Book excerpt: A Guide to the Solar Corona is specifically directed to the space scientist or engineer who is not a specialist in solar physics, but whose work requires a fairly detailed knowledge of the corona. It is hoped that the material may prove useful to most graduate students in astrophysics, while solar physicists may find some topics of interest and value to them. The book contains 12 chapters and begins with three descriptive chapters that provide the casual reader with a concept of the corona as it is evident through more or less direct observation. Topics covered include the development of coronal science, observational techniques, and observational aspects of the corona. The next chapter discusses methods of analyzing coronal data. Subsequent chapters present theoretical considerations as they are applicable to the corona. These combine theory with observation to provide a description of the various aspects of the corona. The final chapter is a combination of established ideas and speculation on the place of the corona in the universe.