Discover the Stars: Starwatching Using the Naked Eye, Binoculars, or a Telescope

Discover The Stars: Starwatching using Naked Eye, Binoculars, or a Telescope is a great little book that teaches basic astronomical concepts in an approachable, chatty way. It is appropriate for young people who can read fairly well and for adults who are just beginning to delve into astronomy. This is an appropriate resource for home schooling families, youth groups, and after-school programs as well. Even for advanced star-gazers, it makes a nice little quick-find desk reference. The graphic on page three is a perfect visual to illustrate Earth's tilt and the way stars appear, from our Earthly perspectives, to move from East to West. Most people are not aware of Earth's special movements with relation to the stars, and most do not have an understanding of circumpolar skies! The monthly sky section is a nice way to introduce year round stargazing, and I liked the section on Choosing a Telescope, because this is an area where most people make their biggest, astro mistake...spending too much for inferior products and not appreciating the type of views an ordinary telescope will render. (The personal telescope is not the Hubble! :D Avoid the department store telescope! ) My favorite section was "Exploring the Moon" The graphics is this little section are very helpful to the beginning astronomer, who most likely will target the moon frequently during sky-view skill building. The large moon graphic labels the main craters that can be seen. The book does a fairly good job on describing measurements for astronomy: distances, magnitudes, angles, sky relationships, etc.

The biggest plus for this book is the depictions of objects as you can expect to see them in a small (2.4"-3") scope. Try drawing the object once you've located it, then bring the drawing indoors and compare it to what's in the book! Lot's of fun! In this respect it's alot like "Turn Left at Orion". It's got great star charts and accompanying highlights (Messier objects, double stars, etc.) to look for. After 15 years, it's due for an update.It needs an index!

"Discover the Stars" is written for people with an interest in astronomy but little or no practical experience, yet even the experienced can benefit from this great book. As an example of the latter, I have been practicing amateur astronomy for 5 years, and own 3 telescopes, 2 pairs of binoculars optimized for astronomy, and just a huge pile of astronomy books, star charts and software of various stripes. Despite all this stuff and my several years of experience, I returned to "Discover the Stars" just last night to enhance my stargazing experience.The best tool for amateur astronomy is one or more working eyeballs--just looking at the sky, memorizing the constellations, and watching them come and go with the seasons. This approach is highly undervalued in conventional astronomy books. Binoculars are a great enhancement to the naked eye for looking at the night sky (e.g., nearly the entire Messier catalogue can be seen with 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars), but nearly all books on deep-sky astronomy describe many, many objects that could never be seen with normal binoculars. Most amateur astronomers end up with 3-4" refractors or 6-8" Newtonians, but to many authors these are "small" telescopes. I have four astronomy books that recommend looking for an object called "Stephen's Quintet," but this simply cannot be seen with anything less than a 12-13" scope. What is a dabbler to do?Read "Discover the Stars" and find out. The very first chapter tells you to just go out and look at the sky--there is no better advice. A sky map is provided for every month, along with vivid, affectionate descriptions of everything there is to see with your eyes. After a very brief description of equipment (Chapter 2), Richard Berry takes you on an intimate tour of the night sky. The tour is in the form of 23 detailed sky charts. These cover each of the constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere and discuss many of the objects visible within them. It is noteworthy that this list contains a number of references to objects outside of the Messier catalogue (mostly Caldwell objects, as it happens). He doesn't waste your time trying to find "deep sky gems" where normal people will find none. For example, he describes Fornax as "a miserable little constellation with hardly anything to recommend it." My own experience with telescopes up to 8" in diameter pretty well bear this out. On the other hand, when he suggests you take a look, you really will be able to find it. I have found most of the objects mentioned in the star charts using binoculars or a 3.5" Mak telescope, and every object using an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain or Newtownian. Don't look to this book to provide detailed descriptions of the objects in the sky charts: there are many, many, many books that do this already, including in particular my favorite tome for more advanced users, "Star-Hopping" by Robert Garfinkle. Don't go to this book looking for detailed advice about telescopes or binoculars:

If you have ever looked up at night and wondered about the stars, this is the book to buy. It not only gives you an overview of the night sky, but also a detailed delving into the stars, galaxies, and nebulae that make up the fascinating and ancient sky. Berry is an adept teacher, and fills the book with not only the nuts-and-bolts, but the history and humanity of the agless sky. The pronunciation guide alone is worth the purchase price. He also includes sections on chosing a telescope, the moon, and the planets.Looking into the sky and recognizing what you see is no less liberating than learning to read. This is the perfect reference book for that task.