Astronomy

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!

Download a sample chapter in PDF: Sample chapter “First Light”
Download PDF of Zone 166 MC

Links to booksellers:

Springer Publishing

Amazon Books