Invaluable night sky referenceNovember 13, 2008 I read somewhere that all telescopes should come with this guide and once you start using it you'll realise why. As I have mostly a south-westerly view of the sky I like to make the most of what I have so I turn to 'Turn Left...' and follow the easy diagrams and text to pick out the best of the constellation I am interested in. The book gives you diagrams of what you'll see in the viewfinder as well as the telescope and although it can be a bit confusing to the novice when you first start you soon get the hang of star hopping and be delighted when you discover the gems above. In fact having used this book quite often I find myself hopping around without it on my favourite sights. For example the other night I found the ring nebula in Lyra by remembering the steps and estimating the distance between the stars in the constellation. Sure enough it popped into view.
get someone to buy it for youApril 28, 2008 0 out of 4 found this review helpful
if you are interested in imaging, forget it. there is no info on what the variouse targets can look like when photographed, only how to find them. a companion book on how too image and what to use is recomended.
The Novice Stargazer's BibleMarch 6, 2008 4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Ask any amateur astronomer what the first book they would recommend to a novice, and the majority will tell you this very book.
Written in a style that is user friendly yet not patronising, it carefully details the highlights of the night sky (by season), giving ratings for each target. All the information on how to find that elusive nebula or galaxy etc is here, along with realistic sketched views through the scope (and finderscope) from a 'normal' viewing site.
Rather than showing each target as a HST or large observatory scope photograph, leading to frustration from the novice, this book is refreshingly honest at what the back garden stargazer will see.
Along with the catalogue of targets (with excellent descriptions of what you are looking at), there is plenty of information on how to set up scopes, what equipment to use and other general advice needed for the novice/amateur astronomer.
I've yet to see a book that covers amateur observations so well.
All that the novice needsNovember 22, 2006 20 out of 21 found this review helpful
Put simply, if a novice astronomer with ANY size of telescope buys only one book to assist them, then this should be it (or at least the most recent version of it should be). I'm actually a fairly experienced amateur astronomer with an appalling inability to navigate my way round the skies - at least I did have until I had this book bought for me. Broken down into seasonal sections with indications of the right conditions to go looking for particular objects, I can't think of anything that could make the task easier (short of someone actually finding the objects for you!). It is such a good book I can forgive it a few typos and some lapses of English grammar.
My advice - buy this book!
Every bit as good as they all say !!July 24, 2006 16 out of 17 found this review helpful
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Well, what else is there to say about this book ?
In a nutshell, it transformed me from clueless beginner to starhopper & DSO finder in 2 hours flat. I have a 200mm Newtonian and I find the book perfect for this scope even though it is aimed primarily at users of small scopes. For a novice it beats a straightforward atlas hands down, giving clear step by step hops to each object. There's much more to this book than mere instructions as well. There's very good info on every single object too, so you find something, then read about it at the time you're observing it. Also, having found a number of the "summer" objects at the 1st attempt I'm very happy that I've failed to find some of the objects listed as these will become targets when I'm more practiced, so the book will remain useful for a long time, and probably forever, as the quickest way to re visit favourite objects.
