Robert Bee's "Heaven's Above" reviews?

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

I see Bintel carries this book. Does anyone own it / use it? Might make a good Chrissie present, or I might even get it for myself. I would appreciate a bit of a description re production quality, level of detail and usefulness of text, pictures, charts, &c.
Thanx in advance.
Regards,
Brian.

[PCH (Paul)]

Hi Brian,

this is a great little book, and would be, I imagine, a very gratefully received gift. The book goes into quite some detail about individual sights to be seen, at what time of year, and what to expect etc. More importantly - for me anyway - is the fact that the information is presented in an easy-to-understand format which is sufficiently detailed to cover all the important facts. All diagrams, including starcharts, are fairly basic black on white or white on black type drawings with no photos at all.

It's probably what you'd call a small print run type of book, but very presentable, and represents money well spent in my opinion.

Hope this gives you some idea Brian.

Cheers,

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

A great book indeed. Bob is a member of our club, the Macarthur Astronomical Society, and some of his work - Heavens Above newspaper articles and his science fiction short stories - are up on our website for public view:

Heavens Above: http://www.macastro.org.au/home/inde...=52&Itemid=125

Fiction: http://www.macastro.org.au/home/inde...=55&Itemid=140

Enjoy!!

[ving (David)]

i'd give kyou my opinion but i am biased as he, chris and I are all MAS members

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

Well, I'm glad you outed yourselves as chauvanists. Notwithstanding that I does sound like a suitable book. Thanks for that.
Brian.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Brian, at the bottom of the main page on the MAS website you'll see a "Heavens Above" banner - you can buy it directly from him if you like.

http://www.macastro.org.au/home/inde...:categorymerch

[astronut (John)]

I suppose the president should say something nice as well..........
Seriously though, I was priveliged to proof read Bob's book before publication.
I found it one of the most informative and entertaining books on astronomy I've ever read.
Buy it, you won't be sorry!!

[erick (Eric)]

OK, I'll admit that I'm not a member of MAS!

But I have bought three copies. One for self and two as gifts.

It's a great beginner's book for someone starting their stargazing career. As it says, it is designed for someone who has or wants binoculars. Plenty of guidance on buying and using a suitable pair. It goes through the sky, constellation by constellation, describing the sights available to the binocular user. It leaves out the northern constellations which are not accessible to we "down-unders" (56 of 88 are given descriptions/targets). The individual constellation drawings are not high precision and leave out irrelevant things, but good enough, in my opinion, for most people to locate the targets described.

I wasn't overly taken with the monthly star maps, having seen better by the time I got my first copy, but they would be sufficient. I don't use them now, relying rather on a planisphere or the Astronomy 200X books skymaps instead. However, I have copied all the Constellation pages onto A4 sheets and carry them in a binder for reference in the field.

It's already a good gift. Toss in a copy of Astronomy 2009 and there is the perfect gift. Perhaps add a pair of 8x or 10x binoculars from AOE and they'll really love you!

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

Yes, well, I guess that is a good point. Does Bee's book compliment Astronomy 2009, do they overlap in the beginner's stakes, or are they targeting different age groups / knowledge bases / skill sets? (Let's face it, the year book is mainly for people with scopes, si?) I ask mainly for the benefit of others now, since I've already made up my mind to buy it.
Thanks all,
Brian.