The Night Sky Observer's Guide: Autumn & Winter: 1

by George Robert Kepple, Glen W. Sanner

Amateur astronomers today are exceptionally fortunate to be living in an era when high quality, and very large, optics are so affordable. In the first half of the 20th century the telescope deluxe for the amateur was the 6-inch refractor. However, such telescopes were so expensive that very few amateurs could afford the majority of stargazers had to content themselves with instruments in the 60mm range. Consequently, most observing guides published during that time emphasized double and multiple stars, with honorable mention for variable stars and planetary nebulae, objects which do well in long focal length refractors. Webb's 1858 Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes and Olcott's 1936 Field Book of the Skies were not superceded for so many decades simply because the average amateur instrument did not dramatically improve during the century after Webb. By the 1950s the mass-produced or homemade 6-inch parabolic mirror brought medium-sized optics into the price range of the ave

Genres: Astronomy, Science, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Corey Edmonds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not terribly useful to someone with an 8" reflector, but a terrific night sky reference nonetheless.

[Grant.T · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK HELPED SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. It's clearly also used as a textbook, however if your big into astronomy GET THIS. This helped me during my astronomy trip to big bend national park with my 10' appt dobsonian telescope. If it was not for this book, I would not have gotten my $2k worth out of that telescope. I saw nebulas, the Galilean moons of Jupiter, it was a night I will NEVER forget. I highly recommend highlighting the things you would like to view.

[Theritz · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have a big aperture telescope this book will point out many fascinating objects. For less than 12” you best leave this book be as almost all objects in it will remain invisible

[Derbenutzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Night Sky Observer's Guide (Vol 1-3) is probably the best companion for deep sky aficionados.

Danger: This volumes may cause 'aperture fever' ;-) ==> size matters ... :-)