Received my latest astro book today from Amazon, "
Atlas of the Messier Objects - Highlights of the Deep Sky" a coffee-table style reference book. So far I must say it's nothing short of faaaantastic

Going to enjoy wading through this. About 370 glossy pages sorted in the following:
- Biography of the great man himself (Charles Messier)
- Short biographies of his contemporaries and other prominent astronomers after Messier
- The catalogue itself with his notes, statistics, science, etc
- And the 100 object images presented beautifully along with some great sketches.
Will be a good companion to "
The Caldwell Objects"
http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Messier-...5835644&sr=8-1