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Can you remember being impressed by a c1ear starry sky? Look at the Milky Way through binoculars and it will reveal its many hundreds of thousands of stars, double stars, stellar clusters, and nebulae. If you are a new ob server, it is not that easy to find your way in this swarm of stars, but this atlas tries to make it as easy as possible. So now it is not just experienced amateurs that can enjoy looking at the heavens. Two additional observing aids are recommended. The first is a plani sphere, where one can dial in the time and day in order to see which constellations are visible and where they are in the sky. The second is an astronomical yearbook. It lists the current positions of the planets and all important phenomena. So, let us begin our journey around the night sky, and see what the universe can reveal to us! Facing page, top: The constellation Cygnus (Swan) in the midst of the northern Milky Way. The photograph gives an impression of the uncountable stars in our Milky Way. This becomes more conspicuous when you sweep through Cygnus with binoculars. Under a very dark sky, one can try to find the North America Nebula, Pelican Nebula, and Veil Nebula (see p. 47). These are difficult nebulae and are only barely visible on this photograph as weIl.… (more)
User reviews
A superlative guide for the advanced beginner and intermediate amateur astronomer. Could be intimidating for the absolute beginner. This guide provides a brief introductory section, "Explanatory Notes", which serves as the instruction
The greater part of this observer's atlas consists of two pages for each star chart:
- verso - details the brighter deepsky objects and stellar objects that are within the reach of small scopes and binoculars. Once one becomes accustomed to the codes used it easy and quick to capture the information (the Explanatory Notes section clearly describes the how-to).
- recto - contains the star chart with the area of interest highlighted. Additional insets of "magnified" sections show where each of the objects labeled on the verso is located. One can easily starhop using these charts. Chart numbers of neighboring sections to the current chart enable one to easily navigate to the right page to follow the sky in any direction.
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Local notes
- A short introduction into observing the sky and a thorough description of the star charts and tables
- Clearly arranged charts of all the stars (to 6th magnitude) visible with the unaided eye
- Enlarged chart sections (to 9th magnitude) for binocular observation, highlighting 250 interesting nebulae, galaxies, and stellar clusters
This new third edition features:
- 32 additional pages with images of all the 250 nebulae covered in the atlas
- An updated calendar for the next 20 years
- Double star ephemerides from 2005-2020, including updated tables accompanying star charts
- Predictions for dates and times of variable star minima/maxima based on recent observations
The Observer's Sky Atlas is an indispensable and handy companion for every observer and has already appeared in four languages.
(piopas)