My Astronomy books & software

My Collection of Astronomy Books / Atlases & Software

* forget it / ** there's better / *** reasonable / **** very useful / ***** get it now !

Pocket Guides

***** Peterson Field Guide : Stars & Planets, Jay.M.Pasachoff ( up to date through 2010 ) ~ This is an excellent miniature encyclopedia with 578 pages & 52 detailed atlas charts by Tirion. Also, many fabulous pictures of nebulae and planets. You can view a quick scan of chart 24 here. I like it because it just fits into my pocket.

**** Collins Pocket Guide : Stars & Planets, Ridpath & Tirion. 2nd edition 1993. ~ Same sort of miniature guide with about 380 pages. Again great pictures, and nice constellation charts by Tirion. It does go systematically through the constellations, which the Peterson guide does not do. Pocket size.

***** DK Stars and Planets, Ian Ridpath. Dorling Kindersley books are so well illustrated, and this little jewel is no exception. 200 very clolourful pages that are packed with information. I like it !

Dictionaries

*** Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy : Ian Ridpath. 536 pages of definitions and explanations on astronomy terms - very useful to quickly look something up for just £8 GPB.

* Philip's Astronomy Dictionary I picked this up in a sale. Not as comprehensive as the Oxford, I suppose.

Star Atlases

*** The Monthly Sky Guide. Ridpath & Tirion, Cambridge University Press, 5th edition. A 64 page A4 paperback with basic monthly sky maps. A bit thin, but the text is excellent, really pointing out the deep sky highlights for each month. Each month has a more detailed section of perhaps a single constellation. For a little more money, you might be better off with the Cambridge star atlas.

*** The Cambridge Star Atlas, Tirion. Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 1996. There are about 9,500 stars and 866 non-stellar objects in the more detailed charts ( black stars on white ). These do not have constellation outlines, though I wish they did, but the monthly charts ( to about magnitude 4.5 ) do. I'd say this is a good beginner's atlas, but it is very basic. This is what I use outdoors.

*** Sky Atlas 2000.0, Tirion & Sinnott. 2nd edition. Deluxe version. There are field editions, and laminated editions of this very popular atlas. This 2nd edition goes down to magnitude 8.5 but it is altogether too nice to take outside. It's a "black on white" desk atlas, unless you get the expensive laminated field edition ( which would give you white stars on a black background). This is half way between a beginners' atlas and something like Uranometria or the Millennium Atlas, ( which also cost much more ! ). Uranometria is out of print while the latest edition is prepared for early 2001.

** The Photographic Atlas of the Stars, Foreword by Wolfendale. I like this. You get black on white negatives with labels and constellation lines on one side, and excellent star photographs on the other. The photographs are very well done, and it certainly gives a novel and more true to life representation of the heavens. An original idea. I wish there weren't so many stars in it, though, because the overcrowded photos make it difficult to identify the most important stars.

**** The Ever Changing Sky, by James. B. Kaler. Cambridge University Press. 500 pages hardback. Quite expensive, this book is not an atlas, rather, it explains the celestial sphere and celestial mechanics. This subject is only dealt with in a chapter or two in most astronomy books, so it is very useful to have an uncomplicated explanation of the 3d geometry of our world and how its sky "works".

Beginners

***** New Astronomer. Carole Stott. Dorling Kindersley. Published 1999. 144 pages hardback. Almost a children's book, this book assumes you know nothing. Therefore it could be a great introduction to astronomy, and it is so clear throughout, I thought I had to have it, even though I knew almost everything in it. It's just one of those have to have books. You might outgrow it fairly quickly, though.

Deep Sky

*** Seeing The Deep Sky, Fred Schaaf. Over 200 pages, paperback. About observing extra Solar system objects, giving the reader projects and assignments to work through.

*** Deep Sky Observing ( The Astronomical Tourist ), Steven R. Coe. I like this very practical book, though I'm not sure it's totally comprehensive. It is written by an amateur astronomer, who is quite charismatic and human, and gives you a realistic idea of what nebulae will look like in a 6inch, or 13inch telescope. Forget the pretty Hubble space pictures.

**** Celestial Sites, Celestial Splendors, Herve Burillier. A little paperback, printed in 2000 translated from the French. 100 of the best deep sky objects, always giving a little sketch of what an 6 -12 inch scope might see of these objects. Nice little encyclopedia, very pocket sized. Nice to have with you.

*** Space watching ( Advanced Sky Watching ) D. Levy. Great pictures throughout, though a little disjointed perhaps. My favourite section is the more practical last third ; star-hopping.

**** The Sky, A User's guide. David Levy. One book I just can't stop reading. I suppose an armchair astronomer might hate it, but I rate it 1st class. Great anecdotes and stories throughout. Not many pretty pictures, but great easy-reading on how to go about practising amateur astronomy.

* Exploring The Night Sky with Binoculars, Patrick Moore. 3rd edition. I can see a lot more with binoculars than Patrick Moore can ( judging by his text ). There's an awful lot left out, but this book seems popular.

**** The Messier Objects by Stephen James O'Meara. Hardback, 300+ pages. Cambridge University Press, reprinted 2000. A great systematic guide to all 109 Messier Objects, updated with modern knowledge, and great observational accuracy. This book will help you find these objects and then confirm that what you see through a small telescope is actually right.

***** Turn Left at Orion, by Consolmagno & Davis., Cambridge University Press, 3rd edition published in 2000. 220 pages on what a beginner should be pointing his/her telescope at ! 100 objects covered, and a new chapter for southern hemisphere skies in this third edition. This should be your first guide to what you can see with a 2 to 3 inch telescope. Great book, though the presentation and pictures seem a bit Spartan / rough.

*** Observing The Caldwell Objects, by David Ratledge, paperback, Springer 2000. 109 Patrick Caldwell-Moore objects which cover both hemispheres described page by page. Something to do when you have exhausted all the M objects.

Planets

***** Observing the Moon by Gerald North. Cambridge University Press, hardback 380 pages. This is a fantastic book, and really does a great deal to motivate the study of the Moon. Until this book I always thought the moon was just a dusty lump of rock. It is always clear, and varied, and has many drawings and photos in it. This is another book one can put to good use.

**** The Planet Observer's Handbook, Fred W. Price. Another very practical Amateur Astronomer book. This is the first edition, and I gather a new second edition is out. A very good book with a practical slant.

**** Journey beyond Selene, Kluger. Fascinating stories of unmanned space probes beyond the moon. Hardback, hard to put down, and reads like a novel.

** The Case for Mars, Zubrin. Robert Zubrin describes how it is feasible to go to Mars today. The author is famous for his unique approach to this challenge. Interesting but why doesn't anyone want to go ?

***** Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet. National Geographic. Wonderful book in every way. Exciting reading, great Martian landscapes taken by sojourner. Indeed, the book is all about the sojourner story, a recent rover mission to Mars that cost about the same as the Movie Titanic.

**** Patrick Moore on Mars. Actually, I always thought he was on Mars. No, really, I like it more than some of his other books.

*** Life on Mars ? , The case for a cosmic heritage ? Hoyle & Wickramasinghe. Hardback and expensive, this is nevertheless very fascinating content.

* The Rivers of Mars. Piers Bizony.

*** Book of the Cosmos. Scientific American. A collection of top articles and essays by leading scientists. My cousin gave this to me as a birthday present.

*** Comets, David H. Levy. Smallish paperback. I haven't read it yet, but I bet it's entertaining.

Telescopes

**** Hubble Revisited ( new images from the discovery machine ), Fischer & Duerbeck. Nice "Oooo Aaah" Hubble space telescope pictures, with interesting text.

** Astronomical Equipment for Amateurs, Mobberley. Gives you a general idea of what a reflector or a matsukov is. I might be harsh here, but I think you can download most of this sort of info off the net. Anyway, it's nice to have it all in one book... mounts, eyepieces, filters, ccds, and loads more junk.

**** Star Testing Astronomical Telescopes, by Dick Suiter. Technical book on Star testing. You can read more about this book here. With these procedures you can test the optics of your telescope, and possibly correct them. The definitive book on Star Testing, though I can't understand the jargon on every page.

* New Perspectives on Newtonian Collimation, by Vic Menard & Tippy D'Auria. A little booklet on collimation procedures. A bit thin, but I've yet to look into it deeply.

* Telescopes & Techniques by C.R.Kitchin, isbn 3-540-19898-9, Springer, 1995. Practical Astronomy series in paperback, 200 pages. This book covers a bit about everything to do with telescopes, but nothing is discussed in detail. I can't really recommend it unless you're really keen to try it anyway!

*** Advanced Amateur Astronomy. by Gerald North. Cambridge University Press, second edition 1997, paperback. This is the standard book on advanced amateur astronomy. A lot of it is about astrophotography, though the author tries to suggest equipment which is not too expensive. It will be a while before I really need this book, but it is interesting to the Intermediate Amateur none the less.

Software

**** Sky Map Pro ( version 6 ) Chris Marriott. PC planetarium software. Excellent. Loads of stars up to magnitude 16. You can do a print out and plan your telescope observing session for the night. Accurate and flexible, this is a serious program. Version 7 is out, but is quite expensive to upgrade. Upgrades are once a year.

** Starry Night "backyard" ( free download, 15 day trial version ) Look it up on the net search engines if you want to try it out. Mine expired before I got round to using it. I gather the pro version is one of the top planetarium programs available today.