Constellations: A Field Guide To The Night Sky

by Giles Sparrow

Constellations  is a guide to the night sky that focuses on these 88 distinctive patterns, revealing their often intriguing stories–their origins, mythology, present-day significance, and the multitude of wondrous objects they contain. Complete with over 300 of the best astronomical images ever captured, a comprehensive introduction to the stars and other celestial phenomena, and a series of newly commissioned, state-of-the-art maps showing the stars that are visible from populated latitudes in both hemispheres throughout the year, this magnificent guide has all you need to know to become an expert stargazer.

Step outside on a clear night, and the number of stars in the night sky can be overwhelming. Take a pair of binoculars or a small telescope with you, and a celestial vista of star clusters and clouds, knots of gas and dust, nearby planets and distant galaxies is revealed. Since ancient times, stargazers have made sense of the night sky by grouping its stars into constellations–star patterns that often have symbolic or mythological meanings.

Genres: Science, Astronomy, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 10, 2013

Reviews

[Sonia Jarmula · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource - pretty technical (for me) but highly informative.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this for my birthday years ago and only just bothered to check it out. It's pretty good, shows you some interesting spots in each constellation, as you would expect. Pretty fun for some good sights to check out if you have a telescope.

However, I believe there is a mistake in the book (in my edition at least, which I believe is the only edition released), early on in the "Mapping the Heavens" section (pg. 22 for my copy). It seems that the chart depicting the Northern Hemisphere has been accidentally mirrored along an axis that goes between 10h30m and 22h30m. If you check charts of Northern Hemisphere constellations later in the book and compare coordinates of stars, you will see the coordinates are wildly different! The issue becomes more apparent the further from the above-mentioned axis you get, if you want to check it yourself.

A search for actual coordinates of a few stars online confirms the individual constellation charts are fine, and it is just that Northern Hemisphere map which is incorrect. The Southern Hemisphere map is also fine. I haven't checked the Equatorial Sky maps.

Point is: If you try to reference back to the Northern Hemisphere chart like I did, you'll find that everything has been inverted, so be careful!

[Queenie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful coffee table book on cosmology introduction.

[PRJ Greenwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very descriptive and very glossy book. It's a lounge room table affair, not something you'd take with you into the field, but as an introduction to those imaginary star patterns in the sky, it's hard to beat. Deals with all 88 constellations more or less equally, which means if you want to know as much about Microscopium as you do Ursa Major, then you're in luck (though of course give Wikipedia a look-in first).

It's one of those rare pretty books that aren't all style, no substance. It just isn't a practical guide to take outdoors into the night with you.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was OK. Each constellation was given pretty equal coverage. But not all constellations deserve equal coverage. The highlighted object for each constellation showed a nice telescope picture, but you can't tell how big the object really is up in the sky. I found the mix of fonts and colors on the constellation charts unappealing to me. It was hard for my eyes to find things.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely beautiful and utterly enthralling.

[David Cowling]

This is a solid introductory guide to the 88 constellations of the Northern and Southern celestial hemispheres, with detailed but not over-extensive points about each. It also features information about the planets and other objects of interest in the night sky.

As another reviewer points out, I'm not sure this necessarily qualifies as a Field Guide, but as an introduction it is excellent. Each page provides a chart of the constellation, and a few paragraphs about its history dating from ancient times, and mentions objects of particular interest: eg. Mu Cephei in Cepheus emits as much energy as 350,000 suns. Not too shabby!

Would recommend and would have kept for longer from the library if I hadn't have accrued fines in excess of twenty pounds. I am indolent.