The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How to See Them: Observing Eclipses, Bright Comets, Meteor Showers, and Other Celestial Wonders Paperback – July 1, 2007

I was introduced to amateur astronomy about six years ago, and have recently realized that "I just enjoy looking." I didn't enjoy trying to take astro-photographs or much of the science, certainly not the chemistry! I just want the "WOW" factor, as Dean Koenig describes it. I think Fred Schaaf's recent book, 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How to See Them, was written just for me (ISBN: 978-0-471-69657-5, $19.95 MSR in paper, available on Amazon).My library has some 18 other books on astronomy, and I've used many - some have a large number of tables (even the chemical composition of stars, asteroids, and the like) and most have star charts, many have diagrams of both telescopes and azimuth and equatorial systems and even graphs of comparative radiations - after all, science is important. I use some of them occasionally to determine a particular fact and to confirm what I have in my telescope, but few of them (other than those with color pictures) qualify as "enjoyment reading." But Schaaf is truly the "poet of the stars" that William Sheehan has called him, and has written a book that is as enjoyable to read on a cloudy night as a rainy afternoon. Consider his Sight 13 - Bright Comet with Long Tail: "Of all the wonders in the heavens, there are two that have inspired fear and awe more often than any others: eclipses and comets. ... There is a central reason that comets were feared by our ancestors: of all the heavens' major kinds of sights, comets seemed to be the only ones that were spectacularly unpredictable and variable." Or, his Sight 26 - The Pleiades: "Everyone is first awed b y the strangeness and splendor, then moved to affection by the gentle loveliness of the Pleiades. Almost every culture in the world and throughout history has imagined the cluster as something gentle and delicate - a group of maidens, a flock of doves, or a mother hen and its chicks." Schaaf has organized his book by Sights from the widest to narrowest view - starting, justly, with the entire night sky, 180', as Astronomy's Greatest Sight, and moving to 100', naked-eye scans, to 50' to 15' groupings, and then to 15' to 1' and finally less than 1'. For the novice he quickly explains what is necessary, telescopes or binoculars, for enjoyable viewing and relates personal stories as to his own viewings. I think those personal stories are some of the best parts of his book (although he does include a few spectacular color plates for the truly visual of us). The method of organizing by size of the Sight works very well. If you've forgotten the joy that can come from "just looking" at the heavens, 50 Best Sights is a wonderful way to recover the awe and appreciation for their beauty. A good pair of binoculars and a planisphere, are all that is necessary to enjoy most of Schaaf's Sights; a small quality rich field scope works for many of the rest. A "big" scope isn't necessary to "just look."

A show-and-tell guide for the rooftop astronomer.Best line in the book: The best line in the book:"The very best sight is the entire night's sky!"Sure is a good place to start.

This is a fun book, with things to see from naked eye observing to binoculars and telescopes.

Good basic astronomy.

Fred Schaaf packs an enormous amount of information into this one. It contains everything you might want to know about astronomy. He agrees that a total solar eclipse is the greatest visual experience known to man. Totality never lasts more the 7 minutes, 31 seconds, and the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017, will last about 2 minutes, 40 seconds. I mean to stand in the moon's shadow. The best meteor shower is the August Perseids, and I counted 351 meteors the night of August 11 and morning of August 12, 1964. The Northern Lights are caused by the sun. The Milky Way is a glorious sight on summer nights. the combined glow of billions of suns. Our solar system is inside it. Venus at its greatest elongation is so bright it is often mistaken for a UFO. Venus passes behind the sun to become the evening star while passing in front of the sun to become the morning star. The bright comets Hyakutake 1996 and Hale-Bopp 1997 were seen by millions around the world. I observed the February 21, 2008, total eclipse of the moon. The crescent moon is beautiful, especially when accompanied by Venus. Earthshine is sunlight reflected by the earth to the moon and back to earth. The Pleiades is a star cluster where stars are forming from a cloud of gas and dust. It looks like a small dipper. Omega Centauri is the greatest of all globular clusters.

This is a useful reference for newcomers to stargazing, appropriately emphasising what can be seen and enjoyed with limited equipment and so avoiding inflating the expectations of a generation accustomed to images from Hubble.Fred Schaaf writes in the personal and discursive style popular with American readers: although there is much useful and reliable information here, it might have suited us with a little less verbal embroidery. That said, this work is a valuable encouragement for those who want to go out and look for ourselves. Recommended.

Good