Atlas of the Southern Night Sky

[Vinnie]

ATLAS OF THE SOUTHERN NIGHT SKY

Authors: Steve Massey and Steve Quirk
Published by New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, 2007
ISBN 9781741105308 (hbk)

Clearly from the title this release is a dedicated Atlas of the Southern Hemisphere, and so as far as I know it is a first. The fact that is Australian, and written by two well-known Aussie authors and personae of the Australian astronomy scene, well satisfies my prejudices.

As I work through some of the highlights of this book it should become apparent that it is more than just a set of night sky maps, and is suitable as a general astronomy guide for all ages and levels of experience. It certainly should be placed high on the priority list of “must haves” for any Southern Hemisphere entry level, or intermediate level stargazer.

In the past I have purchased many “Star Atlases” and have often been disappointed by the price vs. the overall quality of the publication. Not so in this case. Atlas of the Southern Night Sky is a beautifully bound hardback of some 280 pages on high quality glossy paper and is richly illustrated with charts and diagrams, and outstanding photos, most of which were taken by the authors. Currently selling for $45 Aus this is exceptional value when compared to other atlases.

Moving into the book. The introductory chapters consist of a quite concise but well explained overview of the night sky, finding your way around, astronomy definitions, and information about stars and various DSO’s, plus notes on observing. Enough basics are dealt with to get a novice started without complicating the issue, which is, after all, looking at objects in the sky, as opposed to needing to absorb large tracts of (dare I say boring?) scientific data.

Next we progress to the maps. First we have a set of typical wide field maps, but then the authors have adopted the approach of breaking the sky down by individual constellations. Each constellation has at least one page of information including notes on selected points of interest and some photos, plus an accompanying full-page map. The maps are quite clear and don’t include objects fainter than could be expected to be seen by an average home observer. Similarly, most of the points of interest noted are at the brighter end of the scale. This makes a lot of sense to me, since it always seems pointless to clutter things up with objects that aren’t really going to be seen by a person using a small telescope, and this also eliminates the creation of false expectations in a beginner.

The authors now bring us to about 50 pages that deal with the Solar System. Starting with the Sun, then progressing to the Moon, with well detailed and clear lunar maps, we then look at each of the planets, and finally information about meteor showers and comets.

Finally we arrive at a reference section dealing with types of telescopes, how they work, and some explanations about tools like filters, eyepieces etc. and a really neat little introduction to Astro- imaging.

This book is much more than just a set of maps and I cannot rate it highly enough. It is a “must have” for every novice in the Southern Hemisphere, and a “should have” for all Southern Sky observers.

Atlas Of The Southern Night Sky is available from Angus and Robertson, and the ABC bookstore.

See this link for more information

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(Disclaimer: I have no commercial interest in this publication nor do I stand to gain any financial benefit from its promotion)

[Michael Steen]

Vinnie, sounds like a great book. Congratulations on making the first post to the Astronomy Books forum. I'm hoping that this will become a very active forum as more and more members tout their favorite (or not so favorite!!) books for our consideration.
I'm hoping, though, that we don't necessarily limit it to JUST astronomy books. I've been reading some books in astrophysics too (for the layman, not that stuff with a bajillion equations), and I hope we can include a wide variety here.

[First Scope]

Sounds like a great book!

I would love to see the southern sky some day..

I CAN see about half of the Omega...... WAY low in the sky...

The only time I have ever seen the complete cluster and the southern cross was at Mona Kea visitors center...

Still a lot of southern sky left to see <G>

[Vinnie]

You've got to get to the South some time, Terry,

Apart from the things that you cant see from the North, and we have some great sights, check out these LP maps

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and compare Nth America and Europe to Aus.

(Vin smiles smugly)

[First Scope]

I am green!....Australia is way at the top of the "bucket list" I have one more to put through school...then I'm gone!

Light is one of our pet peives around here...

Mount Palomar was hugely instrumental in slowing light pollution...but they aren't as important as they used to be up there...and the people around here just don't seem to care..

Our club works with IDA as much as we can.
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PS...I really like Gort (sp?) Nictu verado..????? something I can't remember LOL

[Vinnie]

Klaatu Barada Nikto (LOL)

[SteveB]

I have this book too and agree with all of Vinnie's comments. It's replaced my well thumbed Collins guide as the general goto book.

A couple of things jumped out at me though. Not really a negative, but if it's a "Southern" sky book, shouldn't the maps be drawn from a southern perspective with Orion and Pegasus the right (southern) way up ?

This one is a negative - The map section is broken into constellations with the name of each constellation printed in dark red colour. So guess what happens when you try and look something up at night using your red light ?

Steve.

[Vinnie]

I like the way you think, Steve.

The Right way up is the Southern Way LOL

I could suggest that it doesn't matter which way you print charts, they will be one way round naked eye and the other at the EP

The red writing, however, is a real bummer, I agree, and something that has been brought to the authors' attention a lot. Fortunately its only one heading per page.