Double Stars for Small Telescopes: More Than 2,100 Stellar Gems for Backyard Observers (Stargazing) [Paperback]

Sissy Haas (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Sky Publishing (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931559325
• ISBN-13: 978-1931559324
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #880,822 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Always useful information, but cheaply presented, July 2, 2006

By 

Sean Breazeal (Mt. Pleasant, UT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Double Stars for Small Telescopes: More Than 2,100 Stellar Gems for Backyard Observers (Stargazing) (Paperback)

Having made viewing many of the double stars in the Struve catalogue my annual observing goal for some time, I was happy to hear of this book becoming available. While generally pleased with it, I was disappointed in the final product for several reasons.

First, in this day and age, how can any book obviously designed to be used at the telescope not be bound in a manner so that it will lay flat when opened, preferably spiral-bound?

Second, there are almost no charts whatsoever, just four very basic constellation line drawings showing 15 of the more famous double stars. Surely some monthly charts illustrating in some manner the bright or showpiece doubles could not have been too difficult to include. I have drawn my own from the WDS catalogue data for years. If you have a modern "Go To" scope where coords can be entered and the telescope slews itself to the right point, or at least have digital setting circles, the book will be simple to use. For those without, you'll have to starhop on your own with other charts to the coordinate listings.

Finally, my copy arrived directly from Sky Publishing in a weak padded envelope with no protection and had about four inches of the corner permanently bent from being crushed in transit.

The observing descriptions of the double stars draw from Sissy Haas' own notes, notes from other observers, and from classic handbooks by Webb and Smyth. These are excellent overall and provide a sense of the observing experience far beyond what any robotic reading and sorting of the catalogue data can provide.

I wish there was a 3½ star rating. I gave it 4 in large measure because of the observing comments. Please, PLEASE Sky Publishing, do these "Stargazing Series" publications justice and give them a proper binding and more "meat" than just a listing of digital catalogue data.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Double Stars for Small Telescopes, November 6, 2006

By 

John C. Fox (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Double Stars for Small Telescopes: More Than 2,100 Stellar Gems for Backyard Observers (Stargazing) (Paperback)

This clearly written book covers the basic information needed to understand the attraction double and multiple stars has to the amateur astronomer and most importantly, how to find them.
Reading the introduction, you realize that the author has an excellent understanding of her subject matter that communicates well to the reader. This shows in her ability to explain and keep my attention (no easy task). Her explanations and examples kept my interest and made me want to start observing immediately. The charts and graphs included illustrate very well the technical aspects of observing with detailed descriptions of the many subtle colors of the stars as they appear to the eye through the telescope. The explanations illustrate how stars are measured by magnitude, color, temperature and separation. A handy chart is printed on how far apart the stars will be separated in various scopes by their aperture.
Four constellations are illustrated labeling the binary stars by season to help you get started right away. An easy to understand legend in front of the first catalog page helps to locate your target and where to look. The catalog is organized by constellations. With each star you are given the right, assent ion, declination, name, year, position angle, separation, magnitude, spectral type, status and observers comments. Most comments, made by contributing astronomers, include the aperture and power of the telescope used.
If you have setting circles on your scope or better yet, a "go to" scope, it makes finding the stars are a snap. Otherwise you need a good atlas and plenty of patience.

Sissy Hass gives us one more pleasure for the use of our scopes in observing the unlimited joys and beauty of our universe. This is a reference book I will keep close by for one of those leisurely nights where I am not rushed to find some other object before it moves out of sight. Where every night is Christmas with the multi-colored lights of a Yule-tide tree.

Book reviewed by Jack Fox, Richmond Astronomical Society

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good overall, but some serious flaws, November 15, 2007

By 

Chris J. Anderson (Twin Falls, ID USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Double Stars for Small Telescopes: More Than 2,100 Stellar Gems for Backyard Observers (Stargazing) (Paperback)

While the listing is overall a good culling of double stars from longer lists (i.e. the WDS catalog), and the comments are helpful and descriptive, there are three notable flaws not already mentioned by other reviewers. 1) The coordinates are given with no indication of the epoch. Presumably, they are 2000.0 coordinates, but that is nowhere explicitly indicated. 2) Coordinates are only listed to the nearest tenth of a minute in RA and minute of arc in dec. That's enough to make you wonder what's what in a crowded field. 3) In this era of GOTO telescopes, it's too bad the author chose to list the stars from the WDS catalog using discoverer codes (reminiscent of the now badly-outdated "Burnham's Celestial Handbooks") incommensurate with the way these stars are cataloged in common telescope pointing programs like Software Bisque's "The Sky." It's far more cumbersome to have to enter coordinates than to type a simple code like "WDS STT 34." For example, Haas uses the code "CorO" as an abbreviation for "Cordoba Observatory," whereas the WDS code (also used by The Sky) is "COO." (A web search on "CorO double star" yielded far fewer relevant hits than a search for "COO double star," which indicates to me that the latter is a more common usage.)