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Books and memories of Maps
I have been following this thread with great nostalgia for some time now and though I am new to the forum I am very old to the hobby {started with Nortons in 1957 and never look back!) But in stellar age who cares. I still love my much annotated Norton and went all along the trail through Hartung, Ridpath,Harrington's binocular tour of the universe, Burnham's great 3 volume set and was most impressed by the Massey and Quirk Atlas which has some surprising entries and opens new horizons. We had to start with the inspiring Patrick Moore's early southern sky offerings many moons ago but now we have our magnificent Astronomy Yearly ' Guide to the night Sky' that keeps on coming every year in November. In a fit of madness I bought a desk edition of Interstellarium some months back and took it outside to my soaking night sky air last November and soon had to start patching it up! A great atlas but key features like the Greek letters on key stars are too faint(added my own!!) and even the marginal RA and Dec lettering is too dim for these ancient eyes. I now keep it covered more and stick with S&T's Pocket Sky Atlas - the hardiest handbook outdoors and surprisingly detailed. However when you chase Comet Calelina through the vague Columba and want detail on all these lovely unseen clusters, I still think Interstellarum was worth it. For all the newchums starting out - search out the book sales and even buy spare copies of what you already have - you will make friends for life and finally don't be afraid to write on all these great atlases and forget their resale value - but do keep them out of the dew a bit more!
Eugene
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