The book presents detailed and edited recordings of some lectures given in recent years to students of various specialties. The basis for them was the interfaculty course at Moscow State University “Fundamentals of Astronomy.” These lectures can be used as an introductory course for students of natural sciences (physicists, chemists, biologists, geographers and geologists), as well as mathematicians and engineers who have not previously systematically studied astronomy, but may come into contact with it in their work. The lectures will also be useful for philologists, especially for translators and editors, since they introduce modern astronomical terminology and the most important concepts from the field of space sciences.