The Sky Observer's Guide: A Handbook for Amateur Astronomers

I bought my first edition back in the late 1970's. I bought this copy for my nephew. This book covers the basics of optics, teaching you how to calculate magnificaton with your objective's focal length, and the eyepiece focal length; it covers the basics of planetary, and interstellar objects; it covers safe, solar observation techniques; it gives a basic overview of astrophotography (film based, but film offers advantages over CCD's -- many techniqes apply to both approaches anyway); it even includes some star charts to get the amateur started. For the basics of amateur astronomy, this book cannot be beat. I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. Cheers!

If you just want a working knowledge of Astronomy, and you want it quickly and easily, read this book first. I think you'll be impressed with how much information is there, and how understandable it is. I know I am!If you want comprehensive up-to-date coverage of the meterial, you can find other sources later.When my children have a question about the sky, this is where we go. We were driving home one night and my son asked me if I had ever seen a shooting star. Actually, I was surprised he HADN'T ever seen one. I explained about Meteor Showers and asked if he wanted to know when the next one was. We got out this book and looked it up. He was so interested he read the entire book, and now I catch him explaining things to his brothers and sisters. This book has a TON of information.

I first read this book at the age of 13, just getting into astronomy. I would agree that the book could use a little updating: sections on catadioptrics, newer eyepieces, apochromats, and Dobsonians would be helpful. However, the core of the book -- how to navigate the night sky with a telescope and actually see stuff -- remains a very thorough and classic work. I re-read my dog-eared copy probably twice a year just to review the fundamentals. You really can't find as concise a introductory text to amateur astronomy anywhere.

I've been a pretty active amateur astronomer for the past 34 years. I would agee with the first reviewer "The Sky Observer's Guide" is dated and in need of new material covering Catadioptric systems (Schmidt-Cassegrain,Maksutov)and the just as popular Dobsonian now so ubiquitous among those who like me build their own systems. This has not occured I believe because possibly all the original authors have passed on. But after saying that, if your just getting into astronomy, this is still one of best guides to getting started with a small telescope around. It tells you what you can observe, how to do it, and what to expect. You could easily buy a dozen other popular guides now on the market that won't cover as much material, as clearly, as the Mayalls, Jerome Wyckoff,and John Polgreen put into the 160 pages of this little book. I still have the 1965 edition I bought when I was 12 in 1966, and though I've gone way past the material covered, I've kept it as a sentimental favorite because I probobly learned as much from it early on as I have from any other single source since then. So Golden Guide, if your looking at these reviews, add something about the two telescope types I've mentioned above and maybe something about CCD cameras too, but please don't drop anything from this still great little book!

Pictures and graphs on every page. All topics of astronomy presented in a concise, easy-to-understand way for children or adults. Includes a list of dates for repeating meteor showers. Low price. Frequently found in used book stores or thrift stores.