A visual guide to the night sky viewed from around the world. The clearest and sharpest recognition guides to the natural world, Smithsonian Handbooks make identification of individual animals, plants, minerals, and other phenomena sure, simple, and straightforward. Authoritative text, hundreds of crystal--clear charts and photographs, and a simple, jargon--free approach make the Smithsonian Handbook of Stars and Planets the most accessible and comprehensive guide to observing the night sky, suitable both for beginners and experienced astronomers alike.
Many of today's amateur stargazers learned their way around the night sky with the observing guides of Ian Ridpath. Among these are The Monthly Sky Guide, now in its 8th edition; the Collins Stars and Planets Guide (known in the US as the Princeton Field Guide to Stars and Planets), now in its 4th edition; and Collins Gem Stars. A particular interest of Ian's is the Greek myths of the constellations, which he wrote about in his book Star Tales.
Ian is editor of the authoritative Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy and is a former Council member of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was a major contributor to the recent Dorling Kindersley encyclopedia Universe, and is author of Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Companion to Astronomy.
He is also a leading UFO skeptic and is well-known for his investigation and explanation of Britain's leading UFO case, the Rendlesham Forest Incident.
For more about Ian Ridpath, see his personal website
http://www.ianridpath.com
and his entry in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Ridpath
Support pages for Ian Ridpath's books in print can be found here
http://www.ianridpath.com/books/support.htm
For talks by Ian Ridpath see
http://www.ianridpath.com/cv/lectures.htm
Read Ian Ridpath's author blog
http://ianridpathauthorblog.blogspot.com/
