[AJames]

Originally Posted by Rodstar

I am sure with more southern contributers, the Webb Society would be able to produce lots more useful material on southern skies, and even perhaps update their 7th volume.

Rodstar,

You are correct here. The reason the 7th volume fails in that the Webb Society was relying on contributions from southern observers. I can recall when they were asking for contributions to the volume in the early to mid-1980's. Sadly, the book found few southern contributors - mainly as southerners had begun to view the southern skies as the own.
IMO, in essence, this 7th Volume reminds me more "travel brochure" than general tome on the southern skies. In truth, the field drawings are probably the most valuable, but a few of these also contain some errors.
Frankly, I don't understand why southern observers would want to contribute to northern-centric Society. After all, deep-sky southern observers are actually observing and imaging this part of the sky. For the northerners - other than travelling south of the equator - the material is just reading material.
In actuality, why can't we produce our own material for ourselves instead of creating others who don't really relate directly to regular observations of the southern skies?

Andrew

Note: A similar problem exists for the 2004 book by Mike Inglis "Astronomy of the Milky Way : Observer’s Guide to the Southern Sky" (under the Patrick Moore’s Practical Astronomy Series), which has many oddities through its text. At least it gives a more realistic picture of the southern skies.