Reddit mentions of Astronomy: A Physical Perspective

You're asking for books on both astronomy and engineering. These are different subjects.

For the astronomy, this book is quite comprehensive and written for freshmen undergrads.

I'm taking a 200 level intro to astronomy right now but I have some sort of idea what will be offered in a 100 level course. The class will probably just be easy-medium concepts with a light amount of math. If the course has pre-requisites of calc and physics then you may be looking at something much harder.

A higher level intro course would use a textbook like this

https://www.amazon.com/Astronomy-Physical-Perspective-Marc-Kutner/dp/0521529271

whereas a lower level course would use something like this

https://www.amazon.com/Perspective-Mastering-Astronomy-Pearson-Package/dp/0134058291/ref=dp_ob_title_bk?dpID=61vonqCFmHL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail

Both textbooks are very useful for any astronomy course, with the first book including high level physics & calc. The bennet book has little to no math, and certainty no high level stuff. Look at the chapters and sub-chapters to have an idea of what will be done.