Astronomy Log

O’Reilly is not known for being specialists in publishing astronomy books, so it is nice to see an astronomy book from them. O’Reilly are already well known for their hacks series of books on a number of subjects and this book contains 65 astronomy hacks covering everything you need to know in order to make the most out of your nights observing.

The 65 astronomy hacks are divided into four chapters. These are Getting Started, Observing Hacks, Scope Hacks and Accessory Hacks.

There are lots of tips and advice in this book, such as what to pack for nights observing, how to protect your night vision, how to learn urban observing, how to upgrade your Dobsian mount.

There are also other tips on how to align your viewfinder, how to maintain logbooks, how to clean your eyepieces and how to tune your Newtonian reflector for maximum performance.

Astronomy Hacks contains a number of images and diagrams and is a great read, also a useful reference. It’s nice to be able to read just one hack at once, which is shorter than a normal book chapter.

Pathways to Astronomy (ISBN 0072922087). The beginning of the book contains some really nice pages of various parts of the night sky constellations in full colour and what interesting sights to look out for in the sky, including M101, M81, M82, M31, M45, M57, M16 and a lot more.

Pathways to Astronomy is split into five parts, these are the cosmic landscape, probing light and matter, the solar system, stars and stellar evolution and finally galaxies and the universe.

The cosmic landscape part covers the basics of astronomy including the geometry of the moon, sun and earth as well as lunar cycles and an introduction to astronomical formulae and functions.

Part two covers Newton’s law, orbital velocities, conservation laws, the electromagnetic spectrum, and Doppler shift, focusing light and how to observe space.

Part three covers the solar system including our solar systems planets including asteroids, comets and about impacts on earth.

Path four covers the stars and stellar evolution including giant and variable stars, exploding white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, star clusters and about the sun.

Part five covers galaxies and the universe including details on the gas and dust in the Milky Way and the mass and motions in the Milky Way. Dark matter, cosmology and astrobiology and the search for life elsewhere are also included.

Starry Night Pro on CD accompanied my copy of Pathways to Astronomy which is an excellent piece of astronomy software.

The appendices include a wide range of tables and information about astronomy formulae and tables giving you information on stars, satellites, the nearest stars and more. Also included is the table of periodic elements. The rear of the book also includes a glossary of astronomical terms together with a fold out map of the constellations in the northern and southern hemisphere.

Pathways to Astronomy are a very large and concise book on astronomy. At the end of each chapter there are key terms, questions for review, problems to solve and a set of questions to test your self.

Pathways to Astronomy contains some amazing full colour photographs of the solar system together with some really clear and concise drawings which help to explain certain topics. If you are after a really concise book on astronomy then Pathways to Astronomy is an excellent book and an excellent study guide book.

Pathways to Astronomy is available at Amazon

This is the second edition of Discovering the Solar System (ISBN 0470018313) and is said to be essential reading for all undergraduate students for whom astronomy or planetary science are components of their degrees, but also suitable for people with a keen interest in astronomy.

A small amount of scientific knowledge is assumed in addition to the familiaritiy with basic algebra and graphs.

Discovering the Solar System is definitely not a book for those who want to see amazing pictures of the cosmos as this book is mainly textual with very few images, those that are included are in black and white, although the book does include a number of tables and diagrams to aid your understanding of the subject.

Discovering the Solar System contains 12 chapters and it begins by covering the Sun and its family, then the origin of the solar system including solar nebular theories and the formation of satellites and rings of the giant planets.

Further chapters discuss small bodies in the solar system such as asteroids, comets and meteorites. There are two chapters covering the interiors of planets and satellites from a observational and theoretical basis including gravitational and magnetic field data to the models of individual bodies, such as the terrestrial planets, satellites and the giant planets.

The following three chapters then cover the surfaces of planets and satellites including methods and processes such as processes that produce the surfaces of planetary bodies, weakly active surfaces of the Moon, Mercury, Mars and icy surfaces. Then there is a chapter on looking at active surfaces of the Earth, Venus, Io and Icy surface moons.

The final three chapers discuss the atmospheres of various objects including the planets and satellites, rocky and icy-rocky bodies and finally the atmospheres of the giant planets.

Overall Discovering the Solar System is a very technical and in-depth book containing a lot of mathematical equations and examples. It also includes essay style questions at the end of every chapter with answer guides in the back. The book also contains in-depth glossary at the rear. A great book on the theory behind our galaxy.

Discovering the Solar System is available from Amazon

Astrophotography ( ISBN 0540083127 ) begins with a brief introduction to the solar system, planet rotation, and our night’s sky. The book then covers astrophotography equipment, such as various cameras, film, lenses and tripods.

There is a nice section that runs you through what’s involved in a night’s photography such as preparations and ending the photo session. Astrophotography then contains several chapters on photographing the moon, the sun, the stars and the planets in turn.

Each chapter contains some great information on how best to photograph your subject and it suggests when and how to photograph including the best lenses and exposures to use. The book also contains information on how to build your own Haig equatorial camera mount.

There is an interesting chapter entitled “The Earth is a planet too!” which talks about other photography opportunities on our planet including taking shots of aurorae, rainbows, coronas, moonlight and twilight shots etc.

Astrophotography also contains information on taking photographs of meteors, satellites, aircraft and comets. There is then a chapter on processing your film, which is only of information to you if you use a non-digital camera.

Finally the last chapter is about digital photography, and new motorized and GoTo telescopes and what they mean to astrophotography. There is also information on performing afocal photography, which is where the camera is held or fitted to the eyepiece of the telescope. The use of CCD cameras and web cams are also discussed.

This edition of Astrophotography is the updated edition of 2002. I think one main area that disappointed me about this book was that I expected it to go into great detail about digital astrophotography, web cams and how to get the best out of pictures by using software such as photoshop.

Unfortunately the book does seem dated as it mainly covers 35mm film photography with just some information on digital photography at the end of the book. I think the book could do with a complete re-write. A lot of the information about astrophotography is common between whatever camera you use, but I would have thought that most astronomers now use digital cameras and laptops etc.

Otherwise astrophotography is a good book containing a lot of information about how to take photos of our solar system and the colour photos are really good. Overall Astrophotography is a good book on the introduction to film and digital photography, but it could have included more information on the latest imaging technologies and astrophotography imaging techniques.

Astrophotography is available from Amazon

The Solar System Observer’s Guide (ISBN 0540088277) is one of many of the great astronomy books from Philips. The book is around 250 pages long, with some great colour astronomy photos throughout and the book is thoroughly readable.

Solar System Observer’s Guide begins with a basic introduction to our solar system and how the human eye works. You are also introduced to the various types of telescope and how they work as well as how binoculars work. There is also some information on astronomy drawing, using a web cam and astrophotography.

Each chapter in turn then covers the planets in our solar system including (in order in the book) Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

Each chapter gives you full data about each planet including its orbit and about the globe, as well as how to find the planet in the sky and what you will see in your telescope. Each chapter gives you a great introduction about each planet with many of the colour photographs included being taken by named astronomers.

After the planet chapters there are chapters on comets, meteors, our moon, the sun and about aurorae.

If you are after a handy sized book which gives you a general introduction to the solar system then consider the Solar Systems Observer’s Guide.

This book would also make a great astronomy book purchase for a child’s school project, especially at the prices that Philips charge for their books.

The Planetary System ( ISBN 080538734X ) gives you a complete overview of the solar system. It gives you a great introduction to watching the sky together with the theory behind orbits, eclipses and the history of major researchers of astronomy.

Each chapter in turn in The Planetary System then discusses each planet in turn and other major sky items, such as satellites, asteroids and meteorites.

Within each chapter in The Planetary System is what you would see when looking at the object. Seasonal cycles of the planets are discussed, together with the topography and geologic features of the surfaces of the planets. Craters and surface views are also included as are intricate details about the planets atmosphere.

The end of every chapter includes a summary with key terms learnt. It also includes review questions, quantitative exercises and additional reading.

The Planetary System is quite a large book which contains a lot of information and some great photos and illustrations in a mixture of black and white and colour.

The Planetary System includes a lot of theory and some intricate science and formulae.

This may be a little advanced for a lot of us astronomers, but the book does give you specific insights into a lot of information about our solar system and our solar systems planets. If you want to learn a lot more about our solar system and the planets then The Planetary System is a great book.

The Planetary System also comes with Voyager SkyGazer College Edition software on CDROM.

The Planetary System Book can be purchased from Amazon.

Astronomy for the utterly confused (ISBN 0071471588) reminds me of the dummies guide series, as the front cover is black and yellow, plus the content is similar to what you would expect in a dummies guide.

The content of Astronomy for the utterly confused is very good and gives a very good overall coverage of the basics of astronomy.

The book only contains black and white content though, including images, which is a bit of a shame as sometimes the book calls you to notice the difference in colours in images, which you just can’t see, but I suppose this does keep the cost of the book down.

At the end of every chapter is a section of questions about the chapter you have just read, luckily the answers are also included.

Astronomy for the utterly confused contains 18 chapters, which covers a wide range of astronomy topics including key concepts and basic laws, solar nebula, planets, the suns role in our solar system, astrophysics basics, stars and galaxies, dark matter and the future of the universe.

There are some nice chapters on the early astronomers in history such as Johannes Kepler who discovered the orbit of Mars was an ellipse and not a circle, as well as Galileo Galilei who was the first scientist to use mathematics and perform experiments in a manner similar to modern scientists.

There are also some nice sections in Astronomy for the utterly confused on satellites and meteors.

Overall Astronomy for the utterly confused is a good introductory book on the general topic of astronomy, this is a great book to read for a general introduction, its just a shame the pictures are not in colour. Astronomy for the utterly confused would be really good for student projects or for a good overall read on astronomy for beginners.

Buy Astronomy for the utterly confused from Amazon.

Star Ware (ISBN 0471750638) is now in its fourth edition, this is maybe because star ware instructs amateur astronomers on how to choose telescopes and accessories and how to use them, and the technology behind telescopes and accessories is always changing with new versions of telescopes and lenses being released all the time.

Star Ware is a very useful book and one that I enjoyed reading as it covers the technology products that we as amateur astronomers look at buying everyday. The author is American so all prices are in dollars, and some versions of telescopes and accessories may not be available in the UK, so this is something to remember when reading the book.

I would say that about half of the book is given over to discussing the various pros and cons of telescope types, models and mounts. Although the beginning of the book is given over to discussing how the various types of telescopes work and a little bit of history behind them all.

Star Ware makes you think about what type of telescope you want to buy, by asking what you want to see with the telescope and how much you have to spend etc. All the major makes and models of telescope are included, such as those from Meade, Celestron, Orion, Astro-Physics and many more. All the various types of telescope are also covered including Reflectors, Refractors, Catadioptric telescopes and the various mounts used with each.

Star Ware contains an extensive chapter on eyepieces. This chapter teaches you the basics of how the various types of eyepieces work and then it reviews the various manufacturers of eyepieces, and eyepiece accessories such as barlow lenses, binocular viewers and focal reducers.

There is also a hefty chapter on astronomy accessories you may want to purchase including finder scopes, filters, star diagonals, eyepiece cases, books, periodicals, computer software and digital setting circles. There is also a great section on what you may want to look out for if you want to perform some astrophotography, including information on cameras, webcams, CCD cameras and photographic lenses.

Star Ware even includes information on observing chairs and observatories. There is even a really nice chapter on DIY astronomy, which tells you how to make your own swinging table, various observing chairs – the LYBAR chair and Ron Boes chair, a lazy laser collimator, a simple dew heater, vibration suppression pads, a simple accessory tray, an equatorial table, and even a skywatcher observatory shelter. So there are loads of DIY projects for you in this book if you fancy giving them a go.

Star Ware also has a useful chapter on how to set up your telescope and various mounts after you have unpacked your new telescope, as the author Philip Harrington knows how a lot of telescopes arrive with useless instruction manuals. This chapter also covers how to clean your telescope and mirrors, also how to collimate your Newtonian telescope or Schmidt Cassegrain telescope.

The final chapter entitled ‘Tricks of the Trade’ shows you how to evaluate sky conditions and how to traverse the nights sky, by star hopping or by using setting circles and how to polar align your telescope.

Overall the nice thing about Star Ware was that it just covered the hardware of astronomy and did not talk too much about the planets and the universe. But also the book was not just about telescope hardware and accessories but it did also tell you about how the various pieces work and the author provides his thoughts on various makes and pieces of equipment.

It was also nice to see some tips on how to set up telescopes, polar align, star hop and have lots of tips on various subjects including traveling with your telescope, storing your telescope and maintaining your telescope.

Star Ware was a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading and a book I would pickup again for reference in the future. Star Ware did not contain a great deal of images but just the right amount, the only drawback for UK readers was that prices and hardware models were all based on the US.

Star Ware is available from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Skywatching (ISBN 0002200287) is an all rounder type of astronomy book which claims to be the Ultimate Guide to the Universe. This is the type of book a grandmother or aunt would buy you for your birthday or Christmas once they have learnt that you are interested in astronomy but this is not a bad thing, as Skywatching is a very colourful book with lots of very useful content and images.

The first chapter of Skywatching gives a very good guide to sky watching through the ages, including the first sky watchers such as the Babylonians and the Chinese astronomers. This chapter also mentions Copernicus, Kepler and of course Galileo. Milestones during the 20^th Century are also nicely covered from Einsteins publishing of relativity in 1905 to 1994 when the periodic comet shoemaker Levy 9 collided with Jupiter.

Chapter two covers stars and galaxies, including dwarf stars, giant and super giant stars. This chapter also covers a wide range of sites to look for in the sky including nebulae, star clusters and galaxies such as M31, M33, M81 and M87.

There is also a chapter on Skywatching Tools and Techniques; this covers naked eye astronomy, observing techniques such as using red lights for outdoor viewing and measuring sizes and distances using your hands. This chapter also takes you through using binoculars for astronomy and the different types of binoculars. It also contains information on the different types of telescopes and which is the right one for you. There is also a small section on eyepieces and on astrophotography and large telescopes.

Chapter four entitled Understanding the Changing Sky, takes you through how to map the stars and how the earth spins and how the seasons are created. This chapter also discusses the phases of the moon, star brightness and colour, and solar and lunar eclipses, it also covers shooting stars and other lights in the sky such as rainbows and aurorae and haloes.

Chapter five is a very large chapter which shows you how to use starfinder charts and it then goes on to describe each constellation in turn with a page for each, including a description and what to look for as well as a sky chart for each and what other exciting sites can be found in that constellation.

Chapter six is a tour of the solar system and there are some great pictures and write ups about each planet and our moon, this chapter also covers comets and asteroids.

This version of Skywatching that I am reviewing was reprinted in 1996, so that is quite an old book, but a lot of the content is still the same today, we still have the same constellations and planets to view, it maybe that we have now discovered more in the sky and technology has now improved, but Skywatching from Collins is still a very good book, what makes it especially good is because it is so readable and gives you the information without bogging you down in science, plus the number and quality of images in the book are great.

Skywatching is the type of book for amateur astronomers who would go back and use the book as reference again and again.

Skywatching is available from Amazon.