Customer Reviews

Universe from Your Backyard: A Guide to Deep Sky Objects from Astronomy Magazine

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the best introductory observing guides for amateur astronomers that I have seen. Written for owners of small to medium telescopes, this book contains a diverse selection of objects for virtually every constellation in the sky. Many of the southern constellations are included as well for those of you lucky enough to live under those spectacular skies.

I spent the last month reading through this book during my lunch breaks and used it for a few observing sessions with a 12" scope. I plan to use it for many more! The artwork, photographs, and sketches in this work are a pleasure to view. This is a keeper.

The observing notes about each object are very well written. Some of the science may be slightly off (i.e. distances), since this book was written in the 80's, but this doesn't affect what you see in the eyepiece which is the main focus of Eicher's notes.

The book consists of many four-page chapters. One or two constellations are covered in each chapter. This consists of a page of outstanding photographs, a nice illustration of the constellation depicted as a mythological figure, discussion and observing notes, a map of the region, eyepiece sketches, and a chart with some basic details on all objects covered in the text (i.e. position, size, magnitude, etc.).

The only negative thing I found is that many of the objects that Eicher discusses in the text are outside the boundaries of the included maps! The maps themselves aren't too detailed so a good star atlas is an absolute must if you use this book during an observing session. Many of the objects surveyed are quite dim and require a bit of starhopping, which the included maps are inadequate for.

I bought this on a recommendation I read from a long time observer. Although I found the discussion and descriptions very nice, and thoroughly appreciate the hand drawn renditions of many of the objects as seen through various sized telescopes, the star maps are almost useless for locating objects as noted by another reviewer. Many objects discussed are not charted and the charts have no constellation lines drawn. Since you may be viewing at times when the constellation is in different positions, the lack of lines to designate the constellations boundaries renders the maps of no use.

Sue French has a similar book called "Celestial Sampler" which contains similar material and better (although still somewhat lacking in my opinion)charts to locate the objects. Her charts are often cut-off or abbreviated but there are sufficient generally to locate the described objects. I would recommend her book over this one.

This is a nice introduction to deep-sky observing (star clusters, nebulae, galaxies) with a little information on double and variable stars thrown in. It consists entirely of out-takes from David Eicher's column in Astronomy magazine (by the same name). It's good, it's brief, and it covers essentially all the major deep-sky objects within each constellation.

There are a few downsides:

1) The maps provided with each constellation rarely show all the objects discussed in the text. These maps are, for all practical purposes, useless for actually finding the objects.

2) There are a few gross errors in the text. For example, the entry for the galaxy M33 in Triangulum suddenly digresses into a discussion of the star cloud NGC206 back in the Andromeda galaxy. I think the intent may have been to mention NGC604, a bright HII region, but there is no indication of this. Other examples exist, even more egregious.

3) On my copy, some of the photographs are poorly rendered. Some of the pages even had smeared ink. Poor quality control at the publisher.

Despite these errors it was a fairly good intro book for the novice, and I intend to hang onto my copy. It's just too bad there was never a second edition published to fix the problems.

This book is perfect for research. It has information on all the constellations and in-depth picture of each. It doesn't have a mythological summary of each, but the pictures are fantastic. Each star of the constellation is described.