TheSkySearchers

In this section would it be possible to have people contribute their favourite or most useful books?

Sections could include but not be limited to; photography / imaging, atlases, observer's guides, and so on.

Then perhaps a sticky for novices?


A few to start things off;

Atlas of the Southern Sky - Massey and Quirk A good introduction to the Southern Hemisphere for the beginner.

Practical Astronomy with your calculator - Duffett-Smith. A convenient handbook.

Astrophotography - Legault. Another excellent introductory text.

Obviously to create a proper list, full author's details, ISBNs, publisher and so on would be included.


A follow on from this would then include journals, websites and fora, but one step at a time.

"The Clockwork Universe" Edward Dolnick.

Read it only if you are not a coward. :-)

I don't have ISBN numbers, but I've been checking various copies of Patrick Moore's practical astronomy series out of my community college library. These look like really good books for bino and small scope observers from what I've seen so far.

For an excellent overview of what sort of stuff is around, and what to look for when purchasing, with extra reference stuff on star testing etc,
I'd reccomend Dickinson and Dyer's _The Backyard Astronomer's guide_. Well worth reading _Before_ you go out to buy a scope. (US Publisher)

For inexpensive introductions (at least here in the UK) Philip's do a range of paperback astronomy books, around the size of a normal paperback.
Price typically around £8-£10, though they sometimes show up in discount bookshops at around £2-£3. All the ones I've read (about half a dozen
or so) have been well written.

Somewhat more expensive (and bigger) are the Patrick Moore's practical astronomy series published by Springer (despite the series name, most of them are written by other authors (including one of the AF mods). It's a big series, and - to me, anyway - somewhat of a mixed bag. There are a number of very good books, and also several that didn't appeal to me because I'd already got other stuff that covered the same area. That's one reason I like going
to the annual UK Astrofest exhibition - they usually have a stand there, so I can have a look and flip through the new titles to see if they interest me.

I also like Steven James O'Meara's observing guides.

And I also have to recommend tbe three volumes of Burnham's Celestial Handbook - the info is a bit dated these days, since they were written quite a few years back now, but the author's love for the subject shines through. Still available new, or as ebooks, but readily available second hand too.

I still have my Burnham's from about 40 years ago. Glad I never recycled them as I changed addresses over the years although I rarely refer to them nowadays.

I got three good ones for Christmas:

Mission Moon 3-D - David J. Eicher and Brian May
The 100 Best Astrophotography Targets - Ruben Kier
Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence - Paul M. Sutter

I'd say all three are useful tomes.

Regards

Graeme

Just stumbled on a copy of "The Year-Round Messier Marathon" by Pennington at Half Price Books for $12, so I grabbed it. I'd rank this with "Turn Left at Orion".

This would make a good addition to a beginner's library, but I think it could be good for more experienced observers as well, especially those who haven't bagged all the M-objects yet (like me - 40-ish to go). I really like the charts even though I have other atlases, Sky Safari, etc.

pakarinen wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2019 3:33 pm I don't have ISBN numbers, but I've been checking various copies of Patrick Moore's practical astronomy series out of my community college library. These look like really good books for bino and small scope observers from what I've seen so far.

I have written 4 books in that series!

The series is mostly aimed at intermediate astronomers. However, they were unwilling to publish a beginner book.

I'd add Stuart Clark's books. They are more about the history of science than practical observing and photography but a very good read, nevertheless.

I have a personal bias but I couldn't put them down.

I'll suggest one more - this is for people learning their way around the sky, but still fun to skim, sort of like the ancient "Sky Observers Guide".

"Discover the Stars" by Berry. Nice monthly constellation charts and some more detailed maps.

I rediscovered a copy on my bookshelf yesterday while starting to cull the herd.

Here are my favorites:--

The Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing, R. Berry and J. Burnell. A lot of great background on image processing. I have the associated software but I prefer PixInsight and MPO/Canopus for what I’m doing.

The Scientist and Engineer’s Guide to Digital Signal Processing, S.W. Smith. Free PDFs of the individual chapters are available. Very readable, great background on sampling theorem and Fourier transforms, among many other things.

A Practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis, B.D. Warner. Background for CCD photometry with a really helpful breakdown of photometric calibration. Applications for observing asteroids and variable stars. There is a companion software, MPO/Canopus, and I rely on it for astrometry and photometry.

Inside PixInsight, W.A. Keller. There are tons of videos on the web, but having a hard copy of this great overview is really helpful.

https://www.willbell.com/aip/
http://www.dspguide.com/pdfbook.htm
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/ ... 19-32750-1
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319256825

1. Night Sky Observer's Guide, Vol. 1 & 2
2. Rukl's Atlas of the Moon
3. Craters of the Near Side Moon

I guess this is a little bit of retrospect, but I still enjoy the book my father gave me the summer before I turned 6, back in 1971, which was A Dipper Full of Stars. Obviously dated, it's still a nice intro to the heavens, with the mythology behind the naming. This was "the book" that got me started, and I still have it

Obviously dated; first published in 1944:


Amazon has it here: A Dipper Full of Stars

All the best,

"The Universe" from the Time-Life Nature Library which I borrowed from a school friend got me started. Fabulous pre-Hubble pics. I found a used copy several years ago and snatched that puppy. That one goes to the nursing home with me when I go...

"Turn Left At Orion" is a favorite of mine, and considered a classic read by many.

I have to add one to the list: "The Monthly Sky Guide" by Ridpath and Tirion. I picked up a clean, used copy at Half Price Books for $6.

Geared toward beginners, but I really like it - monthly sky maps and several more detailed constellation / region maps showing things like the location of the Veil, etc. The monthly maps are in a nice at-a-glance form and there's a reasonably detailed correct image lunar map. Another cool feature is they use the outstretched fist method for approximating angular distances. Great for naked eye observers.

The downside is the planetary positions in my 9th edition only go through 2017, but those are easy enough to look up on "S&T" or wherever.

I do wonder if Cambridge will be publishing any more editions. I thought I read they're getting out of amateur publications.

Probably the most influential for me was "Find the Constellations" by H.A. Rey. I also more recently got Turn Left at Orion. Now I use the Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas. I also enjoyed the Time Life book "The Universe" as @pakarinen mentions.

Hi Olen and all. I was not aware of the "The Monthly Sky Guide" by Ridpath and Tirion. These are two giants in astronomy publications. Ian Ridpath is the editor of the Norton's Star Atlas and Wil Tirion is a master celestial cartographer and his star charts are used in all of the high quality publications. The below picture will illustrate what I mean: My edition of the Cambridge Double Star Atlas is from 2004. By 2006 they started including the PAs (positional angles) of the double stars. As to current offerings, I still see a wide variety of fairly recent Cambridge publications offered by Amazon and other sellers.

Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas, Jumbo Edition, by Roger W. Sinnott, AAS Sky Publishing, 2020. $41.95 (80 pages plus 30 (xxx))
There's lots of star charts and sky maps out there and the one that's best is the one you like. That said, this book meets the highest standards of cartography. It is easy to read, indexed, and cross-indexed, with tables for constellations, Messier Catalog, Patrick Moore's Caldwell Catalog, and now Carbon Stars.

Star Ware: The Amateur Astronomer's Guide to Choosing, Buying, and Using Telescopes and Accessories, 4th Edition, by Philip S. Harringon, 2007, John Wiley and Sons (417 pages)
Now somewhat dated for lack of today's newest product releases, this book remains the primary resource to explain all of the basic instruments and supporting hardware that comprise the "telescopes" we use. This includes the mounts, tripods, focussers, lenses, eyepieces as well as theoretical optics, (and simple geometry to explain that). Even though the book has not been updated, Harrington does have a website: https://www.philharrington.net with updates and extensions.

Observer's Handbook: 2021, James S. Edgar, editor, The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, (352 pages).
This is the 113th edition. You do not necessarily need a new one every year, but you do need at least one. The RASC also supports a USA edition. From the basic mathematics of telescopes and eyepieces to detailed summaries of what to expect when viewing the Moon, Sun, planets, stars, minor planets,comets, and the deep sky, this handbook is a reliable reference for beginning and advanced amateurs.

Burnham's Celestial Handbook, 3 volumes, by Robert Burnham, Jr., Dover Publications, 1966, 1978. (2138 pages)
Despite the extreme age of the work, it is as close as we have to an Encyclopedia for Amateur Astronomers and it was written by a professional working at the Yerkes Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. And he wrote it for himself. Burnham built massive 3-ring binders of compiled information about all of the research topics in his purview. This book was published from those notebooks. It is organized in alphabetical order by constellation. Within each is a list of double and multiple stars, a list of variable stars, a list of star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. Each list is a table with relevant data of names, catalog citations, RA and DEC location, magnitudes, etc. Following those tables are descriptive notes about each special target star or other object. In addition, the chapters are supported by cultural notes for context, mythology, history, etc. Moreover, the book is loaded with photographs, charts, and graphs. Burnham died alone and socially isolated. Everyone thought that this Robert Burnham was the Robert Burnham working at Sky & Telescope. He would show up at sidewalk star parties, standing at the back, watching people being introduced to the sky. You can find these all over at used bookstores and second-hand shops in your town or online for about $35 a set. There is no better bargain in astronomy.

mikemarotta wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 8:42 pm
Burnham's Celestial Handbook, 3 volumes, by Robert Burnham, Jr., Dover Publications, 1966, 1978. (2138 pages)
Despite the extreme age of the work, it is as close as we have to an Encyclopedia for Amateur Astronomers and it was written by a professional working at the Yerkes Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. And he wrote it for himself. Burnham built massive 3-ring binders of compiled information about all of the research topics in his purview. This book was published from those notebooks. It is organized in alphabetical order by constellation. Within each is a list of double and multiple stars, a list of variable stars, a list of star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. Each list is a table with relevant data of names, catalog citations, RA and DEC location, magnitudes, etc. Following those tables are descriptive notes about each special target star or other object. In addition, the chapters are supported by cultural notes for context, mythology, history, etc. Moreover, the book is loaded with photographs, charts, and graphs. Burnham died alone and socially isolated. Everyone thought that this Robert Burnham was the Robert Burnham working at Sky & Telescope. He would show up at sidewalk star parties, standing at the back, watching people being introduced to the sky. You can find these all over at used bookstores and second-hand shops in your town or online for about $35 a set. There is no better bargain in astronomy.

Mike,
Thanks for your post.
I need go no further than my bookshelves to find the Burhams set which I have owned for coming up to 40 years.
You will also see "Observational Astronomy for Amateurs," and "Amateur Astronomers Handbook" both by Sidgwick and "How to Build a Telescope" by Jean Texereau. I don't recommend the latter for most people, a lot of the book deals with mirror grinding, polishing, and optical testing.

I also have a small collection of paper Star Atlases - Nortons, the Herald Bobroff Atlas, and the Skalnate Pleso Field Edition (all pictured) and the Tirion 2000 field edition (not pictured). If I do use an atlas at the telescope, I still like the Skalnate because it's in plastic sleeves. When I was 19, I bought some sheets of tough plastic from a department store and my lovely late mother cut the sheets and sewed them into large plastic pockets on her semi industrial sewing machine. I also have the NASA Five Millennium Canons of Solar And Lunar Eclipses and their respective catalogues and I have kept the solar eclipse bulletins that NASA used to publish before modern online tools made them somewhat redundant. Joe