Customer Reviews

Deep Sky Objects: The Best and Brightest from Four Decades of Comet Chasing

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This book really can't decide what it wants to be, and feels like it's a few editorial rounds away from being a finished book.

The book has an odd overall structure, and the organization within chapters is a free-association mess of object descriptions, personal recollections, observing advice and seemingly whatever happens to cross Levy's mind.

It's frustrating because there are elements of a good book here, but as it stands it doesn't really work as an observing guide, reference book or personal memoir, despite trying to be all three.

The list of objects itself, currently available on the internet, is an excellent and useful list which could form the basis of an interesting personal observing program.

David Levy is a veteran comet discoverer - one of the most successful discoverers in history - and wants others to share in his personal achievement and joy in locating unusual deep sky objects. You don't have to live in the country to be able to observe distant objects: DEEP SKY OBJECTS: THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST FROM FOUR DECADES OF COMET CHASING can count city-dwellers among its astronomy fans, providing positions, magnitudes, history and best observation times to accompany a running commentary of the author's discoveries and excitement about his findings. It's this excitement which makes DEEP SKY OBJECTS unique in the world of amateur astronomy titles, pairing specifics on how and what to observe with a veteran comet chaser's exciting discoveries.

Perhaps the most famous astronomers of our time, Mr. Levy is one of the most successful comet discoverers in history (actually he's tied for third place in the number of comets found). His finds include the Shoemaker-Levy comet that crashed so dramatically into Jupiter. His formal education includes a degree in Englash. His astronomical activities came as a hobby. Who better to write a book aimed at the amateur astronomer?

This book is based on a list of objects visible in the sky that might be confused with comets. He began this list many years ago to avoid mis-identification as he searched for comets. Here he lists, describes, and usually photographs these items from deep into space. The objects are arranged from 'nearby,' that's say up to a few hundred light years away, to billions of light years.

I can't help but wonder what Galileo would have thought of this book as he spent his final years under house arrest for publishing a book saying that four moons orbited Jupiter.