Show us your astronomy library

[Nicola Fletcher]

I love photos of people’s bookshelves- thanks for starting this thread!

Although I recently moved house and not all of my Astro books have bookshelf space yet, these are my favourites and the ones I read a lot. The black folder contains the paperwork that came with my Astro gear and the certificates from my Takahashis which are treasures in themselves.

Apart from TLAO and the S&T Pocket Atlas, the ones I would grab if the house went on fire are Telescopic Work for Starlight Evenings, Starlight Nights (probably my favourite book on any subject) and Leslie Peltier’s Guide to the Stars. The latter is a complete joy to read with beautiful illustrations by the author. 

[DirkSteele]

Just realised a very substantial item from my Astro library was not in the original pic (for obvious reasons, it’s rather large). The laminated field edition of Sky Atlas 2000.

 

Have added a few more books to the shelves since starting the thread but will wait till I add some more before postings a pic of the bookcase again.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by DirkSteele
Typo. It’s always typos! Silly autocorrect.

[wookie1965]

Not as extensive as other peoples

[Xilman]

There's a challenge. I'm off to the observatory now that it is getting dark so will post a picture from there of some of the library. As a taster, here's the books behind me. Sorry for the poor quality.  The blue booklets on the right are copies of The Observatory from the RAS; the issues of A&G are elsewhere. The spineless book is a first (1910) edition of Norton's Star Atlas. I wish it were in better condition.

 

The vast majority of my library is in the UK and so inaccessible from here in La Palma. It includes works going back to the early 19th century by the likes of John Herschel, as well as more modern books and atlases. I have an almost complete set of BAA Handbooks, several feet of JBAA, several more feet of sundry scientific journals and ${DEITY} knows what else.

Incidentally, the duplicates of BAAH are free to a good home. You collect or pay shipping. Contact me some time after Easter for a list of what is available.

 

[Xilman]

Well, observing was a waste of time. When Orion is barely visible to the naked eye because of thin high-level cloud ...

At bottom are binders of sundry VS and supernova search charts, an Interstellarum Deep Sky atlas and a boxed SAO star atlas. Two binders of VS charts not present because I had hopes of observing a few VS tonight.

First shelf contains the SAO catalogue and the Hipparcos/Tycho catalogue, vols 14-16 of which are the Millennium Star Atlas. Vol 2 of Uranometria is the pink one. Vol 1 is in Cambridge.

Second shelf a few random reference works and Sky Atlas 2000. Norton's 2000 generally lives there too but it was next to the TCS monitor this evening in the hope it might be useful.

On top are carry-cases for Starlight Xpress equipment and random documentation for telescope, dome, computers, network, etc.

 

[Peter Drew]

We have several hundred books including all the usual favourites, sadly it's rare these days that anyone takes one from the shelves.      ☹️

[glafnazur]

46 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

We have several hundred books including all the usual favourites, sadly it's rare these days that anyone takes one from the shelves.      ☹️

I'm a member of the Derby and District Astronomical Society and we have a small library of donated books which are available for members. No one has taken one out for years now 😔 We are thinking of selling them off at our 50th anniversary events this year.

[Peter Drew]

We could well  do the same, apart from a couple of good star and lunar atlases the rest are taking up valuable space.  We also have a lot of telescopes in the same situation.    🙂 

[glafnazur]

11 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

We could well  do the same, apart from a couple of good star and lunar atlases the rest are taking up valuable space.  We also have a lot of telescopes in the same situation.    🙂 

yes, we've a few telescopes at the observatory that never get used. We made them available to members but take up wasn't good. 

[glafnazur]

I know there's a few more knocking about the house but here's the majority of mine.

[Xilman]

Have you read The Road to Reality yet?  Damned fine book, IMO, but can be heavy going after a little while.

If you like that one, you will probably enjoy Gravitation by Misner, Thorne & Wheeler - almost universally known as MTW. Nice pictures and helpfully split into an introductory and an advanced track, the latter of which can be safely skipped.

[glafnazur]

I

1 hour ago, Xilman said:

Have you read The Road to Reality yet?  Damned fine book, IMO, but can be heavy going after a little while.

If you like that one, you will probably enjoy Gravitation by Misner, Thorne & Wheeler - almost universally known as MTW. Nice pictures and helpfully split into an introductory and an advanced track, the latter of which can be safely skipped.

I must admit I haven't read it yet, I'm way behind with my reading list. 

[Paul M]

3 hours ago, glafnazur said:

I know there's a few more knocking about the house but here's the majority of mine.

You have a few books that used to own, I have very few books now, mostly "pretty picture" types that passing children might embrace.

Of note, though, Chaos by James Gleick. I've mentioned it here a few times. It's one of those books that opened up a whole new way of thinking to my educationally challenged brain. It's quite an old book now I think. It shares a place on my mind's bookshelf alongside Asimov's Guide to Science, "Children of The Universe"; Hoimar von Ditfurth and, another one from your own shelf, Catalogue Of the Universe, David Malin's images being the best images I'd seen to date.

Chaos introduced me to the algorithm for the Mandelbrot Set, from which I formulated a program in BBC Basic which worked like magic. On deeper "zooms" it took days to render a 16 colour BBC Model B screen. Fond memories of both my brain cells talking to each other...🤪

[mikeDnight]

On 20/07/2023 at 09:20, Nicola Fletcher said:

I love photos of people’s bookshelves- thanks for starting this thread!

Although I recently moved house and not all of my Astro books have bookshelf space yet, these are my favourites and the ones I read a lot. The black folder contains the paperwork that came with my Astro gear and the certificates from my Takahashis which are treasures in themselves.

Apart from TLAO and the S&T Pocket Atlas, the ones I would grab if the house went on fire are Telescopic Work for Starlight Evenings, Starlight Nights (probably my favourite book on any subject) and Leslie Peltier’s Guide to the Stars. The latter is a complete joy to read with beautiful illustrations by the author. 

I completely agree about Denning's book. It's probably my favourite too, and despite scientific understanding moving on, every word he writes regarding telescopes and observing is still holds firm. It's almost inspired!

[Saganite]

On 03/02/2024 at 20:05, wookie1965 said:

Not as extensive as other peoples

But more extensive than mine Paul..

The drawers are full of Astro essentials though..

Edited February 9 by Saganite