[AJames]

I had all these for a while, and find only Vol 1 "Double Stars" (Edition 2) quite useful, while the rest is frankly very disappointing. I do, however, on very rare occasions read Vol. 2 "Planetary and Gaseous Nebulae".

I purchased some of the latter copies through Jenni Kay in South Australia (See Note below in 2004). The earlier ones I obtained a few decades ago, when I was a member of the Webb Society, but dropped out because of the the considerable very "northern-centric" bias - being not worth the money in fees and postage - and a feeling that I might as well live on the Moon regarding southern observations. The Journal was a good read though - even as 95% objects being north of the equator.

The southern sky version, Vol.7, written in 1987 is probably the worst of all of them - seemingly written solely for northern observers peering into the southern skies. Ie. pg. 159 the grotesque chapter entitled "Travelling with a Telescope".

Some Sample Problems With Vol. 7
- The errors in the chapter entitled "Historical Review" contains so many errors and omissions one does not know where to begin.
- Most objects only observed by large apertures or binoculars.
- Errors like describing the planetary nebulae : NGC 5189 as a diffuse nebula and in a 6-inch as "diamond shaped", where it is clearly "S"-shaped!.
(This is made worst by the fact that Steven Hynes was the editor, and he wrote the Willimann-Bell handbook on Planetary Nebulae of 1991.
- Worst, only one planetary nebulae below -50 deg south.
-Only NGC 3918 is presented described merely as "Bright and easy. Very small and slightly oblate. Blue." (Even the wiki article is just as bad Ie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_3918.) Its 8.4v magnitude for heavens sake!
- Worst even one of the brightest in the southern skies - the Chameleon planetary NGC 3195 - isn't even mentioned!
(See wiki article; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_3195 , which I recently had to edit.
- Many of the best southern open clusters are missing or described (seemingly deliberately) only as mediocre - often only with small apertures or binoculars!
- Compared with the northern object compilations in other volumes, clearly incomplete.

Sorry. Not at all worthwhile at all, even for $5 piece!

Once I read this, I became a dedicated southern observer who couldn't care less about anything north of -30 degrees declination, and even then prefer south of -45 degrees declination.

Recommend that it is better to read Hartung instead.

Note; if you wish to purchase some of the Webb Society publications, these can be obtained through Jenni Kay, through the catalogue download at; http://www.webbdeepsky.com/wperiodical/aus.pdf
This also says volumes 5, 6, 7 and 8 have some copies available at $9 apiece or two for $15.