Sky at Night Magazine - Which Free Book to Choose?

[deebster 10]

Going to get a subscription to the Sky at Night magazine and as I also want a star atlas of some sort can't see anything better than £20 for 6 issues, plus a choice of either

Collins Night Sky & Starfinder

or

The Cambridge Star Atlas

I'm leaning towards the Cambridge but would like to hear your opinions please.

[Matt2011 40]

I would personally go for the Cambridge Star Atlas and have this myself and its awesome and just what you will need for exploring the sky but the other items are good also and the S&N mag is a good magazine and also Astronomy Now. Cheers Matt:)

[Patbloke 370]

I have PM'd ya Deebster...

[Slangers 11]

I like the Cambridge.

[glowjet 1,179]

If it is the latest edition of the Cambridge Star Atlas (Jan 2011) then this would be worth having, as it is receiving good reviews

[deebster 10]

3-0 so far to Cambridge, with Sky & Telescope Atlas making a try at playing the winner

[scottydog 15]

If it is the latest edition of the Cambridge Star Atlas (Jan 2011) then this would be worth having, as it is receiving good reviews

glowjet. It is the 'fourth edition' - would that be the latest?

[scottydog 15]

3-0 so far to Cambridge, with Sky & Telescope Atlas making a try at playing the winner

deebster, you saved me asking this as I didn't know which one to go for

Also the Cambridge Star Atlas is worth £9 more

[deebster 10]

Yeah, going from price alone Cambridge was the winner, but then price isn't always in line with quality. Strangely there were few reviews of the Collins book, but enough good ones about the Cambridge on Amazon to give it the edge there.

I have Collins' Stars & Planets book out from the library at the moment, but I'm not too keen on some of the charts.

So I think that makes it 3-0 to Cambridge again.

Perhaps there'll be some late challenges and a red card or two to even up the score?

<takes poor footie analogy home>

[Patbloke 370]

Alternatively get a subscription for £27 and buy whichever book ya like... pm me for details :-) or search the internet...

[deebster 10]

Got the link, thanks Pat. Works out fairly similar though overall

27 sub + 8 for S&TA = 35 for a year, or

20 sub for 6 months

The silly thing is I'm not sure how much I want a year's subscription. Don't really read magazines, so was interested in the 6 month sub for the books mainly.

Is the mag usually a good read?

[Patbloke 370]

Don't know really about Sky at Night.. went to Morrisons last night and thought I would chuck a copy in my trolley until I saw the price £4.50 eek!!! not sure the CD stuff is worth having either...

Astronomy now is brill, I bought some back issues from Astro fest in London... just getting into them now...

Let me know what you think if you buy one?

Cheers

[scottydog 15]

Personally if I had to choose between 'S@N' and 'A Now' I'd probably go for 'S@N'. The CD does have its good points I find 'A Now' tends to be a bit 'above my head' sometimes in the 'news' section A Now does have a 'classified' section whereas 'S@N' doesn't...

HTH

[M4lcs67 343]

Glad I have seen this post as I am going to subscribe in the next few weeks and I was also going to ask the same question. I have bought S&N for a while now and I like the content. If both books are good then I will get the more expensive book as the freebie and buy the other off Amazon.

Edited October 29, 2011 by M4lcs67

[deebster 10]

Yeah, I could always try buying one I guess. Much more fun asking though

The classified was always a bit of hi-fi magazines that I liked. It's good seeing what stuff passes around on the 2nd hand market (heh, and this being my 50th post on the last day of my first month in this forum is but a coincidence).

What other kinds of stuff goes on the S@N CDs? I read last month's program does but that's always available on t'internet anyway

[scottydog 15]

Yeah, I could always try buying one I guess. Much more fun asking though

The classified was always a bit of hi-fi magazines that I liked. It's good seeing what stuff passes around on the 2nd hand market (heh, and this being my 50th post on the last day of my first month in this forum is but a coincidence).

What other kinds of stuff goes on the S@N CDs? I read last month's program does but that's always available on t'internet anyway

Astro images in the Hotshots gallery

Printable observing & sketching forms

Most recent 'Sky at Night' TV programme

And various other things