Editorial Review:
The ultimate guide for stargazing, anywhere in the world The scope of The New Atlas of the Stars is remarkably comprehensive. Astronomy buffs and skywatchers will find this abundantly illustrated reference book useful anywhere in the world. Star charts depict the night sky, and this atlas is arranged so that one section of the sky is shown and described on each double-page spread. The two polar regions have their own individual pages. There are 30 charts covering the whole sky, and each chart has a plastic overlay depicting the names of the important stars. The first section of the book is a general overview of astronomy and includes: - Stars and constellations
- Historical star charts
- The motion of the heavens
- Star trails
- The Milky Way
The other three sections feature galaxies and constellations found in the Northern Hemisphere, Equatorial Region and Southern Hemisphere. The final section covers the basics of astrophotography and digital imaging as well as practical and useful viewing tips. The New Atlas of the Stars is the ultimate reference for the astronomer.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
useless, not worth $1  2008-07-12
The 'maps' are large (slightly fuzzy) color pictures of sky with plastic overlays showing constellations and a few objects of interest, but... only a few. Large pages feature five thumbnail sized pictures of deep sky objects per sector, with unhelpful blurbs like 'requires a 400mm telescope to see.' Not even minimal information like coordinates and magnitudes.
Not useful with a large scope (no coordinates or fine detail to find even the few objects mentioned), not useful for small scopes (most of the objects mentioned are too faint), and not useful without a scope with such tiny pictures.
Good Atlas  2007-01-12
This atlas is what you would expect from a star atlas. It lays out everything nicley and has some outstanding pictures to go along with it.
Excellent effort, good for coffee table ref but not for the field 2005-09-18
It is hard to please every one with a single star atlas, and indeed a variety of useful versions are out there in the market (e.g Uranometria, Star Atlas 2000, Norton's, Starry Night, Sky
Tools etc.). This release is unique in several ways. The atlas consists mainly of actual widefield photographic images of the heavens, with a transparent overlay denoting objects of interest and constellations lines. This approach is similar to Serge Brunier/Akira Fuji's The Great Atlas of the Stars.
Things I like about this book? 1. objects include several more interesting NGC objects instead of the typical Messier tour. 2. Atlas covers the southern skies, a treatment rarely seen in Northern Hemisphere publications and very valuable 3. Sectors of the maps are logical and not overly crowded. 4. The maps will give you a unique persepective of the night skies that are hard to get with any other atlas. 5. Photos are realistic and do not suffer from perspective distortion common in wide field photos. 6. Quality of the book is very good. Firefly, the publisher, has done a great job.
What do I not like? 1. Photos are good but in my opinion defintely not as good as Akira's (although I thought Akira's was a tad underexposed for that particular class of visual atlas). The Milky Way region in particular appears to be a little too overexposed to be aesthetically pleasing or useful. A little creative photoshopping might be the ticket. The author should have opted to take photos with at least a 6cmx4.5cm medium format camera instead of a 35mm camera for better image quality. Akira uses a large format camera and the difference in quality and resolution clearly shows. 2. Accompanying 1 page facing text is too cursory to give each map sector the full justice, hence relegating the atlas to more as a nice visual planning supplement or for coffee table enjoyment. An advanced hobbyist would probably prefer tables of notable galaxies, double stars, etc. for each map sector.
All in all, this book is unique and definitely worth having in one's collection. I recommend it.
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