Customer Reviews

The Practical Astronomer's Deep-sky Companion

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This book is designed with the amateur astronomer in mind. But it is useful for professionals as well.

For each of the nearly 400 objects, it has the Right Ascension (in hours, minutes, and seconds to the tenth of a second, Epoch 2000), the Declination (in degrees, minutes, and seconds to the second, Epoch 2000), the size in arcminutes, the constellation, the type of object, the visual magnitude, a small but useful map of the region including the magnitudes of nearby stars (generally 4 minutes of RA by 1 degree of Dec), a nice color photo of the object, and a short note about it. The objects are organized by constellation. There are also overview maps of each of the constellations. Plenty of care seems to have gone into the preparation of this work.

The book is fun to look at just to admire the photos. I recommend it.

I just purchased this book to serve as a guide to observing using my new Meade LX200GPS scope. The book is about 8 1/2" wide by 11" tall by 3/8" thick and contains about 140 pages. It contains information on 45 constellations including for each: a one page map with constellation facts and legend followed by 1 to 3 pages of information on 5 to 15 deep sky objects in that constellation. For each object there is a small 1 3/4" by 1 1/2" thumbnail local star chart map and similar sized thumbnail color picture, plus object related data giving R.A., Dec., size, constellation, type, magnitude and short narrative note. There are about 500 objects in total in the book.

This book will be useful to those who want a list of deep sky objects for observing using medium to large aperture scopes, basic information on those deep sky objects and who like to know what to look for when observing.

My only negative comments are that some (estimated to be about 20%) of the objects are not identified on the large 1 page map of each constellation, and that there is not a full sky key map showing the relative locations of all of the constellations. On the whole, I am pleased with my purchase.

This is a beautiful book for night time exploring.
It is well produced in full color and a delight to the eye.

It includes listings of thousands of the best deep sky objects,
each with a photo, a detailed map, and a description.

Whether for a backyard observatory, or a casual observer,
this book is a treasure that may become a classic.

Check it out !

This is a Practical guide, that is sorted in costallations for easy findig what YOU are interested in.
The index is also nicly done where you can find the more specific of what you are looking fore.
I contains high quality pictures of each objeckt nextto a star chart and discripions.
Easy to set up a night whit this book.