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Peterson First Guides

Peterson First Guide to Astronomy

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A basic field guide for beginning observers of the night sky, introducing information on the locations, names, and characteristics of stars, constellations, and other bodies in outer space.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

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About the author

Jay M. Pasachoff

129 books4 followers

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Don.
1,446 reviews11 followers
February 28, 2020
This was an excellent introduction to Astronomy for someone who only knows basic facts about the stars and planets. For only being 124 pages and smaller than a paperback this contained an incredible amount of information, plus it was very readable in common sense language. Great job. Looking forward to using this to observe stars this summer on some camp outs.
96 reviews
September 10, 2020
A good introduction to astronomy. Sometimes the wording is confusing, but it was still good.
Profile Image for Ramakanth Domada.
47 reviews2 followers
November 14, 2022
Firstly, I am very impressed with its aspect ratio, which is perfect for using it outside during stargazing. This book contains a bit of everything related to night sky, absolutely liked it.
Profile Image for David.
Author 1 book120 followers
December 14, 2010
I picked up this little number in a gift shop while on vacation. I was under some dark skies and needed a basic star map. For such a conveniently tiny book, there is a lot of good basic Astronomy information packed inside. The maps focus on the north and south horizons. For this reason, they are quite challenging to use for the stars straight overhead. The inclusion of a whole circular northern hemisphere map would have helped.

My only other critique is that the full-page illustrations of the constellations would have been much more helpful had they shown the same "imaginary lines" as the horizon maps and if they had pointed out specific stars and objects mentioned in the text.
Profile Image for Kara.
Author 27 books94 followers
September 23, 2013

A good overview of the solar system but quickly dated by the latest science news.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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