Customer Reviews

Amateur Astronomer's Handbook (Dover Books on Astronomy)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sidgwick's book is recognized as a classic, but the subject matter is presented rigorously and in the style of a text book. Originally published in 1955, Sidgwick's book relies heavily on British Astronomical Association archives and the overall book has a somewhat European bent. Most of the book is still very relevant and informative, but don't expect unbiased views of currently available super eyepieces or CCD cameras. However, if you want exhaustive information on different types of mounts (and their strengths and weaknesses), hard-to-to-find information on accessories like micrometers and spectroscopes, and analyses of image circles, telescope configurations, and metallic films, this book is for you. Indeed, it is the only book that I've seen with a section that Sidgwick calls "Personal Equation", that is, how much a given observation is influenced by innately human factors like visual acuity, overall health, and fatigue. It is an excellent book: just don't expect a lot of colorful graphs and eye candy.

This book is very technical and not a basic beginner's guide to backyard astronomy. But, if you want to understand the technical aspects of how a telescope works then it's for you.

Originally published in 1955, this reprint is of the 3rd (1971) edition. In our era of out-of-the-box Go-to telescopes, these details of the English mounting and aberrations in a doublet lens may seem hopelessly dated. Yet there is lots of information here that is hard to find elsewhere. How much magnification is enough? How much is too much? Elsewhere you can find a rule of thumb; here you can find eight rules compared and evaluated. Sidgwick derives many formulae from the basic physics of light; he gets into the details of how vision works; he gives a more detailed analysis of 'seeing' than any other I've read.

3 stars for the average amateur; 5 for the amateur telescope maker or anyone looking to tinker with equipment.

This book is an extremely valuable resource for the serious amateur astronomer, containing an excellent exposition of the basic technical aspects of astronomical equipment and important concepts such as time, coordinates, brightness and magnitude. It was first published in 1955, the present edition (3rd) being from 1971, and therefore the text seems old fashioned and outdated although it has not lost value at all because most of the book deals with fundamental physical and mathematical aspects that remain valid. As stated in the editor's preface to the third edition: "This book is basically not a book about astronomy, but a compendium of things an astronomer needs to know. As such, its contents are, for the most part essentially physical and mathematical in nature, and their truth is sufficiently fundamental that they will not change with time." I can't state that better. For this price you won't get all this excellent material anywhere else. This book is a treasure and I am happy to have it in my bookshelf. A warning for those that are not mathematically inclined: this book goes deep into concepts and makes abundant use of mathematics. If you are not willing to read or make use of such information this book is probably not for you.

This book is the best for amateurs. Recommended for al