alive" and constantly changing to reflect the life and vitality of science itself, and this requires participation on the part of you the reader. If you have any astronomical knowledge, I would welcome contributions to this textbook. If you have no astronomical knowledge, then you can play an even more important role. This textbook is intended to be "user-friendly," and as a result I welcome comments and criticism on the material and its structure. If you find this textbook totally baffling and confusing, let me know, and together we can think of ways of improving it.

Joseph Wang (joe@athena.mit.edu) University of Texas at Austin