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Norton's Star Atlas


Stargazer_00

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I think you're overlooking the benefits of having a reference handbook, and lists of interesting objects/ map included with the very good star atlas.

I use other sources for the handbook part of Norton (starting with an ancient and battered copy of "Astronomy with Binoculars"), but yes, the combination is good.

The advantage of a two part solution is that I can have the star atlas open on the page I want, and consult the handbook simultaneously

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I've got a copy of the 2000 version amongst all the other star atlases that I seemed to have accumulated. The handbook section makes for interesting reading. Have to admit though to not using the book as a star atlas - the S&T Pocket Atlas gets used more often, along with CdC.

Norton is definitely a classic and deserves a place in every amateur astronomers book collection alongside other great works such as Burnham's Celestial Handbook and the Observers Book of Astronomy.

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Norton's 2000 was one of the first books I bought on the subject. To be honest you don't buy an atlas such much as a reference manual. The atlas is good when you start out but you will soon want something more. The reference book though is invaluable and I still refer to it from time to time some 20 odd years later.

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I've had three editions of Norton's since the 1970s. For general use and guidance it's invaluable. I also have Will Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000 for bigger charts and more detail but it's not really useful to take outside and also have his Uranometria 2000 for fainter stars but that definitely isn't for outside use. Of the latter I only bought the N Hemisphere volume (down to -8 degrees) and now seems to be out of print.

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Norton's a great atlas - must have 3 or 4 tucked away somewhere that occasionally come out for stuff absent from modern atlases.

Nowerdays I use e-atlases like Megastar [to match cam fov mag 15], Cartes du Ciel [general sky aspect mag 12] and Sloan DSS on-line to mag 19 to checkout my downloaded images live for SNe etc. :rolleyes:

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I much prefer using my Pocket Sky Atlas to using Stellarium on a tablet. I don't really like using anything that requires power in fact, my one concession being the red light torch. I'm not in any way anti tech, I just seem to enjoy the idea that everything works because of it's physical attributes rather than a supply of electrons. Feels more raw or vicseral or something. Same feeling for me from reading a paper printed star atlas. I also prefer a road map book rather than Sat Nav although that's a bad example really as I can pretty much memorise any car journey with one look at the map, doesn't really do much once in the car.

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