The Guide to the Galaxy

A very interesting and unique popular-level volume on the Milky Way, which provides an overview of the "Geography" of the Milky Way that is very accessible even for a general readership; there are beautifully drawn maps of the Milky Way's spiral arms, maps of the Galactic-scale space distribution of nebulae and star clusters, etc., thus providing an "atlas-like" volume. Wonderful concept! However, some of this information will now be out of date, as there has been a renaissance of interest in the mapping of our Galaxy's spiral structure, in the last 15 years. The reader should understand that much of the spiral structure plotted in this book is tentative; so you can learn a lot from this very inspiring book, but you must take some of the maps of our Galaxy's structures as being "indicative of the truth" rather than absolute truth. And don't pay much attention to this book's guesses about what the central Bulge looks like; as it was only after 1994 that professional astronomers began to properly characterize the appearance of the central bar and the central bulge within the Milky Way; by means of the efficient penetration of the "fog" of interstellar dust in front of the Bulge. In summary, a very good book for the scientifically interested layperson or the mid-level amateur astronomer..... but knowledge of our Galaxy's true structure has grown enormously since its publication.

This is a wonderful book full of explanations, photographs and maps. There's a bit of history about the Milky Way Galaxy's discovery followed by descriptions of our Galaxy and the surrounding neighborhood, the "Local Group." The book starts outward and moves in toward the galactic center, describing the various spiral arms along the way. It contains great maps and excellent descriptions, particularly of our very local part of the Galaxy. It's not a difficult read, though a little previous reading in astronomy wouldn't hurt. Definitely a great resource for amateur astronomers and those with just a passing interest. This is not a new book, and I'd love to see a newer edition.

Reading this book rekindled an old dormant interest in "reading" the night sky. This book, if carefully read, presents galactic structure are we currently know it in a way that truly make one rethink the night sky and truly begin to understand what one is seeing. I have to agree with several prior reviews: this is the kind of book that can expand one's mind. I went so far as to duplicate the color maps and laminate them so that when I star gaze, I can refer to the maps and place objects in our Orion Arm, Perseus Arm, or Sagittarius Arm. The explanation of Gould's belt made me appreciate again the splendor of Orion in the winter sky. This book is well worth the price and read. It can be casually read, but careful reading and study pay big dividends.

a superb book for amateur-reading . Beautiful colourful pictures of our galaxy. A 'road-map' on a scale you've never seen ! It tells you more about our home-galaxy, distances, objects, and the location of our own star (the sun) than whatever astronomical photographs may. I was very sorry to reach the last pages.

An extraordinary book that fits all those bits and pieces together to orient you into our galaxy. Distances become second nature, you come to see the sky in 3 dimensions. Beautiful photgraphs and diagrams. This book will make your mind grow