Star-hopping--using easily seen bright stars to locate fainter celestial objects in the night sky--is a basic and essential technique for all star gazers, novice and veteran alike. Robert Garfinkle shows you how to locate the many stellar objects usually overlooked by the untrained eye. Two or more detailed star hops for each month of the year, which can be read in any order, take you on a trip through the night sky, opening new doors of discovery and reinforcing star-hopping methods and techniques. With Garfinkle's able guidance, learn to take the Messier Marathon--a night-long hop across the skies. Additional basic astronomy skills are carefully outlined, including reading star charts, finding celestial directions, understanding telescope types, and using light pollution filters. A lively history of the universe and the ancient myths and legends of the sky round out the text. This is an essential guide for sky gazers who want to get the most out of their evening sky explorations.
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"...the ultimate observing guide that belongs in every library...Garfinkle's book can open up new observing horizons for the beginner and even show the seasoned observer a few new tricks...also includes a discussion on telescopes and basic observing tips, and an impressive glossary and bibliography...most enthusiastically recommended." K.Larsen, Choice
Book Description
This book presents the technique of star-hopping, or using the brighter stars and asterisms as guideposts on celestial paths to fainter stars or celestial objects. Twelve monthly star-hops form the heart of the book. One chapter is devoted to the popular Messier Marathon. The book covers such techniques as reading star charts, finding celestial directions, telescope types, and selecting and using light pollution reduction filters, as well as information on what we know about the universe and the people who have made the discoveries, and the ancient mythology of the sky.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a thick book heavy on content and true to its purpose: to help the novice amateur astromoner learn how to navigate the sky without the aid of motorized GOTO computers or setting circles. The work contains about 24 starhops, most of which are fairly lengthy and take two hours or longer to complete if observing leisurely.
Although the text is a bit dry and not as enjoyable to work through as in MacRoberts' wonderfully descriptive and similar work "Star-Hopping for Backyard Astronomers", the emphasis in this book is on *empirical star-hopping practice*. Once you complete the exercises in this book you *will* have gained a subconscious feel for navigating the skies with your scope. Traditional star-hopping becomes second nature and loses its daunting aspect.
I feel that all amateur astronomers should have this skill down pat. It makes your observing immeasurably easier because you have an intuitive "feel" for which direction and how far to move your scope.
The maps are well done but do not completely reflect the text. Sometimes objects are discussed in the text but don't appear on the map. Also, the maps are not at near a large enough scale to make the star-hops fully straightforward. For the dimmer DSOs in his tours (and there are many of them), I highly advise the reader to purchase a solid Mag 8.5 or deeper star atlas to accompany this book, such as Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000.0 2nd Ed.
Overall, recommended over MacRoberts' book for serious training and experience in this skill. Rank beginners will want to start with something easier, like MacRoberts or the excellent Turn Left at Orion.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Garfinkle's book is a first-rate introduction into "star-hopping," the practice of using patterns of stars to find interesting objects in the night sky. He has a couple of chapters that provide useful tips for the novice--such as judging the field of view of a view finder--but then he dives right in. He adopts a constellation-based approach, marching around the major stars in a constellation to find the stellar and deep sky objects within. He is cosmopolitan in his interests, highlighting double, multiple and variable stars as well as every possible deep sky object accessible to amateur telescopes. His text is so full of information and folklore that it can almost be distracting: did you really need to know the exact spectral class of Deneb? Nevertheless, his guides and maps are outstanding and the tours he assembles are just GREAT. To my knowledge, there is nothing like them in the literature. His tours of Cygnus, Sagitarius, and Lyra got me hooked on telescope astronomy, and I return to them again and again. It would take years of dedicated effort to exhaust the richness of this book.
The main strength of Garfinkle's approach--the constellation-based approach--is also its main weakness. This is because fascinating objects a view-finder or two away from the constellation in questions are either discussed in some chapter other than the one in hand or are not discussed at all. This can be frustrating if you are an experienced star-hopper. Garfinkle compensates for this by identifying so much of interest in each of his star hops that you probably won't care. If you do, an excellent companion to "Star Hopping" is "Discover the Stars" by Richard Berry, which touches upon a small fraction of the objects discussed by Garfinkle but presents a broader swipe of the sky.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The feature that recommends this book is the road-map approach to viewing objects in a constellation beyond the standard show-pieces. The author includes all kinds of fascinating background information, and you end up seeing things you would otherwise pass by. First-rate.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Star Hopping by Garfinkle
This book lives up to it's title and gives instructions to find star targets by star hopping. Using this book with other star charts helps to understand where you are going and how... Read more
Published 6 months ago by David M. Anderson
Star-hopping: Your Vista to Viewing the Universe by Robert Garfinkle
Excellent guide for beginner or expert. Easy-to-use charts enable the backyard astronomers to locate sky objects simply by "star-hopping" from one guide star to another.
Published 21 months ago by Glenn Chaple
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
When planning a vacation you usually get out a map of the place you want to visit and decide how best to get there. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
same finder field, primary shines, magnitude fluctuates, system radial velocity, star fluctuates, spectroscopic binary system, integrated magnitude, southern meridian, galaxy glows, rich star field, degree southeast, equatorial coordinate system, finder scope, primary star, rotating variable, degree northeast, degree southwest, interacting galaxies, degree northwest, classifying stars, bright core, yellow giant, secondary star, eruptive variable, dark site Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Milky Way, Coma Berenices, Ursa Major, Canis Major, Big Dipper, Canis Minor, Messier Marathon, Delta Scuti, Canes Venatici, Sir William Herschel, Serpens Caput, Delta Cephei, Veil Nebula, Charles Messier, John Herschel, Ring Nebula, Sombrero Galaxy, Alpha Tri, Horsehead Nebula, Alpha Comae, Beta Librae, Cetus the Sea Monster, Circlet of Pisces, Dumbbell Nebula, Edmond Halley New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
When planning a vacation you usually get out a map of the place you want to visit and decide how best to get there. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
same finder field, primary shines, magnitude fluctuates, system radial velocity, star fluctuates, spectroscopic binary system, integrated magnitude, southern meridian, galaxy glows, rich star field, degree southeast, equatorial coordinate system, finder scope, primary star, rotating variable, degree northeast, degree southwest, interacting galaxies, degree northwest, classifying stars, bright core, yellow giant, secondary star, eruptive variable, dark site Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Milky Way, Coma Berenices, Ursa Major, Canis Major, Big Dipper, Canis Minor, Messier Marathon, Delta Scuti, Canes Venatici, Sir William Herschel, Serpens Caput, Delta Cephei, Veil Nebula, Charles Messier, John Herschel, Ring Nebula, Sombrero Galaxy, Alpha Tri, Horsehead Nebula, Alpha Comae, Beta Librae, Cetus the Sea Monster, Circlet of Pisces, Dumbbell Nebula, Edmond Halley New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 68
books:
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cites this book:
- Gem Guide to the Night Sky (Collins Gems) by Wil Tirion Ian Ridpath in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Night Sky (Fact Finders) by Rh Value Publishing in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- New Science (Penguin Classics) by Giambattista Vico on page 38, and Back Matter
- On the Revolutions: Nicholas Copernicus Complete Works (Foundations of Natural History) by Nicholas Copernicus on page 1, and Back Matter
- The Night Sky (Exploring the Universe (Raintree Steck-Vaughn)) by Robin Kerrod in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 68 books this book cites
- A Skywatcher's Year by Jeff Kanipe in Back Matter
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