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What is the best astronomy book you have bought?

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albedo0.39

albedo0.39

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There are so many, but since you're looking at any aspect of the hobby, then I'm bound to mention:-

Sky and Telescope "Pocket Sky Atlas"

and

Observers book of Astronomy - Patrick Moore, 1975 (when I was a touch younger)

Of course I have more, but these have a certain soft spot.

Cheers

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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It looks a bit tired now but years ago I got given 'The Travellers Guide to the Solar System' it was ful of new info back then and the artwork was beautiful.

Its gone out of date now really but at the time it was fabulous and really drove me years ago to look up.

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John

John

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My favourite book on astronomy was the rather irreverent paperback "The Lighthearted Astronomer" by Ken Fulton. Published in 1984 it's a wry look at the amateur astronomy "scene" back then which still has relevence today I feel.

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Euan

Euan

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Graham Greene's "The Elegant Universe" & " Fabric of the Cosmos"

Brian Greene

xkcd-wrong-on-the-internet.jpg

I agree his books are great

Michio Kaku has some good titles as well, and it's a bit easier to understand than Greene

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Euan

Euan

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The best book I ever bought (I was given it) was a book I had when I was a kid, it started my interest in Astronomy. I was huge encyclopaedia type thing

Next time I'm back at my folks I will dig it out, being from the 80's it will be interesting to see what the content is like, cosmology has moved on considerably

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Mr Spock

Mr Spock

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My best ever was Webb's 'Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes Vol.II', purchased 3rd March 1973. I used to spend hours reading through it when I was younger. It's a bit tatty now, but still usable and full of good info on doubles.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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I'm a moonatic, so my choice is definitely Rukl's Moon Atlas. ;)

I was just about to ask for a recommendation on a moon map/book as I (like you I suspect) am hoping to spend more time tracking down moon features - just started the Lunar 100.

I googled this book and it seems very expensive at £100-300. Is there a decent and cheaper but detailed alternative? I'd prefer a book as I don't take a PC outside with me :)

BTW my favourite books are Turn Left at Orion and also 'Universe' which is a hefty Dorling Kindersley book (general editor Martin Rees.). You can literally open any pages and find a good snippet to read - us blokes will know exactly the situation that this is of benefit in. usually to cries outside the door of 'oh my God, what is taking so long???':D

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pvaz

pvaz

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Mine are:

Turn Left at Orion - put me up on the hobby with great speed, but not of much use now :/

Pocket Sky Atlas - great companion for every session, cheap and great

Moon Map (Sky&Telescope) - Laminated moon map, small and easy to use

Why does e=mc^2 - Just started reading it a couple of days ago, great simple language to better understand our current knowledge of physics and how we got here

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boboco

boboco

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The Night Sky Observers Guide (two volumes) George Kepple & Glenn Sanner. Its certainly not a field guide, but has very good descriptions of about 5000 objects with comments on the appearance in scopes from 2" to 20".. Lots of sketches give you good *realistic* idea of what your hunting for.

Sky and Telescope "Pocket Sky Atlas" perfect for my 8x50 finderscope.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Antonin Rukl was also the author of a pocket book published by Hamlyn, The Moon Mars and Venus some years ago, his Moon Atlas is reproduced over some 76 plates with all detailed information, it is a extremely good for reference at the scope as well as the added info on Mars and Venus, can be had S/hand in the region of £10 or so on Amazon.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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Antonin Rukl was also the author of a pocket book published by Hamlyn, The Moon Mars and Venus some years ago, his Moon Atlas is reproduced over some 76 plates with all detailed information, it is a extremely good for reference at the scope as well as the added info on Mars and Venus, can be had S/hand in the region of £10 or so on Amazon.

brilliant - cheers! just ordered one from amazon at £5 delivered. cannot go wrong at this price.

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Bizibilder

Bizibilder

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"The Story of the Heavens" by Sir Robert Ball puplished in 1886. Not long after the discovery of Neptune. They (the professionals that is) had just got to grips with stellar spectroscopy - and make passing comments on spectroscopic binaries, (Algol had just been determined to be an eclipsing binary). There is no star classification, as we know it today, but they were aware of stellar colour and spectral differences.

It is a really great read and shows, quite starkly, just how much we have learned in only a little over 100years.

I have appended a scan of a photo from the book of M31 - don't forget this was the BEST that a professional observatory could do then.

post-17157-13387744366_thumb.jpg

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