A Guide to the Night Sky, at Australia Post.

Suzy · #1 12-08-2010, 05:47 PM

I was at the post office today and amongst one of their tables of goodies, I spotted this book "A guide to the Night Sky" revised and updated. There it was, right next to A guide to the Weather" same look book. It was only $20.00 and upon a very quick flick through, decided it was worth it (we all know how expensive astro books can be!). The authors are well known: Robert Burhnam, Alan Dyer, Robert A. Garfinkle, Martin George, Jeff Kanipe, David H. Levy & consultant editor Dr John O'Byrne.

When I got home, I explored this book further, and what a great book this is - fully worth $20.00. It's packed with 288 pages and I love the size; it's a hardcover, tall and narrow being very easy to handle, esp. for outside. It's pretty much everything you need to know from telescopes, filters, binoculars, variable stars, double stars, planets, the moon etc. Then onto the final and very large chapter, entitled "The Star Hopping Guide", which has a map for each constellation and then a tour of all the glorious objects to look for. I really like the way the tour is conducted, as an example, "head south 3 degrees and you will come across ....." Colour pictures and great descriptions (including lots of stars) accompany each constellation. Lots of colour pictures through out the entire book as well. It's not "Astronomica" by any means, which is a large, heavy and an expensive book, but a really fantastic useable size (and cheap!) for outside.

Here is a the link to what this book looks like, though the cover is different and I don't see any authors listed, but the title is the same and so is the size and shape of the book.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book...e-to-Night-Sky

I'm also not sure if every Australia Post will have it, but if your heading into one, it's certainly worth checking out.

renormalised (Carl) · #2 12-08-2010, 06:38 PM

Yep, it's in the Oz Posts everywhere....or at least in most posts that I know. Looks a good book

mbo (Pat and Kirk) · #3 12-08-2010, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suzy

I was at the post office today and amongst one of their tables of goodies, I spotted this book "A guide to the Night Sky"

Thank's for the heads up Suzy, I'll see if I can find it here. I've had "Practical Skywacthing" on loan from the library, I can recommend it too.

erick (Eric) · #4 12-08-2010, 07:49 PM

Yep, glanced through it today. Didn't see the price. $20 would be a good buy as an introductory book with some useful key star charts.

Screwdriverone (Chris) · #5 12-08-2010, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbo

Thank's for the heads up Suzy, I'll see if I can find it here. I've had "Practical Skywacthing" on loan from the library, I can recommend it too.

Yep, thats a cracker book that Pat & Kirk, I have it and it started it all for me.

Cheers

Chris

mbo (Pat and Kirk) · #6 13-08-2010, 02:14 PM

Guess what Chris, it's (essentially) the same book! It's been cut down a fair bit (now 288 pages, down from 480), and updated in a lot of places. I grabbed it today and still have the older library version to compare. They dropped a fair bit of the history of astronomy, shifted some topics into different chapters, updated sections with info on Cassini / Mars rovers, and overhauled a lot of the astro-photography section. The biggest omission is the entire Constellations chapter (128 pages). I think they may have considered that the Star Hopping section duplicated a lot of it anyway.
A great buy for $20.00. Thanks for pointing it out Suze

Liz · #7 13-08-2010, 04:47 PM

Thanks Suzy, looks good!!

Suzy · #8 14-08-2010, 01:30 AM

Thanks for that info Pat, interesting!

AdrianF (Adrian) · #9 17-08-2010, 09:38 PM

Went to the PO today and picked it up nice book.

Adrian

Liz · #10 18-08-2010, 08:02 PM

Picked it up today, ta Suz, looks great for the the price!!

astroron (Ron) · #11 18-08-2010, 08:31 PM

I picked up the Four DVD Box Set"THE UNIVERSE" the ABC complete season One FOR $24.99 also at Australia Post yesterday

Suzy · #12 18-08-2010, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astroron

I picked up the Four DVD Box Set"THE UNIVERSE" the ABC complete season One FOR $24.99 also at Australia Post yesterday

Ron, this is a brilliant series and worth every penny of $24.99. Enjoy, I know you will.

There are three series in the set. Series one is actually my favourite.

I'm glad everyone is enjoying the book - such great value.

I had a really wonderful time using it the other night, it was so much fun exploring Lyra and its surrounds with this book. I wouldn't have known about the beautiful blue and yellow double in Cygnus (Albeiro) had it not been for this book. Yes, my other books did list it - but because this book takes you on a tour, it is a very apparent "must see", so therefore this gorgeous showpiece got overlooked in my other books. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey this book took me on and I can't wait for my next tour.

hotspur (Chris) · #13 04-09-2010, 12:15 PM

Yes,I bought this last year at Kingaroy PO,its a very useful book for $20

the tours a good.

it is a smaller version of 'Practical Skywatching' by the 'Nature Companions' series,I also have the weather version of this book,you mention Suzy,I picked it up at a garage sale for $5,but it is very useful and good,there is a dionosur/fossil book they do too,I have it as well.

These POs have some interesting items these days.

C