Handbook of Star Forming Regions
Edited by Bo Reipurth
The Handbook describes the ∼60 most important star forming regions within approx-imately 2 kpc, and has been written by a team of 105 authors with expertise in theindividual regions. It consists of two full-color volumes, one for the northern and one forthe southern hemisphere, with a total of over 1900 pages. The Handbook aims to be asource of comprehensive factual information about each region, with very extensive refer-ences to the literature. The development of our understanding of a given region is outlined,and hence many of the earliest studies are, if not discussed, then at least mentioned, evenif they are only of historical interest today. Young low- and high-mass populations arediscussed, as well as the molecular and ionized gas. The text is supported by extensiveuse of figures and tables. Authors have been encouraged to complete their chapters with asection on individual objects of special interest. Little emphasis is placed on more generaldiscussions of star formation processes and the properties of young stars, subjects that arewell covered elsewhere. The Handbook will thus serve as a reference guide for researchersand students embarking on a study of one or more of these regions, and will hopefullyalso inspire new work to be done where information is clearly missing. In order to keepthe Handbook within some reasonable limits, it was from the beginning decided to limitregions to those closer than approximately 2 kpc. Such a limit of course means that cer-tain famous and important regions are omitted, like NGC 3603, but it is not completelyarbitrary, because at around 2 kpc sensitivity and resolution issues start to make moredetailed observations of low mass populations very difficult. All chapters are a jour withthe literature up to the early summer of 2008. An effort has been made to use illustrationsthat are helpful to get an overview of important areas or objects in each individual region.Images covering more than a degree on the sky are not always easy to find, but in recentyears advanced amateur astronomers have begun to obtain stunning CCD images, andresults from some of the best astrophotographers adorn the Handbook. Altogether, theHandbook provides a unique and detailed presentation of our current knowledge aboutthe nearest and most important star forming regions.
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
ISBN 978-1-58381-670-7, hardbound, 1023 pages, 2008, US$80ISBN 978-1-58381-671-4, hardbound, 890 pages, 2008, US$80
Available from http://www.astrosociety.org/online-store/scstore/p-MPS01.htmlor from [email protected]
With purchase of the books also comes access to electronic versions of the books.
