Posted on Tuesday, December 27, 2016
A Stargazing Program for Beginners: A Pocket Field Guide by Jamie Carter
Jamie Carter's Stargazing Program gives the basics you need to get started in stargazing - looking up to the night sky and paying more attention to what, where and how is visible.
To use this book, all you need to begin with, are your eyes and some clear nights evey month to spend out in the open looking at the sky.
The book is divided month-by-month, so that you can learn a lot about the night sky by observing it for a short amount of time after the sky has gotten dark throughout the year. The book introduces constellations, planets, and everything else that is visible without much optical aid, but should you get more interested in looking deeper and seeing dimmer objects, the book provides some ideas for doing that as well.
If you'd try and find all the objects every month, by the end of the year, you'll have a good idea of what and when is visible and you'll have a better idea about the universe around us.
You also learn a little about each object as you go along.
It's the perfect simple guide to a great new hobby that might not require as much willpower as a work-out would, but it provides a sort of mental work-out, where you have to remember and find patterns and connections, in a few cases even do some measuring and comparing etc.
Carter's book is great fro someone who is already interested in astronomy but hasn't thought of the stargazing and observing aspect of it just yet, or for someone who enjoys spending time in the nature for hiking or camping purposes. And naturally if you're already a stargazer or amateur astronomer, then it's a great reminder of some basics.
Labels: book review, stargazing