Editorial Review:
For everyone who has looked up at the stars on a clear night and longed to know more about them, here is the perfect introduction and guide to discovering the stars.
Discover the Stars leads you on a tour of all the stars and constellations visible with the naked eye and introduces you to deep-sky objects that can be seen with binoculars or a simple telescope. The tour is conducted by the editor of Astronomy magazine, Richard Berry, whose two-color, computer-plotted sky maps and clear instructions make stargazing fun and productive from your first night out.
The heart of Discover the Stars is two sections of big, beautiful sky maps and charts. The first section features twelve maps that show the entire sky overhead as it appears during each month of the year. These outline all the constellations visible anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, and the accompanying text reveals the rich ancient mythology that surrounds the star groups.
The second section is made up of twenty-three star charts that depict smaller regions of the sky in great detail. These charts give the names of key stars and lead you to fascinating features such as stars with unusual colors, double stars, variable stars, nebulae, and galaxies.
Separate chapters cover basics, such as how the stars move through the sky, how to find your way around the moon and the planets, making an astronomer's flashlight, and choosing and using a telescope -- all in terms that are easy to grasp and remember.
Discover the Stars is the perfect introduction to the heavens, simple enough to be useful if you're just starting out but packed with enough information to keep you learning and enjoying the stars for years to come.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Great Primer & Refresher!  2008-03-25
Discover The Stars: Starwatching using Naked Eye, Binoculars, or a Telescope is a great little book that teaches basic astronomical concepts in an approachable, chatty way. It is appropriate for young people who can read fairly well and for adults who are just beginning to delve into astronomy. This is an appropriate resource for home schooling families, youth groups, and after-school programs as well. Even for advanced star-gazers, it makes a nice little quick-find desk reference.
The graphic on page three is a perfect visual to illustrate Earth's tilt and the way stars appear, from our Earthly perspectives, to move from East to West. Most people are not aware of Earth's special movements with relation to the stars, and most do not have an understanding of circumpolar skies! The monthly sky section is a nice way to introduce year round stargazing, and I liked the section on Choosing a Telescope, because this is an area where most people make their biggest, astro mistake...spending too much for inferior products and not appreciating the type of views an ordinary telescope will render. (The personal telescope is not the Hubble! :D Avoid the department store telescope! )
My favorite section was "Exploring the Moon" The graphics is this little section are very helpful to the beginning astronomer, who most likely will target the moon frequently during sky-view skill building. The large moon graphic labels the main craters that can be seen. The book does a fairly good job on describing measurements for astronomy: distances, magnitudes, angles, sky relationships, etc.
For A Fantastic Tour of the Night Sky.  2006-09-17
This manual full of charts and maps of the different regions of the night sky is perhaps a bit dated with so many discoveries now in the outer rim of our universe. It is perfect for a beginning star gazer out in the yard away from lights. Justin and I could never find Halley's Comet because of the street lights in the small town. To look at the sky, it is best to be out on a hill top away from all light.
At the Rochester, New York, Strasenburgh Planetarium, there is a 1968 star projector, a double-headed star ball, one end for the Southern Hemisphere, and the other for the Northern Hemisphere. The ball is full of pinholes patterned after the positions of stars in the night sky with a mercury vapor light from incise the fall to create an accurate map of the stars in total darkness on the rounded ceiling of the dome. It is computer-controlled.
Here, we have the Akima Planetarium which is even older, but fully functional; it has only one star ball which can be changed according to the season showing the different night sky. Mr. Ferguson explains where the known stars are located and gives a history of why and how the constellations got their names all the way back to antiquity. He gives a good show for the children as well as the adults. He always starts with the North Star and goes all the way around the dome with his interesting banter. During the Fair, for ten days, he presented six shows a day in the Discovery Center located adjacent to the Fairgrounds.
If I were to suggest that you 'don't count your chickens before they're hatched' you might take it the wrong way. However, while it's worth reminding you not to go counting your chickens, it's not needed because they're not going to hatch. Those little chicks could well hatch exactly as you want them to. But there is another even better possibility. They may yet hatch in a way you hadn't even thought it that's preferable to the way you had expected. It's a week when anything could happen so allow a little room for the Universe to be creative.
Some years ago, it was my pleasure to visit the Adler Planetarium in Chicago with my astronomer son, Geoffrey. As I recall, the oral program was all pre-recorded and on a much larger range than the Strasenburgh and Akima which are smaller. There's nothing as fascinating as learning (in a fun way) about the planets (poor lost Pluto!), stars and shooting stars in our own universe.
A Great Beginner/Intermediate Reference 2002-09-29
The biggest plus for this book is the depictions of objects as you can expect to see them in a small (2.4"-3") scope. Try drawing the object once you've located it, then bring the drawing indoors and compare it to what's in the book! Lot's of fun! In this respect it's alot like "Turn Left at Orion". It's got great star charts and accompanying highlights (Messier objects, double stars, etc.) to look for.
After 15 years, it's due for an update.
It needs an index!
If you are new to astronomy, this book will get you hooked. 2001-07-22
"Discover the Stars" is written for people with an interest in astronomy but little or no practical experience, yet even the experienced can benefit from this great book. As an example of the latter, I have been practicing amateur astronomy for 5 years, and own 3 telescopes, 2 pairs of binoculars optimized for astronomy, and just a huge pile of astronomy books, star charts and software of various stripes. Despite all this stuff and my several years of experience, I returned to "Discover the Stars" just last night to enhance my stargazing experience.The best tool for amateur astronomy is one or more working eyeballs--just looking at the sky, memorizing the constellations, and watching them come and go with the seasons. This approach is highly undervalued in conventional astronomy books. Binoculars are a great enhancement to the naked eye for looking at the night sky (e.g., nearly the entire Messier catalogue can be seen with 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars), but nearly all books on deep-sky astronomy describe many, many objects that could never be seen with normal binoculars. Most amateur astronomers end up with 3-4" refractors or 6-8" Newtonians, but to many authors these are "small" telescopes. I have four astronomy books that recommend looking for an object called "Stephen's Quintet," but this simply cannot be seen with anything less than a 12-13" scope. What is a dabbler to do? Read "Discover the Stars" and find out. The very first chapter tells you to just go out and look at the sky--there is no better advice. A sky map is provided for every month, along with vivid, affectionate descriptions of everything there is to see with your eyes. After a very brief description of equipment (Chapter 2), Richard Berry takes you on an intimate tour of the night sky. The tour is in the form of 23 detailed sky charts. These cover each of the constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere and discuss many of the objects visible within them. It is noteworthy that this list contains a number of references to objects outside of the Messier catalogue (mostly Caldwell objects, as it happens). He doesn't waste your time trying to find "deep sky gems" where normal people will find none. For example, he describes Fornax as "a miserable little constellation with hardly anything to recommend it." My own experience with telescopes up to 8" in diameter pretty well bear this out. On the other hand, when he suggests you take a look, you really will be able to find it. I have found most of the objects mentioned in the star charts using binoculars or a 3.5" Mak telescope, and every object using an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain or Newtownian. Don't look to this book to provide detailed descriptions of the objects in the sky charts: there are many, many, many books that do this already, including in particular my favorite tome for more advanced users, "Star-Hopping" by Robert Garfinkle. Don't go to this book looking for detailed advice about telescopes or binoculars: "Star Ware" and "Touring the Universe through Binoculars" by Philip Harrington cover these subjects, as does the uncanny Scopereviews.com and links therein. Richard Berry's other popular book "Build Your Own Telescope" (very, very highly recommended) even tells you how to build the telescope of your dreams. Don't use this book if you need detailed sky maps, or RA/Dec positions for deep sky objects: "Sky Atlas 2000.0" (Tirion and Sinnott), "Uranometria 2000.0 (Tirion, Rappaport and Lovi) are much better sources. Instead, look to this book to provide the foundation for a pleasant evening spent under the stars. In the end, the proof of a reference is its application: I give "Discover the Stars" to friends who express an interest in astronomy, and they get hooked.
A wonderful single source for the beginning astronomer 1999-08-08
If you have ever looked up at night and wondered about the stars, this is the book to buy. It not only gives you an overview of the night sky, but also a detailed delving into the stars, galaxies, and nebulae that make up the fascinating and ancient sky. Berry is an adept teacher, and fills the book with not only the nuts-and-bolts, but the history and humanity of the agless sky. The pronunciation guide alone is worth the purchase price. He also includes sections on chosing a telescope, the moon, and the planets. Looking into the sky and recognizing what you see is no less liberating than learning to read. This is the perfect reference book for that task.
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