United States
£ GBP
Observer's Guide to Star Clusters is for amateur astronomers of all expertise, from beginner to experienced. It is intended to be used at the telescope – small, medium, or large – or even by an observer using binoculars or the naked eye. It is organized by constellation and will enable practical observers to locate the approximate positions of important star clusters in the 88 constellations from literally anywhere on Earth.
In practice, GO-TO telescopes can usually locate clusters accurately enough, but this, of course, first requires that the observer knows what is visible in the sky at a given time and from a given location, so as to input a locatable object! This is where Observer's Guide to Star Clusters becomes an essential aid to finding star clusters to observe. Observers who do not have computer-controlled telescopes can of course use the traditional "star-hopping" method to find specific objects, starting from the given reference stars.
The constellation maps in Observer's Guide to Star Clusters are in black and white, so that they can be read by the light of a red LED observer's reading light. The clusters and their names/numbers are printed in bold black, against a "grayed-out" background of stars and constellation figures.
Used as a self-contained reference, Observer's Guide to Star Clusters offers detailed and up-to-date coverage of these beautiful objects. Observer's Guide to Star Clusters will soon become an essential piece of equipment for you, as essential as your telescope!
- Introduction to Star Clusters
- How to observe and image star clusters
- How to use the star maps
- Constellations A-Z
Dr. Mike Inglis was born in Wales in the UK, but lives and works in the USA, where he is Professor of Astrophysics at Suffolk County Community College, State University of New York. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, NASA's Solar System Ambassador, a Member of the American Astronomical Society, a Member of the Association for Astronomy in Education, and a Member of the Society of Popular Astronomy. He is the author of many books and papers including Field Guide to Deep Sky Objects (Springer, 2012, 2nd Edition), An Observer's Guide to Stellar Evolution (Springer, 2003), Astronomy of the Milky Way, Vol. I and II, Astrophysics is Easy. He is the Series Editor of Springer's Practical Astronomy Observing Guides.
