Astronomy Book & Equipment Reviews

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert at this, I'm just going to try to tell you all about books and equipment that work for me. I've tried some stuff that I didn't like, and eventually found stuff that I did. I'll talk about stuff that I think is worth getting. I tend not to talk about books that I think are bad, since it could just as easily be that I just don't understand the topic, and the equipment isn't really the problem.

The Year-Round Messier Marathon Field Guide
Deep Sky Wonders
Planisphere - David Levy's Guide to the Stars

The Year-Round Messier Marathon Field Guide

Willmann-Bell Publishing
Harvard Pennington

This book takes a very practical approach to finding the Messier objects. Each object has a very good finder chart, complete with normal and inverted 8x50 finder scope images and a sketch. More difficult objects, particularly those which need to be found in the twilight or dawn in a March marathon, go on to another couple of pages for extra full-page "eyepiece starhopper" and horizon view finder charts.

Using this book, I was immediately able to find some objects I was not able to before. I actually land most objects in my telescope's eyepiece, usually dead center, using just my Telrad. I was doing this a couple of days ago, and halfway through the objects I wanted to do that night I realized that I still had the TV 15mm Plossl in my C8 (I had switched to it to sketch M57 and forgotten to switch back to the 25mm) and I was STILL landing them in the eyepiece.

Had I gotten this book 6 months ago I probably could have saved $500 and not bought the DSC, which I bought because I dispaired of my ability to ever find anything. I'll still use the DSC to verify a tough object, and it'll probably go on a big dob someday.

Although the idea of the Messier marathon intrigued me before, I never even considered doing it myself, I figured there was no way I'd find more than 20 or 30 objects. After using this book a few nights, I say "HELL YEAH!" I'm going to do it!

I think any newbie that uses this book will be delighted, and by the time they're done with it, they'll have developed a good set of observing skills that will take them far.

Deep Sky Wonders

Sky Publishing
Walter Scott Houston, Stephen James O'Meara

This book is a wonderfully edited compilation of Scotty Houston's Deep Sky Wonders column which ran in Sky and Telescope for decades. Like the original articles, this book is divided up by month. Stephen O'Meara has artfully merged many of Scotty's articles from each month over the years into a seamless bit of prose, several for each month. Photos and sketches also adorn the pages. O'Meara has added some introductory and intermediate text as well.

As a newer astronomer who wasn't into the hobby when Scotty was alive and writing, I really appreciate the effort that has gone into the creation of this book. Scotty's articles are a treasure that will live for many generations, and Stephen O'Meara shows his love for the hobby and his respect for Scotty's words in the extreme care that he's taken to preserve the prose in such a way that almost all the words and phrases (and sometimes paragraphs at a time) are straight from Scotty; only a bit of "glue" was added, carefully, as needed.

This book will be a wonderful addition to any amateur astronomer's library; like me, you'll probably find yourself leaving it on the nightstand and reading a few paragraphs at all kinds of odd times.

David Levy's Guide to the Stars Planisphere

David Levy

I've used a few planispheres, but this is the one I like the most. It's big, it has the faint constellations on it (many ignore constellations like Aries and Triangulum).

There are two, an 11" which is a great size for personal use, and a 17" which is huge, and probably best suited for use in groups.

Available from many hobby shops, also online at scopetronix.com, skypub.com, and many other places.