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Here is my latest book on amateur astronomy—an
observer’s guide to the wonderful night sky!
This book is published by Springer-Verlag and is
part of their highly successful “Patrick Moore’s Popular Astronomy” series.
You may click the links below to go Springer’s website and order the book
direct from the publisher, or go to Amazon and order it there.
This book is written to help serious amateurs get
the most out of the night sky with a limited budget of time. The book is
built around a CD-ROM (included in a jacket on the back cover) that contains
13,000 pages of useful information to guide the observer over a lifetime of
cosmic quests.
I divided the sky into zones. A
zone is one hour of right ascension wide and 10 degrees of declination high.
Each zone has its own chapter on the CD. The chapters include detailed
finder charts (a large-scale master chart, followed by several small-scale
charts) and detailed text and data on each object that is visible in that
zone to an amateur with modest aperture (up to 11 inches) observing from
suburban locations. The finder charts are printed in two orientations—normal
view and mirror image—making it a cinch to orient the eyepiece view to the
chart view for any telescope that might be used. Stars as faint as 13th
magnitude are plotted on the detailed charts. About 13,500 objects are
covered.
The CD also contains literally hundreds of support
files too—such as observing log sheets, star party etiquette guidelines, and
observing guides organized by constellation and by type of object.
I promise you a lifetime of awe-struck observing and
this book can be your personal tour guide on the journey. Just remember to
take the time to smell the photons along the path!
If you’d like to preview a chapter and a zone, click
on the links below.
Chapter link:
Sample chapter First Light.pdf
Zone link:
Zone 166 MC.pdf
Links to booksellers:
Springer-Verlag
Dick Harshaw
Lodestar Consulting Systems
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