Deep Sky Observing Second Edition Book Review
Deep Sky Observing – Second Edition
The author Steven R Coe has years of astronomy observing and knows all the pitfalls of not preparing for a night of observing. This means there are tonnes of practical advice in this Deep Sky Observing book.
Deep Sky Observing begins with some introductory chapters about who this book is aimed at and why the reader should listen to Steven Coe.
The author then asks some more commonly asked questions with each question answered in a chapter. The questions include ones like “How do I find the best observing site” and “How do I maximise my time observing”, “What accessories are useful?”, “Why should I take notes whilst observing?” and “How can I find all these deep sky objects?”.
The main part of the book covers a broad range of deep sky objects you can observe. Each item in turn has a description, data such as co-ordinates, size, type, name etc. Most objects either have a drawing or an astronomy image taken by the author. Against most objects there are also descriptions of what you will see using various sized telescopes from 4 inch,6 inch, 13 inch, massive 36 inch and even finderscopes and binoculars.
There is also a rather nice chapter asking “Why would I want to use binoculars to view the sky”. The question is answered by giving the reader lots of objects they can use binoculars to see. Accompanying the objects are lots of images of what you may see as well as a discussion on the various sizes of binoculars.
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After the main section of explaining each deep sky object comes a number of chapters at the rear of the book. These chapters discuss such topics as using a computer for observing, setting up a scope for public observing along with a list of objects to show people. There is then a section on other good astronomy books you may want to read. The appendix contains a list of 110 deep sky objects with their co-ordinates, type and notes on each in a list.
Overall this is a nice book with smallish introductory chapters that are a pleasure to read without getting bogged down in too much detail. It won’t take you too long to finish reading the chapters but you will probably use the mid section of the book for a long time as a reference to help you look up deep sky objects and to allow you to plan your observing session. The part I like is that each object is described through various sizes of telescope. It’s a shame the astronomy images are in black and white as I could imagine they would look amazing in colour, I think there is only one colour image in the whole book. A thoroughly good read and one I recommend for deep sky observing enthusiasts who may be beginners or intermediate observers.
Where can I buy the Deep Sky Observing Book?
You can buy Deep Sky Observing from Amazon UK
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