| With 250,000 copies in print since its initial publication in 1983, NightWatch by Terence Dickinson has become a standard reference guide for stargazers throughout North America. This completely revised 3rd edition has been updated to be usable through 2010. NightWatch includes new star charts, tables, and diagrams, plus more than one hundred new color photographs and illustrations. Technological advances, including computerized telescopes, new telescope designs and accessories, and astronomy on the Internet are also included. Astrophotographers will appreciate an expanded chapter that lists the best modern films and cameras for shooting the night sky. In addition to writing the lively, informative text, the author also contributed most of the stunning photos in the book. The author’s primary goal is to provide a complete reference book for amateur astronomy. Dickinson writes clear, no-jargon text, and supports it with photos, diagrams, and charts that increase your understanding of the sky and the equipment needed to observe it. The book provides a guide to what can be seen on a clear night. Here is just some of what this book includes: - Instructions on how to find all the major stars and constellations using only the Big Dipper and Orion as pointers.
- Three separate levels of "ultra-simplified" stargazing charts that gently guide the way to familiarity with the constellations.
- An 11-step expanding perspective, each step one million times larger than the one before, that carries the reader from the Earth to the edge of the universe dramatically revealing the immense scale of the cosmos.
- Details of how to get started in stargazing using binoculars before buying a telescope.
- How to use your 35mm camera to take pictures of the celestial phenomena the book will lead you to.
- The secret of the $25 observing chair that is more comfortable and practical than a lawn chair.
- Tables with dates and times of meteor showers, solar and lunar eclipses, planet positions, and conjunctions that are complete through the year 2010.
- Moon maps showing dozens of prominent features as well as the location of the first moon landing.
- Detailed information on how to observe auroras, comets, planets, galaxies all the major classes of visible objects in the starry night.
- Everything you need to know to select the right telescope for your needs and location.
- An extensive resource section listing equipment suppliers, essential atlases, accessories, web sites, observatories, and much more.
This beautiful, information-packed book is a comprehensive must for beginners and experienced backyard astronomers alike. Dickinson is both a skilled observer and a lucid writer. He knows what’s out there and how best to see it, and he shares his expertise in the spare, friendly voice of someone who has enducated not only himself but many others. He is the author of fourteen books on astronomy and a former editor of Astronomy Magazine. More than a million copies of his books are in print in three languages. Spiral bound paper back; 176 10.5 x 10.5 pages; many full color photos, diagrams, and black & white illustrations.
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