Hi Elle
,
Two books dedicated to the southern hemisphere come to mind.
In my opinion, you can't go past
Stephen O'Meara's " Deep-Sky Companions - Southern Gems".
It's expensive, but it's packed with 466 whopping pages!
This is an observing companion, so O'Meara gives you a comprehensive guide on what to observe and how to get there. Each object has a black/white pic (I much prefer to colour for reference when I'm observing) plus a sketch by him as to what can be seen through the eyepiece.
I consider this book medium level.
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/de...southern-gems/
Next is
The Night Sky Observers Guide - Volume 3 - The Southern Skies.
I haven't got this volume, but going by the other volumes in this series, they're very in-depth, black & white pics, mostly sketches, maps, finder charts, oodles of objects, each listing what can be seen through different sized scopes. This is not a picture book, again, it's an observing companion and is certainly a great book to have. I would consider this book medium-advanced level I think
.
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/ni...s-guide-vol-3/
Then of course, as mentioned above is the famous
"Atlas of the Southern Night Sky".
Another thick and fantastic book. Beautiful colour photographs, descriptions of the objects, followed by a map on the facing page.
Paddy has done a great review of this book.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/bookreviews.html
I consider this as a pretty picture book aimed at a beginner's level, that's just my opnion. Why?
Whilst it's loaded with lots of pretty colourful pics for each constellation and a large map on the facing page, pointing to oodles of objects, the actual selection of targets listed with descriptions are few, giving what appears to be the brighter objects/showstoppers. For example... NGC 5102 in Centaurus which is one the *easiest* galaxies to find isn't on the list, even though it's on the map
.
So many of us have this book, I do love it, but for me, on its own, it simply isn't enough. It's a book I take to bed to read at night because it's light reading with lots of pretty pics, true story
.
So my pick, as a visual observer who loves and has got too many books 
, would go to Stephen O'Meara.
In summary...
I doubt that he'll find one book that will do it all. Like me, you'll probably find that he'll wind up with several books and maps. Some books cater for the brighter objects and are quite easy to read and navigate thru, others are intense, some books cater more for "observing", i.e. more a teaching guide on techniques and what to look for in objects (such as Stephen O'Meara's Deep Sky Companions series, some books list the astrop hhysics and objects of interest better than others, etc. I have lots of books/maps- each used for different observations. If I want quick objects to find, I had for the easier guides, if I want challenges I head to a higher level book.
All the best in your pursuit of a book, Elle. It's not an easy hunt hey
. How lucky is he that you're doing all this work for him.