Looking for a book

[thegman2]

Hi all,

This is my first post just to let you know. I have been doing astronomy for about 6 months now and i am looking for a good book. I have several books already such as phillips stargazing 2013, Turn left at orion and sky&telescopes pocket sky atlas(which hasnt been delieverd yet). I have for the most part been using stellarium for my pc and found that it is very comprehensive and easy to use. Most books i have used however seem to show slight differences in the constellations which can be anoying as i would like to know a whole constellation before moving on and learning a new one... Is there a book out there that is easy and comprehenisve that any one could recommend and doesnt have variations like i am having? When i neab variations i mean ursa major and a couple of other constellations are different by one or two stars compared to what i learned from stellarium, such as Ursa Major and Cassiopeia.

The reason i mentioned this is i am starting to travel into darker places for better viewing and i dont like taking my laptop with me as its rather anoying and the battery runs out

[thegman2]

sorry for a couple of spelling mistakes as i wrote this in a rush

[ronin]

I use The Monthly Sky Guide by Ridpath, the problem is that the minor stars of the bigger constellations are a bit questionable. 2 close together and you can be sure one person will pick one and the next person the other one. As much as anything to be different.

Throw in that some of the constellations defined are relatively new, so you have classic Greek, Roman, Arabic and whatever has been defined recently. The southern hemisphere ones were not in existance until sometime around 1500-1600 if they were defined then so all them are new and there are the Chinese and other Asian constellations.

Many stars are simply so insignificant they are unnamed and very likely uncatalogued.

I doubt that there is a definitive cast in stone definition of the components of every constellation. Most will be 90-95% the same, and the major stars will all be the same, but the minor ones will/may alter between references.

[skywatcher58gb]

Hi I still like the Nortons Star Atlas although other people have their own preferences. I used the fifteenth edition from the late 60's onward and now have the twentieth edition. I also have the SkyAtlas 2000 which has great detail but is too big to lug around dark sites. Other people like Uranometria which is OK as a reference bbok. But an old set of 3 books which has more detail than any other I know giving a wealth of information on all constellations are the Burnhams Celestial Handbooks,

Dave

[thegman2]

thanks for the reply's, I will check out some of the books you said. I am using western constellations groups but im rather surprised at the differences as i thought there was a set group of constellations that were the same in every book, when i mean the western charts and not greek or chinese. Its rather anoything to be honest as i i feel that im missing out.

I did actually use stellarium earlier by doing a print screen, pasting it into paint and then turning the image negative to get all the constellations in black and white which helps for charts. I might just do that from now on. Thanks for your help

[Ohmless]

I use a program called planetarium on my palm pilot when outside. My reference for indoor use only(because I treasure the book dearly) is the Cambridge Double Star Atlas. Very well illustrated charts that contain not only double stars, but also many NGCs and such in it.

does stellarium print out with white background? if not, your printer might prefer you play with Cartes du Ceil