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Philip's Astronomy
Complete Guide to Stargazing
I complete guide of stars and constellations in our galaxy and beyond!
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 24, 2023
In SPAAAAACE
This was a great book on stargazing.
I learned fun things like the constellations, the nearby planets and stars, and the galaxies.
I found this was an excellent time to read the book, as we have had a couple of waves of really impressive northern lights recently, so I am excited for more opportunities to flare up my knowledge!
4.4/5
This was a great book on stargazing.
I learned fun things like the constellations, the nearby planets and stars, and the galaxies.
I found this was an excellent time to read the book, as we have had a couple of waves of really impressive northern lights recently, so I am excited for more opportunities to flare up my knowledge!
4.4/5
August 19, 2020
I've been reading this off and on, as typical for guide books of this nature. This book is intended as a compendium reference of not just stargazing, but an introduction to night-sky objects.
The bulk of the book (pages 44-121) is about the objects themselves, so there are chapters on the moon, the solar system, and stars and deep-sky objects. All of this is intended as background to observation; I'm not sure how reviewing the Apollo missions help with observation, but that's the kind of detail Scagell includes.
The "A to Z of Astronomy" seems particularly thorough, as it should be, as it takes up roughly 100 pages of the book. To give a sense of the level of detail in this section, I can see where I'd want a reminder on retrograde (two definitions of that) or Rhea, but I'm not sure why I'd need to know Roche lobe or Rosat. (And yet, somehow, I can picture Scagell reading that sentence and sniffing haughtily).
The remainder is the practical stuff most beginning stargazers will want to know (getting started, choosing equipment, ta month-by-month star guide, and the accompanying star maps). These are covered in about 100 pages. The equipment section covers binoculars vs telescopes and advice on what to pick.
I found the monthly night-sky breakdowns generally helpful, in that they tell me the prominent features to look for at any given time. That said, the inset maps in these sections are too small to read adequately. For example, the 4 hemispheric maps for July-August could have easily been placed on their own 2-page spread and been much easier to read, whether in an armchair or by red light in the field. Even so, the monthly approach was a useful one to me.
Scagell clearly knows a lot about astronomy, so much so that his approach can be unintentionally intimidating. For example, the introduction ("The Night Sky") seems to be about how amateurs can use all kinds of equipment to get as technical as they want to. I'm not sure if this what I want as a beginner, or if I ever want to invest in a camera or bring my laptop outdoors. Not yet, anyway.
Here's what I mean:
The accompanying photo, which shows a high-end telescope and dedicated laptop, complete the picture. To me, this all seems like a lot of work. Astronomy already has a perception of being expensive and hard to get into; passages like this don't help correct that impression. And this is on the third page of the narrative text (page 11, for some reason). Beginners take note.
The star charts in the back seem helpful at first, but I had to wonder about the usefulness of these charts at night, especially when apps are available. I haven't found much discussion in his book (or others by him) about integrating smartphones into astronomy, which underscores that Scagell may be a little behind the times. This, in turn, may make the book less useful to newcomers (who most likely come into the hobby with smartphone--but not optics, for example).
In other words, Scagell takes the standard astronomy book approach and focuses on the "special equipment" that are needed to get into it, rather than starting from the outside-in premise that people probably already have a useful device that they can use to get into the hobby. In fact, it's quite possible that the star charts in an app are better than printed star charts for learning, planning, and field use, but acknowledging that would undermine the very purpose of the charts in a book such this. Is stargazing with a phone or tablet and a free star-map app a viable way of stargazing in 2020? Probably (I've tried it), but you'll find little guidance in that regard here.
My advice for anyone interested in this book would be to get it from the library and see if it suits their needs. The month-by-month section alone may be useful at certain points in time. If those parts, plus any others, are useful as a reference, then consumers can take the plunge and buy it (at about half-cover-price through major online retailers).
The bulk of the book (pages 44-121) is about the objects themselves, so there are chapters on the moon, the solar system, and stars and deep-sky objects. All of this is intended as background to observation; I'm not sure how reviewing the Apollo missions help with observation, but that's the kind of detail Scagell includes.
The "A to Z of Astronomy" seems particularly thorough, as it should be, as it takes up roughly 100 pages of the book. To give a sense of the level of detail in this section, I can see where I'd want a reminder on retrograde (two definitions of that) or Rhea, but I'm not sure why I'd need to know Roche lobe or Rosat. (And yet, somehow, I can picture Scagell reading that sentence and sniffing haughtily).
The remainder is the practical stuff most beginning stargazers will want to know (getting started, choosing equipment, ta month-by-month star guide, and the accompanying star maps). These are covered in about 100 pages. The equipment section covers binoculars vs telescopes and advice on what to pick.
I found the monthly night-sky breakdowns generally helpful, in that they tell me the prominent features to look for at any given time. That said, the inset maps in these sections are too small to read adequately. For example, the 4 hemispheric maps for July-August could have easily been placed on their own 2-page spread and been much easier to read, whether in an armchair or by red light in the field. Even so, the monthly approach was a useful one to me.
Scagell clearly knows a lot about astronomy, so much so that his approach can be unintentionally intimidating. For example, the introduction ("The Night Sky") seems to be about how amateurs can use all kinds of equipment to get as technical as they want to. I'm not sure if this what I want as a beginner, or if I ever want to invest in a camera or bring my laptop outdoors. Not yet, anyway.
Here's what I mean:
Over a period of an hour or so, the astronomer fills the laptop's hard drive with sequence after sequence of video, each one consisting of perhaps 2000 individual color frames. The processed pictures from each sequence can then be put together in an animation, showing the speeded-up rotation of the planet. Just a few years ago, such a feat would have challenged astronomers using even large telescopes. Today, it's all in a night's work for an amateur under light-polluted skies, in a small corner of a metropolis.
The accompanying photo, which shows a high-end telescope and dedicated laptop, complete the picture. To me, this all seems like a lot of work. Astronomy already has a perception of being expensive and hard to get into; passages like this don't help correct that impression. And this is on the third page of the narrative text (page 11, for some reason). Beginners take note.
The star charts in the back seem helpful at first, but I had to wonder about the usefulness of these charts at night, especially when apps are available. I haven't found much discussion in his book (or others by him) about integrating smartphones into astronomy, which underscores that Scagell may be a little behind the times. This, in turn, may make the book less useful to newcomers (who most likely come into the hobby with smartphone--but not optics, for example).
In other words, Scagell takes the standard astronomy book approach and focuses on the "special equipment" that are needed to get into it, rather than starting from the outside-in premise that people probably already have a useful device that they can use to get into the hobby. In fact, it's quite possible that the star charts in an app are better than printed star charts for learning, planning, and field use, but acknowledging that would undermine the very purpose of the charts in a book such this. Is stargazing with a phone or tablet and a free star-map app a viable way of stargazing in 2020? Probably (I've tried it), but you'll find little guidance in that regard here.
My advice for anyone interested in this book would be to get it from the library and see if it suits their needs. The month-by-month section alone may be useful at certain points in time. If those parts, plus any others, are useful as a reference, then consumers can take the plunge and buy it (at about half-cover-price through major online retailers).
September 6, 2016
Beautifully illustrated with photos and diagrams. Borrowed from the local library, will have to get my own copy!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews