Norton's Star Atlas

[Stargazer_00]

Anyone use this book? S@N have a guide for how to use it on their site. I would've thought they realised most people use the Sky and Telescope Sky Altlas.

Is the Norton one any good?

http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/feature/how-guide/how-use-nortons-star-atlas

[Merlin66]

Nortons has been around for over 110 years - and still the best!

The handbook alone will answer 95% of all the Newbie questions.

Highly recommended!!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Norton is one of the greatest. I myself have a slight preference for the Sky Atlas 2000.0

[Stargazer_00]

I use this one. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1931559317/?tag=hydra0b-21&hvadid=9556672869&ref=asc_df_1931559317

Ring binders are a neccesity to me.

[Merlin66]

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.

[Demonperformer]

Another + for the handbook alone.

As regards the star-maps, yes, I use an alternative (CdC), but still consider this volume to have been a really good value buy.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

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

[DaveS]

Norton's was my first real atlas. The only reasons I bought a copy of The Cambridge Star Atlas was because my Norton's was falling apart.

[r3i]

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.

[Stargazer_00]

Sounds like I am missing something, order a copy from Amazon

[David Smith]

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.

[coulthamst]

I have a copy of the twentieth edition (2004) Norton. Unfortunately the binding method is inadequate, and the pages began to drop out quite early on. Does anyone know of any possibility of a new edition - preferably without the falling-out pages!

[ejwwest]

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.

[nytecam]

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.

[Stargazer_00]

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.