Norton's 2000.0: Star Atlas and Reference Handbook

by Arthur P. Norton

This is considered to be the most famous star atlas in the world - known by generations of amateur astronomers as simply "Nortons". It is designed to be a leading reference handbook for astronomers. The handbook has been revised and redesigned by a team of astronomers, bringing the information fully up-to-date and reflecting new and exciting developments in observational astronomy. The star maps have been re-plotted to a new level of accuracy and legibility for the Standard Epoch of 2000.0, using state-of-the-art computer techniques specially developed for this 18th edition.

Genres: Reference, Astronomy, Science, Space

179 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

When a school boy Arthur Philip Norton was given a telescope by his great-grandfather. Thus began his life-long interest in astronomy.

Norton chose a career as a teacher, which saw him take several posts over the course of his professional life. In 1910, however, his life took a more public direction. This was the year in which he was voted into the British Astronomical Association, and the year in which the first edition of The Star Atlas and Reference Handbook (later to be named Norton's Star Atlas and Reference Handbook) was published.

The Handbook was intended to be a companion to several contemporary astronomical guides, but it quickly proved itself to be a popular and valuable resource in itself. Norton oversaw five editions of the Handbook, through to 1933. The Handbook is now a century old, and it is still popular with amateur astronomers.

Norton was considered a good and engaging teacher by his students. He was also known his mechanical skills, having designed and constructed several complex devices, including clocks, and for his sense of humour—and his lisp.

Asteroid 3869 Norton, is named in his memory.

Reviews

[Julia]

A genuinely useful text, I'd use it even in the modern era where there are star-chart apps and such.

This doesn't have a textbook-level of description about the various stars and planets and such that can be seen with not-professional equipment, but that wouldn't be right anyway for a field-guide type of text. The amount of description here is nice to give some basic "what am I looking at?" answers for stargazers. The maps are fun and it's easy to flip around and match a description to a star on a map.

(This has actually aged well! But this is about naked-eye stars and planets so by 1989 we'd gotten a lot of things about those right at least... Pretty interesting to see what theories and such "were generally accepted as true" back in 1989 too!)

[Hangci Du]

very good book for amateur astronomers, also good me, a freshman in professional astrophysics.