Now in a revised and enlarged 8th edition, this introduction to the night sky
for beginners has been in print since 1987 and has earned some enthusiastic
reviews. The Monthly Sky Guide (MSG) was originally the working title; we never found anything better.
In many ways MSG continues the tradition of 19th-century books such as R. A. Proctor’s Half Hours with the Stars. Each month opens with an all-sky chart for mid-evening by Wil Tirion, which is
followed by descriptions of the main objects on show with detailed charts of
particular constellations of interest. The book is intended for
northern-hemisphere users only.
Information on the visibility of the naked-eye planets for a five-year period is
included in each edition; eclipses were added in the fourth edition (along with
transits, when they occur). This time-dependent information introduces a degree
of obsolescence into the book, although the bulk of the text refers to objects
visible each year and so does not date. Full-colour printing was introduced
with the 6th edition in 2003; previous editions had been printed in two colours
only. The maps have been subtly improved with each edition since.
The eighth edition, published in autumn 2009, saw the first major change since
the book first appeared. New sections were added on observing the Moon and the
planets, including four pages of realistic Moon maps based on US Geological
Survey originals. This expanded the length of the book from 64 to 72 pages,
although the price remained the same.
The planetary and eclipse information in MSG8 covers 2010–2014. The book is printed from layouts supplied by me in Quark XPress. The same
printing is sold in the UK, US, and Canada. Danish and Greek translations are
currently in print, although with different edition numbers.
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