Free telescope and astronomy audio books

Free Audio Books from Librivox

Librivox is a volunteer organization that creates public domain audio books

They have a lot of wonderful stuff. And I have gone through their collection and found the Astronomy and Telescope related audio books. They are right here for you. You can download them and unzip them easily. Then listen to them with your favorite player.

Great Astronomers

Robert Stawell BALL (1840 – 1913)

Of all the natural sciences there is not one which offers such sublime objects to the attention of the inquirer as does the science of astronomy. From the earliest ages the study of the stars has exercised the same fascination as it possesses at the present day. Among the most primitive peoples, the movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars commanded attention from their supposed influence on human affairs.

From the days of Hipparchus down to the present hour the science of astronomy has steadily grown. One great observer after another has appeared from time to time, to reveal some new phenomenon with regard to the celestial bodies or their movements, while from time to time one commanding intellect after another has arisen to explain the true import of the facts of observations. The history of astronomy thus becomes inseparable from the history of the great men to whose labours its development is due. In the ensuing chapters we have endeavoured to sketch the lives and the work of the great philosophers, by whose labours the science of astronomy has been created. (from the Introduction)

Here is alist of some of the Great Astronomers in the audio book: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, Kepler, Isaac Newton, Halley, Hereschel, The Earl of Rosse

Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel

Margaret HERSCHEL (1810 – 1884)

For many people, the name Caroline Herschel will be unfamiliar, but she was one of the most significant women on the English scientific scene during the late 18th and early 19th century. Sister of the well known William Herschel (he of the discovery of Uranus and its moons and many other significant scientific discoveries), she first worked as his assistant in his astronomical works, and then went on to become a noted astronomer in her own right. She discovered eight new comets in her lifetime, and was the first woman to be paid for her contribution to science, and was awarded a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, made an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society, an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy of Science and was presented with a Gold Medal for Science by the King of Prussia on her 96th birthday. This book tells the fascinating story of her life through her letters, and commentary by her nephew’s wife. Caroline Herschel was an important woman whose contributions to science should be more widely known. (Summary by Kevin Green)

Practical Talks by an Astronomer

Harold JACOBY (1865 – 1932)

The present volume has not been designed as a systematic treatise on astronomy. There are many excellent books of that kind, suitable for serious students as well as the general reader; but they are necessarily somewhat dry and unattractive, because they must aim at completeness. Completeness means detail, and detail means dryness.

But the science of astronomy contains subjects that admit of detached treatment; and as many of these are precisely the ones of greatest general interest, it has seemed well to select several, and describe them in language free from technicalities. It is hoped that the book will thus prove useful to persons who do not wish to give the time required for a study of astronomy as a whole, but who may take pleasure in devoting a half-hour now and then to a detached essay on some special topic. – Summary from the Preface