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Average Customer Review
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent handbook; 224-pages astronomy encyclopedia!, December 28, 1998
By A Customer
This small handbook is just plain amazing. Each section has a "How This Section Works" that takes the guessing out of charts and sky maps. It covers the solar system with scientific facts, it also has a chart with the location of the planets in the 88 constellations to the year 2009. Monthly sky guides, the constellations from A-Z with hand-measure symbols for width and depth, observation symbols, start magniture, area, size ranking, abbrev., genitive, highest at time/month, history, pictures, etc. I believe it to be better than Peterson's Stars and Planets; and it's smaller! $17 for the softcover.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Nice starter book..., May 30, 2001
This is a nice, streamlined book. Logical layout, sharp photography, and a clean, crisp design. The first portion discusses the universe and stars (addressed below), and is followed by another section that provides a 2-4 page profile on each planet, including when and where in the sky it's visible until 2009. Following these sections, is a large section covering all the official constellations in alphabetical order with at least one interesting item to check out from each constellation. Obviously, some have more: Sagitarius, Scorpius, Orion, etc. A brief constellation history is provided, along with a small map depicting the constellation stars, surrounding stars, and objects of particular interest. These objects are coded with simple icons to denote "viewability": naked eye, bino, scope, etc. The last section of the book has monthly sky maps. I purchased the flex-cover edition, which is made of some quasi-vinyl material that's quite nice. The book itself seems well made and durable. Why only 4 stars? I have two issues. #1, I wish it were spiral bound. #2, it's not as forthright about its hypothetical aspects as it should be (planetary core composition, Big Bang mechanics, Oort Cloud (!), etc.) Other than that, the book is highly recommended and a pleasure to read/use.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Outstanding for novice or intermediate amateur astronomers, May 16, 2002
If you own only one astronomy field guide, this should be it. The charts are accurate & easy to read, the text is informative but not overpowering, and the design is very reader friendly. The monthly star charts can be used from most latitudes - both northern and southern.
This is the third edition of this book. I've been a fan of it since it was first published in the mid 1980s.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Great intro and continuing reference, November 1, 2000
This was the first book I bought on this topic and it provided a great introduction to the night sky with its constellations, the solar system and the universe. I have since then purchased other more advanced books, but I continue to use this one regularly as a quick and convenient source for information on various constellations and its monthly sky charts which point out interesting things to observe for a given period. This makes a great first book along with Terence Dickinson's "Nightwatch". I am puzzled why the reading level is indicated at ages 9-12 on this web page. There is no such mention on the book itself, nor do I find that the book talks down to adults, so don't be put off by this age notice.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
So Simple, Even I Can Find What I'm Looking For!, February 19, 2001
I am one of those people who has trouble finding specific constellations, and is never quite sure whether I'm looking at Jupiter or Venus. I carry around little scraps of paper from the newspaper so I can figure out which planets are visible . . . but have a hard time reading the scraps in the dark. With this book, I can see when and where each planet will appear through 2012. I can also get all the help I need to know what constellations are up there now, and which ones will be present when. As a result, I can finally introduce the starry heavens in an appropriate way to younger people. I already know a lot about astronomy, but the night sky was beyond me. No longer! Whew! Although my four children did not get much help with the heavens from me, the grandchildren will receive great benefits from this resource. Even if you are good at identifying objects in the night sky, this book will be a valuable, convenient reference for you. Enjoy the lore that our ancestors appreciated by seeing new aspects of the night-time sky!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Nice coffee table book, November 29, 2001
By A Customer
I found this book to be interesting, but not in-depth enough for intermediate astronomers. The information on the planets is overly simplistic and for entertainment purposes. For example, instead of having a graph of basic information for every planet, sometimes it lists essential information (like orbital period) and sometimes it doesn't which makes it useless as a reference.I suggest it for the younger prospective amateur, but for older users get the Peterson's Field Guide: Stars and Planets. Very sturdy build and good guide for charting the planets.
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Great field guide for those new to the sky, June 16, 2006
I sat down at a local book retailer and compared this book with both the Peterson Field Guide, and the National Audubon Society's Field Guide to the Night Sky. I was purchasing this book for a teenager who is taking a serious interest in the stars, and I wanted him to have a field guide to accompany the 10x50 binoculars I bought him. My immediate response was to look at the Audubon text because I had an older edition and was attracted to the plastic blue cover. I also knew of 'Peterson' since I had one of those growing up as a teenager. I looked at them both, and also found this Princeton edition which I had no experience with.
A quick run-down of build (binding, pages), charts, photos, and arrangement of content is listed for each text:
Audubon: nice plastic cover, very thin paper for text (not suitable for dew or teenage abuse) and nice paper used for charts and photos, charts are okay, photos are not listed beside text (lose context of photo), lots of other good info, but maybe too much info and not well organized(?)
Peterson: good cover, good paper, charts are very detailed but good for indoor use only (not suitable for red light use at night) because of colored stars (color of stars specify spectral types - not useful to beginner looking for clusters and galaxies with binoculars). I don't recall other info since I put the book down after seeing the star charts.
Princeton: good cover and paper (thick - should handle dew and typical teenage abuse), charts are good contrast white stars on light blue background (stars to mag 5 or 6, I think?), very good info on historical significance of each constellation, and any objects viewable in that constellation - also shows most significant objects in context of the constellation they are found.
I sat down at home and thumbed thru the text a few times and was quite pleased with it. It has a brief run down on each planet (sort of an introduction) along with some decent photos. We've used the book a couple times since purchasing it, and I would have to say that it is a joy to use when trying to get acquainted with the night sky. I don't expect it to tell me anything and everything about equipment and the nature of the universe - I just need it to help me find what I'm looking for.
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