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Peterson First Guides
Peterson First Guide to Astronomy
Completely revised with all-new photographs and covering astronomical events through 2019
The second edition of the Peterson First Guide to Astronomy provides an up-to-date introduction to astronomy for beginners, featuring all-new photographs of recent events — such as one taken from the MESSENGER spacecraft, which launched in 2004 and entered its orbit around Mercury in 2011 — and predictions for future events through 2019, including meteor showers, comets, and eclipses. The book encourages readers to go out into the field, using the maps that show the positions of the stars throughout the year as a guide. This new edition maintains the easy-to-use condensed format of the original, and makes it easy to proceed to the full-fledged Peterson Field Guide to Stars and Planets for more in-depth information.
The second edition of the Peterson First Guide to Astronomy provides an up-to-date introduction to astronomy for beginners, featuring all-new photographs of recent events — such as one taken from the MESSENGER spacecraft, which launched in 2004 and entered its orbit around Mercury in 2011 — and predictions for future events through 2019, including meteor showers, comets, and eclipses. The book encourages readers to go out into the field, using the maps that show the positions of the stars throughout the year as a guide. This new edition maintains the easy-to-use condensed format of the original, and makes it easy to proceed to the full-fledged Peterson Field Guide to Stars and Planets for more in-depth information.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 1, 2020
Review to come.
February 28, 2020
This was an excellent introduction to Astronomy for someone who only knows basic facts about the stars and planets. For only being 124 pages and smaller than a paperback this contained an incredible amount of information, plus it was very readable in common sense language. Great job. Looking forward to using this to observe stars this summer on some camp outs.
September 10, 2020
A good introduction to astronomy. Sometimes the wording is confusing, but it was still good.
November 14, 2022
Firstly, I am very impressed with its aspect ratio, which is perfect for using it outside during stargazing. This book contains a bit of everything related to night sky, absolutely liked it.
December 14, 2010
I picked up this little number in a gift shop while on vacation. I was under some dark skies and needed a basic star map. For such a conveniently tiny book, there is a lot of good basic Astronomy information packed inside. The maps focus on the north and south horizons. For this reason, they are quite challenging to use for the stars straight overhead. The inclusion of a whole circular northern hemisphere map would have helped.
My only other critique is that the full-page illustrations of the constellations would have been much more helpful had they shown the same "imaginary lines" as the horizon maps and if they had pointed out specific stars and objects mentioned in the text.
My only other critique is that the full-page illustrations of the constellations would have been much more helpful had they shown the same "imaginary lines" as the horizon maps and if they had pointed out specific stars and objects mentioned in the text.
December 29, 2010
weak. I bought two introductory guides at the same time. I recommend Barron's Pocket Factbook: Astronomy: Essential Facts About the Universe as much better
May 2, 2013
Excellent guide for basic astronomy!
September 23, 2013
A good overview of the solar system but quickly dated by the latest science news.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews