A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets

"This new volume in the Peterson Field Guide Series is the clearest, most complete pocket guide to the night sky ever published. The authoritative text by Donald H. Menzel, former director of the Harvard College Observatory, and numerous charts, photographs, drawings, and astronomical tables convey the basic information needed by amateur astronomers. Its 48 Sky Maps enable the observer, anywhere on earth, to identify the constellations and check the position of the brightest stars. The constellation drawings, based largely on the ingenious designs originated by H.A. Rey, actually resemble the figures the stars represent. For identifying the fainter stars, the book contains a comprehensive atlas of the sky. Each of its 54 charts appears twice, once as seen in the telescope and again on the facing page with the names of the stars, nebulae, clusters, and other objects superimposed. These charts and the accompanying text provide the reader with a pictorial road map to sky watching with binocular or telescope. A similar photographic atlas of he moon displays the topographic features of the earth's satellite in startling detail. Other sections of the book cover the solar system, the planets, and other bodies such as comets, meteors, and asteroids. Two chapters offer helpful information to the beginner about the use of the telescope and camera in astronomy. Those more advanced in their knowledge of astronomy will find useful the chapter on the intricacies of sidereal and solar time. This book will be invaluable to anyone who try to find his way around in the night skies to learn more about the earth's near and neighbors, with the naked eye, binocular, telescope."- Publisher