Alasdair
11-07-2015, 04:29 PM
My neighbour has just lent me a heap of books; one of which is "The Southern Sky: a practical guide to Astronomy" by David Reidy and Ken Wallace, published in 1988. It's just the sort of book I like - full of sensible no-nonsense advice, and a nice mixture of the theoretical and the practical. (On those solar filters for eyepieces they suggest you take that filter, dig a deep hole in your back yard, and bury it.)
However, at nearly 30 years old some of the practical information is dated: the world of good cheap telescopes and optics in general has exploded in the past few decades, and the beginner has access now to excellent equipment unimaginable back then.
As far as I know this book has never had another edition, which means that I'm wondering if there is a more recent book which covers the same sort of material, and with the same sort of sensible attitude. And which serves Southern viewers.
If you go to Amazon there's masses of books, all of which look hugely enticing, and at all sorts of prices. I have in fact already got "Turn Left at Orion", and "The Backyard Astronomers Guide" on order. But of course one's library is never complete!
And in this awful weather, if one can't actually see the sky, one can read about it, and learn how it works.
Anyway - recommendations for a modern book similar in style to that of Reidy/Wallace would be most welcome.
Thanks!
However, at nearly 30 years old some of the practical information is dated: the world of good cheap telescopes and optics in general has exploded in the past few decades, and the beginner has access now to excellent equipment unimaginable back then.
As far as I know this book has never had another edition, which means that I'm wondering if there is a more recent book which covers the same sort of material, and with the same sort of sensible attitude. And which serves Southern viewers.
If you go to Amazon there's masses of books, all of which look hugely enticing, and at all sorts of prices. I have in fact already got "Turn Left at Orion", and "The Backyard Astronomers Guide" on order. But of course one's library is never complete!
And in this awful weather, if one can't actually see the sky, one can read about it, and learn how it works.
Anyway - recommendations for a modern book similar in style to that of Reidy/Wallace would be most welcome.
Thanks!