Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Stars and Planets (Peterson Field Guides)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This review is for the softcover version. I feel almost bad to give this great guide 3 stars. The book contains a lot of very good information - more so than many books several times larger. As such, it's an excellent reference for beginner and more advanced user alike. However, the book fails miserably for field use, which, ironically, it is supposed to be designed for.

The cover frays and acquires "dog-ears" in a relatively short time of field use. In contrast, the Audubon field guides use a much more resilient plastic softcover. The pages smude easily from finger oils - remember, this is a guide you should be able to use for 8 years or so (until the next edition) so these are unacceptable shortcomings IMHO. By far the biggest gripe I have with this book, however, is the the choice of red to identify galaxies, star clusters etc in the atlas charts. These marks completely disappear under red light(!!!), making the charts useless for finding deep sky objects in the field. Finally, how are you supposed to operate equipment and keep the book open? Because it lacks spiral binding, the only way to use it hands-off is to put a weight on the page you're referencing.

If you're looking for a great reference to use at home, this guide is hard to beat - in fact, I highly recommend it. However, look elsewhere for more useful star charts with deep sky objects to use in the field.

If I had to choose a small number of books to take with me into exile on some deserted island somewhere, this would definitely be one of them (and offhand I'm not sure I can name any others).

An entire astronomy library packed into a single portable field guide, Jay Pasachoff's entry in the Peterson Field Guide series is a delightful introduction to, and reference for, the universe revealed in the night sky.

If you have any interest in astronomy at all, you can always find something in here to look at or just to sit and ponder about.

Besides the obvious things like monthly star charts for both northern and southern hemispheres, the book contains a complete 52 chart atlas of the sky put together by Wil Tirion with notes on objects in each chart, clever finder charts and tables for the planets for a ten year period, history and lore of the naming of the constallations, many, many photographs of astronomical objects taken by Hubble and other telescopes, an atlas of the moon, and many enlightening charts and tables of things like details of the brightest/nearest stars, the planets and their moons, and so on.

There's a section on each of the planets, and of course lots of coverage of the sun and eclipses of the sun and moon.

It always surprises me that this book doesn't seem to get as much respect in astronomical circles as I think it deserves. While you can certainly fill a library with astronomical books and atlases that are better than this field guide in any one area, you will not do better than this book in stuffing all of that information together in one "to go" package.

An excellent gift for a child starting to get interested in science and the world at large.

I could go on, but you should just buy the book and see for yourself :-)

G.

The new 4th edition of this field guide has been expanded by 100 pages, and the star maps are now in color. It has been updated, with new and better photos. A little more pricey than the previous edition, but the added and enhanced content makes it a tremendous value.

A terrific introduction to astronomy that deserves a place in every star-gazer's library.

and I wish I'd paid more attention to three-star reviews. The good news is that A FIELD GUIDE TO STARS AND PLANETS is a dynamo of facts, figures and photos and an amazing value at less than fifteen dollars. Just about everything you'd expect a beginning-to-established amateur astronomer to know, or have access to, is found here. But that's part of the problem.

This is a field guide in the Peterson's traditional trim size, 7.2 x 4.6 inches. I got the distinct impression, many times, that a really knockout book with great design and photography was dying to break free of the unfortunate standard field-guide format. In Peterson's more mainstream guides, photos of scarlet tanagers or coral snakes look quite good; in fact, they're a point of pride. In this book, with the same sized page, the crab nebula looks disappointingly dim and incomplete, as do many other inter-stellar objects.

Perhaps the disappointing quality of many photos kept the book's editors from including more of them, because you will also encounter in this book pages and pages devoted to such technical information as sidereal rotation time, or comprehensive sky charts for all latitudes, for all year. The tenor of STARS AND PLANETS is heroic but ultimately disenchanting, especially factoring in its unforgiving soft cover. Ironically, these hurdles are redoubled in practical use since "in the field" for the amateur astronomer generally means in the dark. Don't crack that spine! Very frustrating.

Don't get me wrong: Peterson's guides on the whole are top-notch and I don't mind a little line extention: twelve years ago they did a very credible job on a field guide of railroad locomotives using standardized line drawings and specs for each entry. Obviously there are lots of reviewers here who love the book as it is; but there are lots of other books in the $12 to $25 range that IMHO may serve better.

Everyone seems to love that perennial (and newly updated) favorite, NIGHTWATCH: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO VIEWING THE UNIVERSE by Terence Dickinson. Dedicated stargazers will probably find THE NIGHT SKY COMPANION: A YEARLY GUIDE TO SKY-WATCHING 2008-2009 easier to reference. For a little more money the whiz-bang factor is extraordinarily high in the stouter and much thicker 300 ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTS: A VISUAL REFERENCE TO THE UNIVERSE by Jamie Wilkins and Robert Dunn. Although a mini by coffee-table standards, those photos look great in the more squarish shape, and there's a lot of state-of-the-art talk about how astronomers know the galaxy and what they are looking for next. Even ASTRONOMY FOR DUMMIES, while sorely in need of more color plating, shows what it shows well and is a good and patient guide, especially for the rookie. Very reasonably priced at Amazon, too. Try one of these instead, based on your starting point and intended goal. It's no great trick these days to call up online such eventual and vital technicalities as times of sunrise and sunset, declination, and sideral rotation.

First, its great monthly sky charts - for both the southern and northern hemispheres, and its many detailed charts and diagrams (all in colors) will help you find almost any visible star, galaxy, nebula, consolation or planet. For the planets there are charts and diagrams about their trajectories and positions in the sky that are valid till 2010.
But beyond that, there's plenty of valuable info about most of the "popular" objects and consolations, accompanied by excellent pictures. And there are some other astronomy related tips for newcomers, such as on purchasing a telescope or binocular, or photographing the stars. All in all, it's an enjoyable and valuable reading book in addition to it being a great field guide.

Just reading this field guide makes me feel like Galileo! It's even better for use during stargazing sessions; I have identified and enjoyed several astronomical "points of interest" through the use of this book. As an "armchair astronomer", I've also learned a great deal about the stars and planets through the Petersen's Field Guide, probably more so than any of the other field guides in my collection.

This was a great astronomy book that i used countless times with my telescope. without this book i would not be able to know where almost half the stars in the sky are. Wonderful writing that is easy for a amaueter astronomer like myself and many others. The pictures are the best part. The mind bending images of stars nebulaes and solar eclipses are enough. Wonderful book!!!

I have purchased every edition of this guide since it first appeared. It is updated regularly and includes all the basics one needs to understand astronomy and to conduct successfull observation sessions. It makes effective use of Wil Tirion's meticulous star charts which are widely recognized as wthout equal. Field guides do not get better than this.

I found this book has a lot of interesting and useful information. It also shows planetary positions till 2014. The atlas is a little crammed at ~2.9mm/degree but not problematic.It is very detailed, going to stellar magnitude 7.5 ,with 2,500 deep space objects.I use it in conjunction with a planisphere and it works really well.I suggest laminating the covers because this book will dog ear with a lot of field use. Overall,this is an excellent resource book.

For the very new to star charts and guides, this was a bit daunting at first. It is not a quickie guide. But after reading through it and learning the terminology it has lived up the "Peterson field guides" tradition. The maps and charts are very clear and it is chock full of interesting facts. It even has a small section on telescopes and binoculars that was helpful.
This guide if full of wonderful pictures and charts, it has become one of the more dog eared field guides in the house right after my Petersons bird books!
I would defiantly recommend this book to any one who is serious about astronomy.