Field Guide to the Night Sky (National Audubon Society Field Guides)

One of my favorite books on the bookshelf, simply because of its easy-to-read format, and information for both the amateur stargazer and serious astronomer. The book covers everything that the curiousity seeker is looking for, with an exhaustive selection of sky charts for each month, a detailed section featuring each constellation with its history and details, and an exciting tour of the solar system and its celestial denizens.Plenty of information, and just the right amount of photographs, too. A handy guide for everyone curious about the world "up there"!

I'm not astronomer, but I can tell that the volume of information in this guide would impress even a hardcore stargazer. The book includes exhaustively detailed descriptions of all notable phenomena visible with a telescope, lists the entire Messier Catalog with descriptions of each item, has comprehensive starcharts meticulously organized by date, and has a description of all the major star constellations. There is also an in-depth analysis of the solar system and a complete scientific background on all the terminology. A layman reading this guide will come away with enough information to at least sound like an expert on the night sky. There are even some sections on speculative astronomy, such as the nature of black holes and the Big Bang theory. If you are at all interested in astronomy, this is THE guide to get. It will serve as an invaluable counterpart to your telescope, and makes fascinating reading any time. As far as I have seen, there isn't a published guide to compare with this one.

The Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky has been for many years one of the best guides to the night sky. With hundreds of full color photographs of our solar system, the constellations as viewed with the unaided eyes, meteors, comets and other wonders of the sky this Field Guide is easy to use (it has a section on how to do it) and provides lots of information for the beginner astronomer, the casual observer, the more advanced amateurs or anyone interested in astronomy. As it is written on the Introduction, the aim of the book is to depict the objects of the night sky visible to binoculars, the unaided eye or small telescopes. Its small format and dew resistant cover make the Guide a perfect companion outdoors and the locating monthly charts are a real help in order to find the way through the stars. I own a 1992 Edition of this Field Guide and I still use it a lot. Later editions come with updated planetary posisitons and longitude tables along with the Messier Catalog list, periodic comet and major meteor shower tables and other useful data indicating past, present and future astronomical events. Definitively, this Guide is the first among the best of its kind!

I was looking for a different Astronomy Field Guide and didn't find it - BOY am I glad. Instead I found and purchased this gem, and am very pleased with it. I'm quite the amateur. I wanted to learn more, and to get a good guide to help me find all the Messier objects, NGCs, and others. I also wanted to learn about them. This book has it all - including 136 Sky Charts, Color photos of the Messier Objects (and bunches of others), In Depth Discussion and Descriptions of the Constellations and thier contents (including all the M. objects and many, many NGC objects), Solar System in depth guides, moon photos and guide, and more. Whether using your eyes, a binocular or an 8" telescope, this book will help you to go right to the object of your choice. A handy field guide, yet as readable as a good novel.