What Books and Star Charts Are Recommended?
If you don’t know the constellations, you might want a book that will help you learn them. A “fun” book for those just learning the stars is The Stars, A New Way of Seeing Them by H. A. Rey, which presents a non-orthodox way of drawing the constellations so they are easier to visualize. You will probably want a beginner’s guide, such as the book by Sherrod mentioned above. Sky Publishing has some introductory materials which would probably be as useful, which you get for free when you subscribe to Sky and Telescope. Petersen’s Field Guide to the Stars and Planets comes highly recommended. It is very inexpensive ($13), small and handy to use at the telescope. It has a good discussion about stars, planets, nebulae, and galaxies; and has a very complete albeit small-scale star chart, along with a the usual tables. It has long lists of deep-sky objects for each area of the sky. You will need a bigger star chart than is included in Petersen’s. Try Sky Atlas 2000.0, by Wil Tirion. The field
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- What Books and Star Charts Are Recommended?
