I am looking at getting a good astronomy book. To learn a bit more about astronomy and hopefully to have some star charts also. Does anyone have any recommendations for good astronomy books?
My Bible is Hartung's Astonomical Objects for Southern Telescopes Revised by Malin & Frew. Was about $80.00 from Bintel but you may have to hunt around for it now as I believe it's gone out of print.
I use Hartung's Astonomical Objects for Southern Telescopes (I have the older, non-updated version ). I also like Burnhams Celestial Handbook (all 3 volumes). I had all of these with me at Lostock - very handy.
Southern Sky Guide is a good starter and inexpensive. $25 from Bintel I believe. But there are lots of options. I suggest you go to a library at one of the major universities and have a browse. You can search their catalogs online first to get an idea of what they've got.
You have a couple of options here. Some have mentioned the Southern Sky Guide, I own it but I think you will outgrow it rapidly.
Others have mentioned Hartung's Astronomical Objects for Southern Telescopes. This is an outstanding work and every Aussie astronomer should own a copy. Problem is it doesn't have any charts in it. This leaves you with a couple of options IMO.
If you just want 1 book with charts and text then I suggest Collins Guide to Stars and Planets. It has more objects in it than Southern Sky Guide and will serve you a year or two further into the future. It is by Ridpath and Tirion and is available from Bintel for $39. I think every beginner/intermediate observer should own this book.
The 2nd more expensive option is to buy Hartung and combine it with a 6th/7th mag star atlas like Cambridge Star Atlas. This would give you enough targets to keep you busy for a long time to come with an excellent text commentary book. Both books again are available from Bintel for $79 and $49 respectively. If you wanted a cheaper alternative to the Cambridge Star Atlas, you could use Bright Star Atlas 2000 at $35 but I don't think its as good as Cambridge for several reasons (I own both) Norton's is another Atlas option.
If the quality of the purchase and subsequent benefit is more importnat than the cost I would buy:-
Collins Guide to Stars and Planets
Hartung
Cambridge Star Atlas
That would be my recommendation but there are literally dozens of very good alternatives. FWIW Burnham's is a classic work but I think its 2 years down the track for you.
John, I have both Stars and Planets, and Southern Sky Guide. S&P has less objects than SSG. More pages, but less stars (mag 6 inst of mag 6.5) and DSOs. Although there is the odd planetary in S&P that is not in SSG, there are a lot more objects in SSG that are not shown in S&P, especially galaxies.
Good thing about S&P is more thorough descriptions (a separate section for each constellation) and photos.
Based on your comments, I may be confusing Southern Sky Guide with another book. I will check when I get home from work tonight. I have about 50 astronomy books and it's not hard to get them mixed up, as a lot have very similar names.
I will second a vote for Collins Stars and Planets, picked it up last week and its exactly what i needed. Charts of individual constilations plus mention of significant objects in and around that constelation. Also has star charts by month, combining this with the detailed constelation charts its very easy to find most things. As well it has pictures of significant objects in selected constelations. It also gives a good rundown of solar system objects with nice pictures. This was purchased from Bintel, based on my needs Mike Smith recommended this for me. Along side the previously purchased Astronmy Guide 2006, i belive this is the begining of a good collection.
I am keen also now to take a look at Hartung's book and Cambridge charts. As they seem to be higly regarded on these forums.
I think most amature astronmers will agree that the best advise for a beginer is a pair of 10x50 and a book to enable identification of constelations at the least. The first and most important step is learning the constelations and understanding there path of motion in our night sky. Learning about them is half the fun, seing them is another quartelr the last quarter is photographing them.
Astronomy 2006 by Quasar Publishing is a must have. It's a day by day, month by month guide to whats happening in the night sky. It also has basic star charts in it as well that are worth removing and laminating for every day use.
I just rechecked that I was not dreaming when I wrote my previous post. Looking at "The Southern Sky Guide" (SSG) by Ellyard and Tirion (1st edn, 1993) and "Stars and Planets" (S&P) by Ridpath & Tirion (2nd edn, 2001), within the boundary of Fornax, we have:
... in SSG:
Galaxies: NGC 1316, 1365, 1399, 1398, 1097
Planetary: NGC 1360
... in S&P:
Galaxies NGC 1097, 1316, 1365
This is fairly typical when it comes to galaxies and planetaries. Lots more of them in SSG.
But the descriptions in S&P are much more in-depth, and if you can find a 2nd edition copy (3rd is the latest but no diff) you could pick up a bargain. I got mine for $8 at a bookshop sale.
I was in Angus and Robertson in Maitland the other day and not one of the books listed here was there. They had a couple of the moon and a planisphere that did not have any planets on it. I will look around for either S&P or SSG and see if I can get a good deal on one of these.
Bintel will have SSG new $25 IIRC. Well worth the investment. They have S&P too, but bit much IMO at $39 for the 3rd edn. Other astronomy shops will have them also. Buying online is another option.
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.
The complete beginners literary package consists of:
1) a Phillips planisphere - the easiest way to get to know the night sky.
2) Collins Stars and Planets - Mentioned several times already, and easily the best guide for owners of small scopes. If it isn't in here, its unlikely you would be missing much (unless you become a *Serious* fuzzy follower!).
3) Astronomy 2006 Australia. Again the popular choice, but has the charts and the info for the whole year.
4) The Internet - there is no shortage of stuff on astronomy.
I know it is late, but I would throw another one into the mix. Last year I brought the Collins Atlas of the Night Sky (by Storm Dunlop, Wil Tirion & Antonin Rukl) I picked this up in a Brisbane Dymocks bookshop for around $50, but I am sure it is available in other places.
Why this book? Well it contains the exact same maps as in the Cambridge Star Atlas in the front with the facing page listing the mapped DSO's grouped into types (GC, GX, DB, etc) and stars down to about 6.5. Then it goes alphabetically through each constellation with a more detailed map and some short descriptions about the highlights in each constellation - what to expect at the eyepiece. Next it has the planet postions mapped out for the next few years (going by memory) and then finishes off with some Rukl moon maps including mirror image maps. Overall a very comprehesive atlas for a beginner to have
Overall this is a great starter book, and although I have probably surpased starter status, i still get a lot out of it. The cover is shown below:
![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
). I also like Burnhams Celestial Handbook (all 3 volumes). I had all of these with me at Lostock - very handy.
