The Deep-Sky Observer's Year: A Guide to Observing Deep-Sky Objects Throughout the Year (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series) [Paperback]

Grant Privett (Author), Paul Parsons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 2000 | ISBN-10: 1852332735 | ISBN-13: 978-1852332730 | Edition: 1

Deep-sky observing - that's looking at the stars, nebulae and galaxies - is easily the most popular field for amateur astronomers. The big problem faced by non-professional observers is what to look at - what's visible at a paticular time of year. The Deep-sky Observer's Year is a month-by-month guide to the best objects to view. Objects are given a "star rating" according to how difficult they are to observe or image (i.e. photograph) with a particular size of telescope. The book includes many images produced by amateur astronomers, as well as photographs from NASA, ESA and ESO. There is also some background information about the objects that can be seen, along with lots of useful tips, hints, and resources (especially about what's available on the Internet) for deep-sky observers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

FROM THE REVIEWS:

SKY & TELESCOPE
"Most everything you want to know about observing clusters, nebulae, and galaxies can be found in these meaty selections from the Practical Astronomy series of legendary British astronomy popularizer Patrick Moore…No doubt some amateurs will want to have all three of these well-prepared guides on their astronomy bookshelves.”

SKY & TELESCOPE
"…it packs a lot of information. I enjoyed the authors’ insightful and well-written introduction that waxes philosophical about observing as it explains the layout of the book…The descriptions are presented in easy-going, accessible prose, with the authors giving advice on the minimum optics required for pleasing views of each object.”

Product Details

• Paperback: 253 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (December 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852332735
• ISBN-13: 978-1852332730
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,636,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

So, who is Grant Privett? For those understandably desperate to know, I am an amateur astronomer currently based in Wiltshire, UK. Not exactly Mauna Kea or La Palma, but pretty good for southern England, which is just as well as my main observing interests are deep-sky.

Currently, I am working as a physicist - specialising in image processing of various sorts - but I have in the past been employed as a professional astronomer, a programmer and a real rocket scientist (great fun). Increasingly, I find myself writing articles for magazines - which is interesting, though the deadlines always seem to fall on clear nights. To make matters even less clear, I have written a couple of books.

One is a guide for interesting things to observe in the deep sky at different times of the year, while the other is a software agnostic guide to how to process images. I deliberately didnt recommend or concentrate on any particular package because by next year something else might be the best. The principles of data reduction do not change though...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the books.

Carpe noctem.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but has flaws, May 3, 2001

By 

Susan Cassidy "Susan" (Ramona, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Deep-Sky Observer's Year: A Guide to Observing Deep-Sky Objects Throughout the Year (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series) (Paperback)

This book is a nice overview of some deep-sky objects, but has a number of flaws. Overall, I would say you should consider it as supplemental material only, not a primary reference. This is unfortunate, as a more thorough job of handling this topic would be extremely useful.

First, like most (if not all) books in this series, there is no index. This makes it difficult to try and cross-reference information on an object to other books or charts. I fail to understand why a book of this type would not have an index, as with modern word-processing software, they are easy to generate.

Second, at the beginning of each month, there is no table of objects giving catalog number, common name, constellation names and coordinates, as I would have expected. There is only a list of catalog numbers. The finder charts are skimpy, also.

Potential buyer's should be aware that almost half the book (first 108 pages out of 248)is introductory material on such topics as binoculars, telescopes, how to observe, etc. This material, while good (although all aperture sizes are metric, with no translation to inches), is not why I wanted the book. The sketches are nice, as it is always helpful to me to see eyepiece impressions, as opposed to photos.

Given the price, I would recommend one of the 2 volumes of the Night-Sky Observer's Guide as being a better use of the money, but as supplemental material, it may be useful.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but has flaws, May 3, 2001

By 

Susan Cassidy "Susan" (Ramona, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Deep-Sky Observer's Year: A Guide to Observing Deep-Sky Objects Throughout the Year (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series) (Paperback)

This book is a nice overview of some deep-sky objects, but has a number of flaws. Overall, I would say you should consider it as supplemental material only, not a primary reference. This is unfortunate, as a more thorough job of handling this topic would be extremely useful.

First, like most (if not all) books in this series, there is no index. This makes it difficult to try and cross-reference information on an object to other books or charts. I fail to understand why a book of this type would not have an index, as with modern word-processing software, they are easy to generate.

Second, at the beginning of each month, there is no table of objects giving catalog number, common name, constellation names and coordinates, as I would have expected. There is only a list of catalog numbers. The finder charts are skimpy, also.

Potential buyer's should be aware that almost half the book (first 108 pages out of 248)is introductory material on such topics as binoculars, telescopes, how to observe, etc. This material, while good (although all aperture sizes are metric, with no translation to inches), is not why I wanted the book. The sketches are nice, as it is always helpful to me to see eyepiece impressions, as opposed to photos.

Given the price, I would recommend one of the 2 volumes of the Night-Sky Observer's Guide as being a better use of the money, but as supplemental material, it may be useful.