Within seconds of opening this book I knew that I had a master piece; it was love at first glance. In general, some star patterns and heavenly objects are easy to pinpoint in the sky. My guess is that everyone knows how to find the Big Dipper (or in Australia where I live the Southern Cross), few can find Antares and Scorpios or Orion and Betelgeuse, but come to Witch Head Nebula or Eagle Nebula and even a dedicated Amateur will have a problem locating them. Well now we have this book, it gives you a MAP of the Sky with an Image on the opposite page thus showing you exactly [though in color] what you should expect to see when you look at the sky region shown in the map. This books consolidates the sky in 82 Maps and their corresponding Photographic Images thus giving you the ability to locate the object on the MAP and seeing exactly [minus the colors of course] of how the object will appear in the sky. Large paper Size format makes the image wonderful but I do recommend a reading magnifying glass [I'm over 45 years old] to view or zoom on some if the images.
Where is The Orion Nebula or Betelgeuse?
Looking through the index, I could not find the objects common names and thus I had to use the Messier Object reference M42 which pointed me to page 37 in the book. On page 37, a Map shows the Orion Constellation with a Photographic Image on the opposite page showing exactly [but in color] how Orion Constellation looks in the sky with its Stars and the wonderful Orion Nebula. As for Betelgeuse, I had to know its location in the constellation or know that its Bayer designation is "@" Alpha Orionis.
Again, I tried Witch Head Nebula and Eagle Nebula; well I had to know their references IC 2118 for the Witch Head Nebula and M16 for the Eagle nebula before being able to locate them in the book.
I wish in this Book's next edition,
Use Sky Maps that are more easily accessible and more logical like that used in the "Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas by Roger W. Sinnott" It would make life easy.
Include a reference to the Stars and Objects Common names along with their Messier or IC references; again it would make life easy.
Print the Common names of the Stars and Objects on the MAP; as it stands only Bayer designation and others are listed only.
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