|
|
|
Average Customer Review
Share your thoughts with other customers
|
|
|
› See most helpful viewpoints
|
|
142 of 144 people found the following review helpful:
Publisher of 'Astronomy Digest' E-Zine, August 14, 1999
By A Customer
Chet Raymo takes a Reader's Digest approach to Astronomy and presents the wonders of the universe in an enjoyable and easy to read manner. The book is divided into 365 segments to give a clear picture of the sky every night of the year. This is an Excellent book to learn the sky and constellations. The main focus of the book is naked eye astronomy, but would also be useful for binocular and small telescope observers. The book is full of hundreds of charts, drawings, and maps that help in explaining the night sky. Rather than sitting down and reading this book from cover to cover, I enjoy reading this book throughout the year. 365 Starry Nights would be a good book for a beginner astronomer, or anyone who enjoys the night skies.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
A friend to help you find all the stars in your sky., August 12, 1998
By A Customer
This lovely book is for all of the folks who swear that one picture is worth a thousand words. The beautiful, romantic illustrations make it possible for novices to easily discern what stars are in their sky on whatever day of the year it happens to be. My husband and I have enjoyed our book for ten years. Whenever we look skyward on a clear and brilliant night, we open our book to the exact day and month that it happens to be. We find wonderful drawings and lots of information about stars that are in our sky. We can see explicit pictures that diagram the constellations of the night. This book shows us the stars that we will soon be able find on the horizon and the ones that will be over our heads when we turn off our porch light and step outside. The stories of the ancient myths are compelling. The science of astronomy is infused gently by the author and the readers absorb it as if it were by osmosis.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
This book is a bit cloudy at times, January 8, 2000
I purchased this book with the hopes of getting into binocular astronomy. I realize that binocular astronomy is great, but you need more than this book. It contains good information, however, it's a bit elementary in many places. For example, one entry talks about how it's the earth that spins and not the stars, and that was it. It seems like the book covers a topic that would normally take up 2 pages of text and breaks it up into 5 starry nights. What that means is that topics continue from one day to the next, forcing you to read onward (and depending on where you jump in....backwards too). It does give great illustrations of the constellations as far as giving you a picture of what Orion would look if he were a person. It also covers some mythology about the constellations, and that makes for interesting reading. There are no star charts in this book. At best it's hand drawn stars, so purchasing a star chart is a definite plus. You can pick one up for about 10 bucks. Since the book is broken up into 365 days, its organization is a bit frustrating. For example, if you want to look at nebulas, you open the contents of the book and see that all that's listed is January...page 1, February...page 19...etc... The glossary provides some help, but doesn't even list what a nebula is, so it's VERY limited (2 pages) (On some items it references you back to pages in the book). However, on the good parts of this book. It's written so that a child can understand it, so if you're older than 10, you'll get the concept. I would suggest purchasing an additional book as a companion to this book. It's contains good info, but you're a little at the mercy of the book due to the organization of it. If you have young children, this would be an excellent book to take out with you and learn together. It's good for adults too, but is just elementary. I guess depending on the person and your purpose, that can be good, or that can be bad.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
A great book for both beginners and intermediates alike., October 31, 1998
By A Customer
This book is an excellent source for learning sky and the constellations on a month by month basis. Includes some interesting history of astronomy, including some of the authors own thoughts on why certain constellations have taken on their historical and existing configurations. Locates some easy and some hard objects. I used it for binocular viewing before I bought my large telescope. Still use it every week. This book is a must for astronomers and star gazers.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Delightful, literate, informative, and fun, December 17, 1999
This is a book that's hard to put down. You can always read the entry for today, but if you're like me you won't be able to resist opening to random days and learning about the science, history, and mythology surronding the stars and constellations. Can't say enough about this book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Burnham's in Miniature, March 6, 2003
I love it! Chet Raymo imbues this delightful book with reverence, understanding, wonder, joy, science, and legend all at once. He guides you through the sky night by night, acquainting you with the major constellations and pointing out objects of beauty, interest, and mystery throughout. Best of all, he confines himself to subjects you can see with the naked eye or a very modest telescope; he never sets you up for disappointment by taunting you with things you'd need a huge telescope and infinite patience to see, and wouldn't believe you'd found even then. Raymo's artwork reflects his love of the sky, drawing as much from history, mythology, and imagination as from science. Nevertheless, he also lucidly presents science that's missing from hordes of more pretentious books. I defy anyone who's curious about astronomy to read this book and not be infected by Raymo's enthusiasm.To me, "365 Starry Nights" reflects the same spirit as Robert Burnham's timeless "Celestial Handbook," while addressing an audience daunted by the prospect of 2,100 pages. For readers caught between H. A. Rey's brilliant "Where the Stars Are" and Burnham's magnum opus, "365 Starry Nights" has no equal. If it had an index, it would be perfect.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
A Definite 5-Star Book!, July 29, 2000
By A Customer
Chet Raymo has quickly become one of my favorite astronomy writers! This is a truly timeless book, with readable, understandable illustrations and explanations about our beautiful night sky and universe. He admits in his "Introduction" that his selection of things to be included in the book "is entirely personal..." which turns out for the reader to be fortunate, because he teaches some great things! The beginning amateur astronomer will appreciate his approach to the millions of wonders above, and the more experienced amateur will certainly continue to learn through his daily lessons. I've looked at a number of books to learn the night sky, and some are quite dry and even downright boring--not so with Raymo. Don't believe that this book is too elementary--it's full of information and passion for the beauty of the universe. Personally, I'm ordering more of his stuff tonight! I love this guy! Buy this book, you will not be sorry!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
More than 365 Nights, October 26, 2001
Not knowing what books on astronomy are good or not, I just happened to pull this book out of the sea of astronomy literature. Fortunately, I hit the jackpot. From beginning to end, there is something new and exciting to learn. Understandable enough for a child, yet exciting enough for an adult. It will spur the beginner on to dig deeper and deeper. One caveat: If you are anything like me, you won't be content to read just one day's entry at a time, but will end up reading the whole book through!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Simple in structure; high in spirit., February 6, 2001
Chet Raymo has written more than 20 other books besides this one. One of them has claim to the most bizarre title I've ever seen - "The Dork of Cork", a novel about an Irish dwarf astronomer and his insane promiscuous mother (not what you'd call "light reading"). I haven't read it, but it got some excellent reviews on this forum. I did however, read "365 Starry Nights", in which Raymo presents us with an interesting contradiction of structure and spirit.This is quite possibly the most basic book on the subject of astronomy I've ever read. Basic not in spirit, but in the presentation of its material. In structure, it resembles a 200-page user's manual that comes with a kitchen appliance - hand-rendered black and white illustrations, with text in a plain vanilla font, like a Dick and Jane fourth grade reader. There is not a single color illustration or photo. The many pictures it does have are rendered in a style (reminiscent to me anyway) of a Thurber classic that my parents read back in the 50's. It's as non-intimidating as you can get, and the beginning novice will feel very comfortable with it. Raymo presents the constellations to us with the simplest approach and technique I've ever seen. And it works. To me, it works because black, white, and gray are essentially the real colors we see through telescopes. Though we've become acclimated to glossy color images in those pricey books we leave on our coffee tables, the real world at the eyepiece is just plain old greenish-gray on a darker background. So Raymo's lack of color merely sets the stage with a subtle enough contrast to establish an appropriate tone. If you're disappointed in that, then you just might be spoiled. To Raymo, every night of the year is a pulpit from which to paint an overhead tapestry. He doesn't need fancy illustrations or colorful graphics to enhance his ideas or thoughts. His illustrations (many from the Burnham's Handbooks) are all appropriately mingled with the text, so you never have to flip pages or reference back and forth to them. One stylistic trait caught my subconscious attention - it took awhile for me to realize why the constellation drawings seemed somehow more sensible here. The stars, instead of being represented by black dots, are actually rendered as five pointed stars, each of an appropriate size to illustrate (within reason) comparative magnitude. At first, I didn't know if I liked this. But after awhile it began to seem natural, (if not downright sensible) and I guess for the novice it would work even better. Ultimately, there's something about it that makes sense. Go figure. Although 365 evenings are accounted for, Raymo does not actually discuss a separate event or subject for each one of them. Rather, he blends columns of text about a single subject over a few days at a time, i.e.: - discussion of Sirius literally takes half the month of February. But this is appropriate and necessary for connected reference to other stars and celestial objects. The title is indeed fitting. If you're an advanced amateur with sophisticated "GOTO" equipment, and a contemporary jaded mentality about what your information looks like, then you might not care for this book. I must not be that far advanced, (I've only been observing for about 30 years) because I think this book is great for what it claims to be - "An introduction to Astronomy". And within the spirit of teaching, it does an exemplary job. What more could one ask? Highly recommended for the beginning novice and the casual stargazer. Fun and fortification for the advanced amateur. A good book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
A great book for every amateur, May 28, 2000
This is a very good book for every amateur astronomer to have! It is very descriptive, helpful, and is even interesting to read! 365 Starry Nights describes the night sky by every month, so it helps create a sense of how the sky works. It touches on even the very small things, and describes the important things very well. It describes many of the types of distance measurers, like parallax and Cepheid variables. There are so many other things that it describes very well that I can't even list them all. The book covers many constellations and many of the things that are found in that constellation. All of those things make this book very informative and great. There is only one problem with the book. The book was published in 1982, so some of the information is outdate, which can be a small problem. Therefore you have to remember that every once in a while when they don't mention the Hubble telescope and you're wondering why! Overall, this book is a very good book!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
|
|
| |
|
|
|
