“Like a 21st-century greatest hits from Burnham’s Celestial Handbook”
Tania Burchell, Sky & Telescope
|
|
||||
 |
 |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Continuously in print since 1984, this book has established itself as the
standard guide to the wonders of the night sky for amateur astronomers of all
ages. Although the UK and US reprints are not always in step, their contents
are identical as they are printed from page layouts produced by me on Quark
XPress. All star charts and line diagrams are by Wil Tirion.
It is now in its 4th edition, completely reset and with improved colour charts
and Moon maps. This edition made its appearance in the UK in 2007 September and
in the US in 2008 January. The UK edition was reprinted with a new jacket
design in 2011 but the content remains unaltered.
The first US edition was published by Universe books under the title Universe Guide to Stars & Planets, but that has now been completely superseded by the Princeton University Press
edition. A German translation is published by Kosmos of Stuttgart under the
title Der Kosmos Himmelsführer.
The book is squarely aimed at keen observers who want to know the best celestial
objects within easy range of binoculars and small to medium-sized telescopes
(up to about 200 mm aperture). Separate charts for each of the 88
constellations are accompanied by descriptions of their main features, with a
guide to the size of instrument needed to observe them. Preceding this, a
section of all-sky charts shows the sky as it appears in mid-evening each month
from northern and southern latitudes. This book is usable throughout the
inhabited world.
Following the star charts comes more general text on stars and nebulae,
galaxies, the Sun, Moon and planets, and information on instruments and
observation.
One innovation for the 4th edition was online charts showing the positions of
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn against the stars for a 5-year period. These are
available on the Collins website along with other topical information on matters such as eclipses, transits,
daylight saving time, artificial satellite predictions, and a BASIC program for
calculating the separation of binary stars.
Note: Do not confuse these books with Dorling Kindersley’s Handbook of Stars and Planets (published in the US as the Smithsonian Handbook of Stars and Planets), which is a more basic introduction. The books are entirely separate, although
Amazon mixes reviews of the two on its website.