A Field Guide to Stars and Planets

From Book News, Inc.
Substantially expanded (new color photos) and revised since the last edition published a decade ago, this field guide serves as a sky tour for amateurs and a reference to data (through 1997) for more experienced observers. Includes 72 star maps and 52 atlas charts. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.


St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"An excellent introduction to astronomy for beginners and a field guide for experts." --


Review
"An excellent introduction to astronomy for beginners and a field guide for experts."


Review
"An excellent introduction to astronomy for beginners and a field guide for experts."


Book Description
The fourth edition of this best-selling field guide has been completely revised and updated to include the latest information from leading astronomical sources. All the time-sensitive material is new and valid through 2010: solar eclipses, phases of the moon, positions of the planets, and more. Twenty-four Monthly Sky Maps, all newly revised and in color, show exactly what you'll see when facing north or south in the night sky. Fifty-two Atlas Charts, also revised and in color, cover the entire sky, including close-ups of areas of special interest such as the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula. The hundreds of thousands of devoted users of the previous editions of this guide have been eagerly awaiting this new volume so they can continue to enjoy their hobby in the coming decades.


Book Info
Presents an informative field guide to the stars and planets as well as other celestial phenomena and astronomical information, updated and valid through 2010. Softcover. DLC: Astronomy--Observers manuals.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The moon is often the most prominent object in the nighttime sky. The moon is somewhat more than one-quarter the diameter of the earth. This makes it the largest substantial satellite (moon) in the solar system in comparison to its parent planet. (Three moons of Jupiter and one each of Neptune and Saturn are physically larger than our moon; Pluto"s small moon Charon is nearly half Pluto"s size.) The moon orbits the earth every 271?3 days with respect to the stars. But during that time, the earth and moon have moved as a system about 1?12 of the way in their yearly orbit around the sun. So if the moon at a certain point in its orbit is directly between the earth and the sun, 271?3 days later it has not quite returned to that point directly between the earth and the sun. The moon must orbit the earth a bit farther to get back to the same place with respect to the line between the earth and the sun. The moon reaches this point in a couple of days, making the synodic period of the moon equal to 291?2 days. (The synodic period is the interval between two successive conjunctions — coming to the same celestial longitude — of two celestial bodies, in this case conjunctions of the moon and sun as observed from the earth.) It is the synodic months that are taken into account in lunar calendars.


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Substantially expanded (new color photos) and revised since the last edition published a decade ago, this field guide serves as a sky tour for amateurs and a reference to data (through 1997) for more experienced observers. Includes 72 star maps and 52 atlas charts. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)


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