Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders: From Novice to Master Observer (DIY Science) | 
| Authors: Robert Thompson, Barbara Fritchman Thompson
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $17.31
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New (31) Used (6) from $12.82
Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 68881
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 519
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 8 x 1.4
ISBN: 0596526857
Dewey Decimal Number: 520
EAN: 9780596526856
ASIN: 0596526857
Publication Date: October 31, 2007
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: I20080807022211S
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Product Description
With the advent of inexpensive, high-power telescopes priced at under $250, amateur astronomy is now within the reach of anyone, and this is the ideal book to get you started. The Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders offers you a guide to the equipment you need, and shows you how and where to find hundreds of spectacular objects in the deep sky -- double and multiple stars as well as spectacular star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies.
You get a solid grounding in the fundamental concepts and terminology of astronomy, and specific advice about choosing, buying, using, and maintaining the equipment required for observing. The Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders is designed to be used in the field under the special red-colored lighting used by astronomers, and includes recommended observing targets for beginners and intermediate observers alike. You get detailed start charts and specific information about the best celestial objects.
The objects in this book were chosen to help you meet the requirements for several lists of objects compiled by The Astronomical League (http://www.astroleague.org) or the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (http://www.rasc.ca): Messier Club. - Binocular Messier Club
- Urban Observing Club
- Deep Sky Binocular Club
- Double Star Club
- RASC Finest NGC List
Completing the list for a particular observing club entitles anyone who is a member of the Astronomical League or RASC to an award, which includes a certificate and, in some cases, a lapel pin.
This book is perfect for amateur astronomers, students, teachers, or anyone who is ready to dive into this rewarding hobby. Who knows? You might even find a new object, like amateur astronomer Jay McNeil. On a clear cold night in January 2004, he spotted a previously undiscovered celestial object near Orion, now called McNeil's Nebula. Discover what awaits you in the night sky with the Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders May 29, 2008
As a newbie to the wonder of star gazing, I personally found this book a must-have because of its timeliness at my current level of experience. While I own a Go-To telescope (SCT), most of the time I have found that I enjoy star-hopping instead. The Thompson's Guide has helped me, in short-order, to find DSOs that I was having trouble finding. The approach of occasionally using geometric relationships has helped, on many nights, to increase the number of objects I've been able to find. This book has served me as more than just a key guide in simplifying star-hopping techniques; the black/white images and the related commentaries are also of immense benefit. Finally, quite a bit of historical information is also provided in a brief, yet beneficial form. I'm ready for their next volume, which I hope contains an additional 450 DSO objects for me to pursue!
Excellent Book For Amateur Astronomers!! February 19, 2008
'Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders: From Novice to Master Observer' is an absolute must buy for any and all amateur or even experienced astronomers. Filled with 500+ pages of content spread over 50 chapters, this book will enable you to start really using your telescope and finding all the wonders that the stars have to show to anyone that wants to open their eyes!! Jam packed full of star charts will locations, names, and related phenomena information in the area of where you will be looking, this is a hobbyists 'candy' book, just waiting to be unraveled and enjoyed!
My only complaint with this book is that I wish the images were printed in color. I realize that most of the pictures with a space background will be really black, but I feel that some color would really help make the content jump off the pages even more.
Not only does the book tell you about phenomena to look at in the sky, there also is information on the type of equipment that can be used to gaze up up up as well as general astronomical information. If you are a star gazed, pick this book up!
***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Road map to deep space February 13, 2008
A book to take you on a remarkable journey.Written by practicing observers with affordable equipment, it lends a sense of wonder to star gazing and meets the needs of experinced and inexperienced amateur astronomers.
I cannot recommend this too highly.
A Highly Recommended Book February 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's always a pleasure to come across something really done well.
The team of Robert and Barbara Thompson, who produced the excellent "Astronomy Hacks" in 2005, have come up with a superlative book for beginning to intermediate deep sky observers entitled, "Illustrated
Guide to Astronomical Wonders".
Taking the objects from six well-known observing lists:
= the Messier objects,
= the RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada) Finest NGC objects
= the AL (Astronomical League) Binocular Messier List
= the AL Deep-Sky Binocular List
= the AL Urban Observing List
= the AL Doubles Star List
the authors present 400 outstanding objects, all well within the range of moderate apertures (the largest scope referenced in their book is a 10" reflector). So, while challenging, the number isn't overwhelming and the objects aren't too difficult.
The objects are sorted into fifty constellations available to northern
observers, each given a chapter and presented alphabetically. Each chapter contains:
= A discussion of the constellation
= A full constellation chart showing object locations.
= Tables giving:
- type, size, magnitude, coordinates, etc for each
object
- the originating observing list (Messier, RASC, AL) from
which the object was taken
= Finder charts for each object with uniform 5 degree or 1 degree
circles superimposed, making them adequate for field use
= Individual discussions of each object. Each discussion also
contains a description on how to find the object, as an example,
"...The easiest way we found to locate NGC 7129
was to place mag 4.4 xi on the SE edge of our
finder field and look for mag 5.4 7-Cep which
appears near the NW edge. NGC 7129 lies on a
line between those two stars, about two-thirds
of the way from xi to 7-Cep..."
= Uniform 1 square degree black and white photographs of almost all
of the deep sky objects. These small images better approximate
what a visual observer might actually see at the eyepiece.
= Each object also bears a four level visual rating, ranging from
unimpressive to showpiece and a four level finding difficulty
rating, going from very difficult to easy to find.
To those acquainted with the larger, more expensive two-volume Night Sky Observer's Guide, this chapter format will look familiar,the significant difference being that the NSOG chapters list a selection of variables in each constellation.
Of course the 400 objects of the Thompson book is dwarfed by the 5,541 of the NSOG, but that smaller number in the Illustrated Guide allows it to include more practical finder charts and to better address amateurs equipped with moderate apertures under less than ideal skies. For example, some of the NSOG descriptions only list what you'll see in fairly large scopes, 16 to 18 inches. That's not helpful to many amateur observers.
The first sixty or so pages of the Illustrated Guide contain an intro to DSO observing and a discussion of observing equipment. Both sections are very informative and actually enjoyable because, surprise, they address the concerns of a real practicing amateur observer.
For example, you'll find pointers on how to plan observing sessions but you'll also find things that'll move you off the level of a beginner right away, for example, a description of the Trumpler scale for open clusters and a discussion of perceiving color in blue-green O-III light.
Equipment wise, the Thompsons aren't shy about noting their preferences, for example, their favored planetarium software is Megastar. But they also objectively discuss the pros and cons of telescope types, individual eyepiece lines and the performance of different nebular filters.
The book aims to supply some of the practical wisdom that observers usually have to pick up the hard way - spending time under the night sky and patiently distinguishing the useful from the irrelevant and the hype.
Physically, the Illustrated Guide is an attractive paperback that opens flat and has generous margins on each page for jotting notes.
So general strengths of the book? The Illustrated Guide is a reasonably priced, one-volume guide to deep sky observing written by a knowledgeable observing team that can become a mainstay of any amateur library. Using just this observing guide, a beginning observer could become a relatively advanced amateur in a reasonably short period - yes, I think it's that well designed. For some observers, it might actually make up their entire observing "career".
Urban astronomers may find the black and white images invaluable in helping to identify objects like open clusters that might normally go unrecognized in light polluted skies.
Also, with some qualifications, viewing all the objects in this book will fulfill the requirements for a number of observing certificates, if that's one of your aims.
OK, weaknesses? Well, none really. But something said by the authors in their introduction bears repeating. Amateur astronomy has become almost synonymous with deep sky observing. And that's unfortunate.
Planetary and variable star observing each require different types of observing skill and often different types of equipment. Until excellent guides like the Thompsons' new book are devoted to these branches of amateur astronomy, many people will continue to ignore them.
John Cheng
Pittsburgh PA
Takes 2 Glances February 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
At first glance I wasn't sure what to make of this book. It's not an atlas and it's not another generalized book about astronomy. It struck me as something that has been done before. After all, I have a huge astronomy library and this sort of fit in next to my Burnham's three volume set.
But the more I looked at it....the second glance...that was the look that told me I had something special with this book. As founder of an astronomy club, I'm always trying to find something that correctly sets expectation for what people will actually see at the eyepiece of the telescope. Bingo! That's the real value of this book.
You get a realistic preview and then tons of valuable information. Also, if you grow weary of the Messier catalog but don't know where to go from there, this book will give you abundant targets!
Conclusion? It's a must have. I'd call it an updated, condensed Burnham's!
Chris Reich
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