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The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How to See Them: Observing Eclipses, Bright Comets, Meteor Showers, and Other Celestial Wonders |
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The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How to See Them: Observing Eclipses, Bright Comets, Meteor Showers, and Other Celestial Wonders
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $13.57
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Wiley
Author: Fred Schaaf
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 2007-07-27
Publisher: Wiley
Label: Wiley
Number Of Pages: 288
Features:
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Editorial Review:
"Fred Schaaf is one of the most experienced astronomical observers of our time. For more than two decades, his view of the sky--what will be visible, when it will be visible, and what it will look like--has encouraged tens of thousands of people to turn their eyes skyward."
--David H. Levy, Science Editor, Parade magazine, discoverer of twenty-one comets, and author of Starry Night and Cosmic Discoveries
"Fred Schaaf is a poet of the stars. He brings the sky into people's lives in a way that is compelling, and his descriptions have all the impact of witnessing the stars on a crystal clear dark night."
--William Sheehan, coauthor of Mars: The Lure of the Red Planet and The Transits of Venus
The night sky holds endless fascination for anyone who chooses simply to look up and observe, but with so much to see, it can be difficult to know where to start. This remarkable book introduces you to the fifty best sights in astronomy and tells you exactly how to see them. In no time at all, you will learn how to find and appreciate the Orion group of constellations; the Summer Triangle; Venus, Jupiter, and Mars; the best meteor showers; man-made satellites; star clusters; novae; variable stars; and more.
The sights are presented according to the field of view necessary to see them. Your eyes and a clear night sky are all you need to view the sights in the first part of the book, before moving on to those that can be observed through binoculars and, finally, a telescope. Concise descriptions and explanations of these spectacular visual wonders will deepen your appreciation of them and spur further exploration. You will also find the essential basic information on astronomical observation you need to get started, including observing conditions, techniques, telescopes, and astronomical measurements.
Once you start gazing, you'll see that the sky really is the limit--and discovering its amazing treasures will become your lifetime passion.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
The Joy of "Just Looking" 2007-12-17
I was introduced to amateur astronomy about six years ago, and have recently realized that "I just enjoy looking." I didn't enjoy trying to take astro-photographs or much of the science, certainly not the chemistry! I just want the "WOW" factor, as Dean Koenig describes it. I think Fred Schaaf's recent book, 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How to See Them, was written just for me (ISBN: 978-0-471-69657-5, $19.95 MSR in paper, available on Amazon).
My library has some 18 other books on astronomy, and I've used many - some have a large number of tables (even the chemical composition of stars, asteroids, and the like) and most have star charts, many have diagrams of both telescopes and azimuth and equatorial systems and even graphs of comparative radiations - after all, science is important. I use some of them occasionally to determine a particular fact and to confirm what I have in my telescope, but few of them (other than those with color pictures) qualify as "enjoyment reading." But Schaaf is truly the "poet of the stars" that William Sheehan has called him, and has written a book that is as enjoyable to read on a cloudy night as a rainy afternoon.
Consider his Sight 13 - Bright Comet with Long Tail: "Of all the wonders in the heavens, there are two that have inspired fear and awe more often than any others: eclipses and comets. ... There is a central reason that comets were feared by our ancestors: of all the heavens' major kinds of sights, comets seemed to be the only ones that were spectacularly unpredictable and variable." Or, his Sight 26 - The Pleiades: "Everyone is first awed b y the strangeness and splendor, then moved to affection by the gentle loveliness of the Pleiades. Almost every culture in the world and throughout history has imagined the cluster as something gentle and delicate - a group of maidens, a flock of doves, or a mother hen and its chicks."
Schaaf has organized his book by Sights from the widest to narrowest view - starting, justly, with the entire night sky, 180, as Astronomy's Greatest Sight, and moving to 100, naked-eye scans, to 50 to 15 groupings, and then to 15 to 1 and finally less than 1. For the novice he quickly explains what is necessary, telescopes or binoculars, for enjoyable viewing and relates personal stories as to his own viewings. I think those personal stories are some of the best parts of his book (although he does include a few spectacular color plates for the truly visual of us). The method of organizing by size of the Sight works very well.
If you've forgotten the joy that can come from "just looking" at the heavens, 50 Best Sights is a wonderful way to recover the awe and appreciation for their beauty. A good pair of binoculars and a planisphere, are all that is necessary to enjoy most of Schaaf's Sights; a small quality rich field scope works for many of the rest. A "big" scope isn't necessary to "just look."
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