I recently downloaded a few astronomy ebooks from Project Gutenberg.
I thought some of you would enjoy reading them.
BTW, they are free to download.
Curiosities of the Sky
Printed 1909
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6630
A really interesting read that makes you realise how much our knowledge has expanded in the last 100yrs. Did you know that they used to think that globular clusters were formed from a single star exploding? And dark nebulas were holes shot through the cosmos , giving us an eye into the furthest reaches of outer space? They had some funny ideas back then.
Half Hours with the Telescope
Printed 1873
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16767
Most of the text is still very relevant for today amateurs. Lots of very good advice on how to test a scope for spherical abberation and chromatic abberation before purchase, the best mounts, how to clean optics, the importance of a good observing chair etc.
The rest of the book takes you on a guided tour of the constellations.
These are the only ones that I've actually started reading, there are more titles here.
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/loccs/qb