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Steve,
I was thinking of the correct book, with Southern Sky Guide. It lists a few more objects on the star charts themselves than Stars and Planets but it offers a description on a lot less of them. For example SSG offers a description on 11 targets in Orion as opposed to Stars and Planets offering a description on 19 targets in Orion.
It is also infinitely more confusing for a beginning because it is laid out in chapters based on 3 hour brackets of right ascension. If you didnt know that Orion ran from about 4hrs 40 min RA to 6 hrs 25 mins RA you could spend 10 minutes trying to find which chapter of the book Orion was in. This isn't much use to a bloke with a dob and no setting circles as RA is irrelevant.
Stars and Planets has a separate chapter for each constellation and a separate star chart for each constellation, it is IMO a far far easier book for a beginner to use. To be perfectly honest I don't even put the two books in the same class. Remember however, that this is only my opinion and some people may prefer the layout of Southern Sky Guide and if you like it I can certainly understand that.
CS-John B
Last edited by ausastronomer; 03-02-2006 at 12:05 AM.
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