This is a unique guidebook to the night sky, providing all the information you need to observe a whole host of celestial objects. With a new spiral binding, this edition is even easier to use outdoors at the telescope and is the ideal beginner's book. Keeping its distinct one-object-per-spread format, this edition is also designed for Dobsonian telescopes, as well as for smaller reflectors and refractors, and covers Southern hemisphere objects in more detail. Large-format eyepiece views, positioned side-by-side, show objects exactly as they are seen through a telescope, and with improved directions, updated tables of astronomical information and an expanded night-by-night Moon section, it has never been easier to explore the night sky on your own.
1. How do you get to Albireo?
2. How to use this book
3. The Moon
4. The planets
5. Seasonal skies: January-March
6. Seasonal skies: April-June
7. Seasonal skies: July-September
8. Seasonal skies: October-December
9. Northern skies
10. Southern skies
11. Where do you go from here?
Index
Behind the eyepiece
Guy Consolmagno is a Jesuit brother at the Specola Vaticana (Vatican Observatory) dividing his time between Tucson, Arizona and Castel Gandolfo, Italy. He studied the origin and evolution of moons and asteroids in our solar system. His telescope is a 3.5" catadioptic.
Dan M. Davis is a professor of geophysics in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His research concerns the formation of mountain belts on Earth. Most of his observations for this book were made with a 2.5" refractor.
"This is quite possibly the most inviting guidebook ever written to help people with binoculars and small telescopes find, view, understand, and, most of all, enjoy everything in the night sky from the Moon and planets to distant star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. And if you think it's only for beginners, think again – every telescope owner should have a copy."
- Dennis di Cicco, Senior Editor, Sky and Telescope
"Turn Left at Orion is an essential guide for both beginners and more experienced amateur astronomers who will find much inside to reinvigorate their passion for the stars. The diagrams are simple, clear and functional, and the text eloquently captures the excitement of observing. Stargazing has never been made so easy and if you buy just one book on observational astronomy, make sure it's this one."
- Keith Cooper, Editor, Astronomy Now
"Since it first appeared in 1989, Turn Left at Orion has been an indispensable guidebook for the amateur astronomer possessing nothing more than a small backyard telescope. In this fourth edition, Guy Consolmagno and Dan Davis have revised, updated, and expanded its scope. This is not only an essential handbook for the novice, it's a useful reference for the seasoned backyard astronomer. Simply put, whatever your level of experience, you must have this book!"
- Glenn Chaple, Contributing Editor, Astronomy
"An exceptionally useful text, irrespective of whether you are a novice observer or a seasoned veteran. The changes that have been made to the book are so substantial that even those who own earlier ones will find it refreshingly new. It's not just recommended, it's simply a must have!"
- Astronomy Now
"This superb guide to locating and observing celestial bodies should be supplied with beginners' telescopes as a matter of course."
- BBC Sky at Night Magazine