Books

[Starlight 1]

The Stargazer's handbook by Giles Sparrow

When looking at this book on observing planets on each one he put what you can see with Binoculrs, Small telescopes, so on,

As this the only book I have can anyone tell me more good books to read.

[MorningMajor]

The Board's favourite tends to be Turn Left At Orion - great starter book - about to be updated shortly however.

Here's the link for the newer unreleased version

[jasdav]

I've been reading lots recently having got back into astronomy after a 30 year gap.

I completely agree with "Turn left at Orion" - I've found it a great book to have with you at the telescope.

My other favourite is "The backyard astronomers guide" which I picked up on Amazon recently. It has lots of useful background info and seems a very practical book.

Jason

[david o]

For getting started, other than Turn Left at Orion, I found the following useful and can thoroughly recommended them :

The Backyard Astronomer's Guide (full of great advice), a Planisphere (very useful for learning the skies & seeing what will be visible at a given time) and the more advanced Astronomy Hacks (lots of tips 'n' tricks).

Also you can't go far wrong with Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas.

If you live in an area with light pollution then The Urban Astronomer's Guide.

For moon-watching try the Moon Observer's Guide.

HTH

[JamesM]

All the above books mentioned so far are excellent choices and have proved popular since they first arrived. As a further suggestion, can I recommend Ian Ridpath's book "Astronomy" which is a real little gem that is great to take away and read on a long train journey or camping holiday etc. The maps aren't good enough to find objects from but are sufficiently detail to advise you what is up there and what to expect for any given constellation. It was my first every astronomy book which to this day I still refer to and is easy to carry in your coat pocket.

James

[Starlight 1]

Thanks alot that will keep me going for the rest of this year.