Just got my copy of Nightwatch....

[Samop]

So I got the Nightwatch from eBay. The first two chapters seem to me to be a cross between the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ("Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is..") and Professor Brian Cox (for the non-English people, Brian Cox is a youthful, good looking TV professor who used to play in a pop band called D:Ream and can be somewhat "poetic" about how amazing everything is), but after page 26 the writer's style settles down a bit and it's then a really good start on how to look at the night sky. I'm going to enjoy it and find it really useful and can recommend it to anyone else who's starting up. I just read that the author has just died. Sad.

Now waiting for my copy of Turn Left at Orion.. hopefully, between the two I'll have enough to start me off.

[NGC 1502]

On 02/03/2023 at 10:09, Samop said:

 

Now waiting for my copy of Turn Left at Orion.. hopefully, between the two I'll have enough to start me off.

Not heard of that first book….sounds good, enjoy.

”Turn Left” as it’s often abbreviated to is just brilliant. Expanded over the many years of production and deserving of a place on any astronomer’s bookshelf.

Please don’t think of Turn Left as only for beginners, even years down the line it remains useful.

[ED Splitter]

Turn left is fantastic. It is great as an introduction but then continues to give long after. 
I would also recommend interstellarum though that might overwhelm if you are just starting out. That said turn left doesn’t always convey scale accurately, it took me a long while to realise the enormous size of some of the targets.