2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great "overview" of getting to know the night sky, February 18, 2011
This review is from: Simple Stargazing (Paperback)
Although I am a fairly experienced stargazer, I am influenced by my wife in my attempts to explain the night sky for others: Keep It Simple, Stupid! This book does precisely that - it keeps everything simple - no confusing jargon, no in-depth discussion of concepts that go off into the weeds - just a straight-forward, "here's how to get started in visual astronomy" book.
One thing that really deserves a mention about this book is the way that it displays star charts. Many books will show you the night sky, or sections of it, with the lines connecting various constellations. Of course, when one goes outside to look at the actual stars, these 'connecting lines' aren't conveniently drawn in the sky! But this book offers BOTH a chart WITH the lines, and then ANOTHER chart that shows the same area of sky WITHOUT the lines.
I can't think of a more helpful way to get the novice started than by showing them both the constellation shapes, as well as what they can expect to see in the sky when they go outside to look up.
Has other good (and brief, but helpful!) information about star magnitudes, names, planets, Moon, etc. Overall, a great introduction for those who don't want to be confused with challenging concepts or a multitude of astronomy lingo and jargon. Perfect for the beginning astronomer that has the interest and desire to start, but not dive into the deep-end... yet.
So in keeping my eyes open for books that I can recommend to others who are interested in starting out in astronomy, I can confidently say that this is one I will certainly have no problem recommending to others.
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