Favorite childhood astronomy book?

[reddoss]

If you were hooked by astronomy at a young age, which was your favorite astronomy or space book that inspired you and why?

Mine was The Observers book of Astronomy by Sir Patrick Moore. I ordered a 1971 edition on e-bay and it arrived today. It was a little emotional to be re-united with a childhood friend, especially when I turned to the page with the illustrations of the coloured double stars. I just used to love that page as  and 11 year old boy, and still do now!

[ChrisLX200]

Maybe the Larousse Encyclopedia of Astronomy. There was just so much in it and nice pictures. I still have it.

ChrisH

[glynnlondon]

I had this one always out on loan from the library back in the 80s.    

It was great 

[Steve Ward]

"William and the Moon Rocket" ..... 

[jabeoo1]

A pop up book which I don't know the name of (and can't track anything on the web about it).  It would have been around 1985 and it started with 'the big bang'.  I had never heard of the big bang before seeing that book and have thought about the universe from then on.

[Ptarmigan]

Do you want a clue ?

From my childhood reading I later named my Elite(BeebB) character "Cmdr Cavor"

Can you guess what it was ?

Later, non-fiction, it was "New Handbook of the Heavens, bernhard bennet rice" circa 1953.

ohhh, the nostalgia,

this one was also quite influential "Through Magic Glasses" Arabella Buckley 1890

No I didnt buy it new ! It was on my Grandma's bookshelf and is now in my attic

[scarp15]

The Observer's Book of Astronomy - Patrick Moore

A Concise Guide in Colour Constellations - Josef Klepesta & Antoni Ruki

Still got em.

[Steve Ward]

" ohhh, the nostalgia,

this one was also quite influential "Through Magic Glasses" Arabella Buckley 1890

No I didnt buy it new ! It was on my Grandma's bookshelf and is now in my attic  "

Thanks for the memory jog , just found that available to read on-line .... 

https://archive.org/details/throughmagicgla01buckgoog

along with her earlier work  " The Fairyland of Science "

https://archive.org/details/fairylandofscien00buckiala

[Ptarmigan]

Sorry about the extra post, I ran out of edit time ! :-

this one was also quite influential "Through Magic Glasses" Arabella Buckley 1890

Oh look, on account of it being out of copyright you too can read it

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37589/37589-h/37589-h.htm

[Steve Ward]

You gotta be quicker than that sir ... 

[Ptarmigan]

Thanks for " The Fairyland of Science "

Well done that man,

yer, that's what comes of pausing to read and then saving and resizing the pic to keep it reasonable for the forum lol!

I like Guttenberg

[Ptarmigan]

You gotta be quicker than that sir ... 

Hehee,

go on then sir, where did I get Cavor from ?

[Macavity]

"Our Sun and the Worlds Around it". (pub 1957) - My first ever Astronomy Book.

http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Around-Golden-Picture-Learn/dp/B000N3FTMS

Mars: Through the telescopes, we see the dark greenish patches appear along the edges of the cap. These are perhaps areas covered by green moses -- the only life believed to exist on the planet... As autumn comes, the greenish areas turn brown. 

Ah, the innocence of youthful hopes / dreams!

[szymon]

I don't remember what mine was called.  I was 8 years old, it was a thin hardback A4 sized book with a light blue cover and with Orion on it.  Does anyone remember it?

[Ouroboros]

I was 10 when I got it for Christmas from my sister. 1964. I was star mad. I've still got it. And looking through it now I still think it was pretty good. I devoured that book. I think much of what I know about astronomy now comes from reading it.

[Steve Ward]

Hehee,

go on then sir, where did I get Cavor from ?

H.G.Wells obviously ... 

[Paul M]

Star and Planet Spotting, Peter Lancaster Brown, was the first I owned. The cover had a picture of the Pleiades on it I seem to remember. Can't find an image of it.

Closely followed by. Constellations (Hamlyn)

They were thread bare by the time I'd done with them

[DaveS]

I think it was a "Hamlyn all-colour guide", long since fallen apart from use. I'm not sure if I still have it. I also had an Observer's book which *should* still be around if I can find it under all this clutter.

[ChrisLX200]

I was a little older than 'childhood' but my next favourite was Field Guide to Stars and Planets - mainly because it was a photographic atlas of the night sky rather than the usual dots and lines on white paper (which I always had trouble relating to when trying to find stuff, the real sky just didn't look like that).

ChrisH

[bejay1957]

H.G.Wells obviously ... 

I thought that's where Mercury came from?

[DaveS]

+1 for "The Field Guide etc" by Donald Menzel. Still got mine, and I agree the photographic starcharts are great.

[Paul M]

The Observer's Book of Astronomy - Patrick Moore

A Concise Guide in Colour Constellations - Josef Klepesta & Antoni Ruki

Still got em.

Ah yes, that's the same one I posted the image of above.

It's from the same stables as "Moon,Mars and Venus" also by Antonin Rukl. That's one of the very few books I've retained from my once extensive library.

What was I thinking about? Giving all those books away

[DaveS]

One from. not childhood, but early, "The Amateur Astronomer's Handbook" by J B Sidgwick. I used to borrow it regularly from the library then they had a sale and I bought it for all of 50p

I was using it only last night to refresh my memory re: drift aligning.

[bish]

A really old encyclopedia. As a kid I would just look through the astronomy pictures.

[Dave Lloyd]

Anyone remember this one?

I found it in our school library in the mid 60s and read the print off it until I managed to get a copy of my own.

It had quite a bit of fairly (for a 12 year old) advanced astrophysics.