Customer Reviews

Summer Stargazing: A Practical Guide for Recreational Astronomers

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This is an excellent guide to the night sky. It is great for kids and adults alike. I especially like the use of actual photos of the sky with and without diagrams of the constellations (not just charts or drawings.) This makes it much easier to find them in the sky.

This book is a handy book with nice pictures for starters . There should be more materials than these as the pages are filled with more pictures than words and too little explainations. There are too little detail or advice or tips said about stargazing as the main subject. Conslusion: Good, but should contain about 50% more materials and advices/details.

Like many of you, I've long grown accustomed to diminished observing under a light polluted night sky. Sure, I can usually trace the major constellations and still find the best and brightest Messier objects. Yet, I hadn't realized my viewing deficiency until I had the benefit of an exceptionally dark night sky, far from city lights. There, I was lost, overwhelmed by a stellar grandeur that obliterated my limited sense of what I thought was there. I went scurrying for works that would come to my rescue. Few did, even the elaborate observing guides I had with me.

I found this one at the Air & Space Museum. Wow! For me, the price is worth it for just the wide field star images on pages 24-47. Even more so, the "close-up" photo swaths on pages 38, 40 and 44 I have turned to time and again for revealing deep sky treasures in the context of their placement in the Summer Triangle, and the richness of the Scorpius and Saggitarius regions.

If you have the occasional privilige to look into a truly dark summer night sky, this work can be your faithful seeing eye dog. I carry it with me along with my higher priced observing encyclopedias to keep me mindful of all that is there in the spendid Mily Way.

The balance of the book is helpful more for begininners and an excellent introduction for those who want to sample observing the summer night sky. Be aware that planetary positions are only through the year 2010 (I've never used that section anyway). But, even for this guy who owns an 8" scope, I won't be without "Summer Stargazing" under dark summmer sky observing. I pack it right along with several of the deep sky observing tomes each summer.

If you are ages 10-15, or an adult who wants to get "up to speed" on astronomy-speak in under a 5 hour read -- this is the book to own! This chronology of major astrological events to look for in the sky which comes at the end of the book is outdated by a few years due to the publish date, but the sky charts (actually full page photos) -- specifically and only for summer months in the U.S. -- were actually usable! Also useful was the section on purchasing a telescope for a novice or even decent binoculars (a $50 investment to start was recommended, imagine that!). Also, a handy refernce for dates of meteor showers is a great thing for kids in large groups. And for a freeze-baby who lives in a northern climate who only takes the time to stargaze on warm, summer, cloudless nights, this is the only book I need.

My third year of owning this great night time aid has only increased my appreciation of what lies above. This book has great reference guides for planetary location, eclipse tables, lunar maps, and enough material for the person observing with binicoulars (which I started out with), to someone with an intermediate telescope (I moved up to a 6" reflector because I wanted to see more of what is presented). The lay-out of the book is very straight forward, and any one may pick it up and begin to locate everything pictured. Owners of small refracter telescopes will find renewed interest in what they will be able to view with the help of this book. A must have companion if you starting out, an old friend as time goes by.

There will be a glut of astronomy books as we approach the millenium. If you want a classic, timeless dose of education and common sense this is the book for you. The best summer nights since Grease.