[Paddy (Patrick)]

During the hours spent escaping the daytime VicSouth heat in the air conditioned dining room, a few of us were delighted to discover "the Night Sky Observer's Guide" volumes 1 & 3 (thanks to Phil from SA who generously left his copy around for us to peruse).

I was so impressed, I ordered it from Bintel on Monday and it arrived in time to play with last night. This is such a good book! Heaps of DSOs organised by constellation with very useful maps for finding them, great descriptions, sketches, photos, indications about how each will be for telescopes of different aperture. The volumes are for spring/summer, Autumn/Winter and Southern Sky. Easy to pick which volume you want for any session.

I had about an hour's observing with it, just binding a few of the many galaxies it lists for Tucanae (not a place that I usualy go galaxy hunting). The maps were so easy to use that I was finding them very quickly and then able to verify what I was seeing. I usually go out with quite an armful of books and atlases, but I get the feeling that I'm just going to need a volume or two of this book at any time.

This is such a great book and I think it will keep me going for many years. I am a very happy fellow.