Burnham's Celestial Handbook Vols. 1 - 3

[gooseholla]

I have had the pleasure of owning Burnham's Celestial Handbook in Three Volumes for a couple of weeks now. They are quite old, coming out last in the 70s, but they can still be purchased new or on kindle. I however picked them up relatively cheap second hand - about £4 per volume.

The books cover all the constellations and detail all kinds of information regarding the stars and famous objects in the constellations. I really like how he provides information from multiple sources on certain objects, so for Triangulum galaxy M33 there are small snippets from Messier, Bode, Herschel Sr + Jr, Smyth, Webb and Burnham himself.

Volume One starts with about 100 pages of science and how to use the book. There is a lot of technical details throughout the book. It is not just an amateur astronomy book describing how to find objects in a telescope and what they look like: while it is good at that for certain objects, there is a lot of professional astronomer talk describing the objects from photographic plates.

Some of the information is out of date - it uses Epoch 1950. However, the wealth of information vastly makes up for this. The three volumes total 2140 pages! Particularly good if you like the mythology of the constellations. Fascinated by the section on Orion, Perseus and Pegasus. Not all constellations are treated to this information but where it is it is a wonderful read. Also some of the constellations have a small paragraph about other versions of the constellation. For example, did you know Pegasus has been seen as the Archangel Gabriel and Horse of Nimrod historically? It also deals with the meaning of certain stars with Arabic names. e.g Aldebaran "from the Arabic Al Dabaran, meaning 'the follower'." It then explains it is called this because it follows the Pleiades across the sky. Fascinating stuff. Polaris is treated to 12 and a half pages of history!

While on the subject of stars, the major ones in each constellation are dealt with extensively, listing position, magnitude and spectrum.

If you like double stars and multiple stars each constellation starts with a table of them. These are followed by a table of star clusters, nebulae and galaxies in the constellation with a sentence of info on each There are finder charts for certain objects but not the well known objects, only interesting hard to find objects. These will probably be out of date by now with the object moving slightly. The lack of charts is on purpose - it was meant to be used in conjunction with Norton's Star Atlas or Skalnate-Pleso Atlas. The back of each volume gives a link to each constellation and which chart/page of these presumably now out of date atlas's to view.
 

There a lot of pictures, mostly taken with the Palomar 200 inch reflector. All black and white, although I like this. It adds to the sense of the remoteness and distance of space and these objects. While they are not up to the standard of modern professional or even amateur CCD images, they are still awe inspiring and give a glimpse into a time when a large professional observatory setup was needed to photograph the heavens.

As a resource book it is a good addition to any astronomy library. They are unlike any of the modern day astronomy books that I own. There is a lot of useful information that is interesting in its own right, regardless of how out of date co-ordinates or theories/explanations are. If you are hoping to be able to use a book in the field with fancy finder charts and precise co-ordinates, then these are not the books for you.

The fact that they can be picked up cheaply second hand is a welcome bonus and I know that I will get many hours enjoyment out of reading them, if only for the historical information contained in them. If you want to know what I will be doing when it is cloudy, you'll find me reclined in my armchair warming my feet reading Burnham's Celestial Handbook!

John

[jambouk]

Yes, there are lovely, and i got mine for a similar price (maybe a bit more, so you got a real bargain), and they are great to just flick through when having a cuppa. I love the font and style, as though he just typed them up himself!

I ventured into the library of the Society for the History of Astronomy at the weekend in Birmingham, and while the library isn't massive, I was getting all twitchy as there were so many books I wanted to flick through... I did spot the trio of Burnham's there too, as well as lots of other lovelies much older and some more recent.

James

[gooseholla]

I agree about typing - it does look like typewritten pages photocopied. I thought I wouldn't like this style when I first received them but I have forgotten all about it and they are so easy to read. My only complaint would be the black box bordering every bit of text on every page! But a small niggle.

My finger keeps twitching over the buy button on Rev. Webb's book now!

[jambouk]

The two edition, 20th century versions of Webb's book, or an original 19th century edition? Do it

[gooseholla]

It would be rude not to try both

[jambouk]

It looks like the 1859 edition has been digitised:

https://archive.org/details/celestialobject02webbgoog

But if you find a cheap copy give me a shout

[jambouk]

Worth reading the wikipedia page on Burnham; quite sad really, but he left an amazing legacy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burnham,_Jr.

James

[laudropb]

My favourite books for browsing.

[Paz]

Burnham's Celestial Handbooks are my favorite astronomy books by far. So much so that I got a copy of the 1950 epoch Norton Star Atlas that Burnham recommended in the guide to go with it as a collection (and to see what star maps were like back then - I can it is very interesting to read but maps these days are much better!!!).

More recently I have tracked down and bought a copy of the other (much harder to find) star map Burnham recommended - the Skalnate Pleso Atlas of the Heavens by Antonin Becvar which I found a copy of on sale online from North America. I'm hoping it will arrive in one piece!

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

I have these books,and they really are Burnham's magnum Opus.

Haven't read his wiki page yet,but 'Star Splitters' has a link to a lengthy biographical article about him that appeared in a newspaper in the States.

 He was undoubtably an extremely gifted amateur,but not a very practicable man,when it came to the ways of the world outside of the narrow confines of Astronomy.

 I kind of got the impression that he was probably somewhere on the Aspergers syndrome spectrum,as it would be recognised today.

[pyrasanth]

I bought my set in the early 80's- a three edition set. I still have them in my bookcase & find them immensely useful. The great thing about the stars is nothing much happens in the latest manual that is not in the old editions!