Touring the Universe through Binoculars: A Complete Astronomer's Guidebook

by Philip S. Harrington

This comprehensive work takes you on a personal tour of the universe using nothing more than a pair of binoculars. More comprehensive than any book currently available, it starts with Earth's nearest neighbor, the moon, and then goes on to explore each planet in the solar system, asteroids, meteors, comets and the sun. Following this, the reader is whisked away into deep space to explore celestial bodies including stars that are known and many sights less familiar. The final chapter includes a detailed atlas of deep-sky objects visible through binoculars. The appendices include guidance on how to buy, care for and maintain astronomical binoculars, tips and hints on using them, and detailed information on several home-made binocular mounts.

Genres: Science, Astronomy, Nonfiction, Space, Reference

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 1990

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

an excellent guidebook for binocular sky exploring. because of the wide field of view, binoculars open up the night sky to hundreds of solar objects like comets, meteors, planets, and the moon, as well as deeper sky objects like stars, double and multiple stars, star clusters (globular clusters are my favorite, like cotton balls of the dark sky), nebulae, and galaxies (the local neighborhood). each constellation is examined for messier objects that are visible through binoculars, noting location in degrees, magnitude, and any special attribute associated with the object. a friendly pat on the back, letting you know that you dont necessarily need that BIG scope to view the heavens.

[Aprilleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this well-named book is over 30 years old and there are excellent binocular-based astronomy books that are newer, the best parts of this book won’t have changed in a mere 30 years. Unlike most binocular astronomy books, the bulk of this book is things to look at through your binoculars. The chapter on the Moon is mostly a list of surface features to look at and Chapter 7: A Survey of the Night Sky, taking up nearly two-thirds of the book, is a long list of objects to view in each constellation. Each object or feature listed includes a short description.It would be improved greatly by the addition of small star charts for each constellation as an aid to locating these objects, but those are easy enough to find elsewhere if you need them.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good binocular astronomy book.