Product Description

A first-time skywatcher's guide from bright new talent, BBC Blue Peter astronomer, Anton Vamplew Most books on stargazing claim to be for beginners, but by page 12 are talking about celestial equators and sidereal months. No wonder so many people have planispheres but no idea how to use them. Working at the planetarium in Greenwich, Anton has met hundreds of enthusiastic but utterly bemused beginners of all ages, and has made sense of the night sky for them. In this book he introduces the night sky just as if he were by your side, pointing everything out. And contrary to popular belief, you don't need any expensive equipment to start skygazing. Anton takes you through all the things you can discover with just the naked eye. The book is suitable for use in the northern and southern hemispheres - two sections give equal coverage to where to start and what you can see wherever you are in the world, whenever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123322 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Synopsis
A first-time skywatcher's guide from bright new talent, BBC Blue Peter astronomer, Anton Vamplew Most books on stargazing claim to be for beginners, but by page 12 are talking about celestial equators and sidereal months. No wonder so many people have planispheres but no idea how to use them. Working at the planetarium in Greenwich, Anton has met hundreds of enthusiastic but utterly bemused beginners of all ages, and has made sense of the night sky for them. In this book he introduces the night sky just as if he were by your side, pointing everything out. And contrary to popular belief, you don't need any expensive equipment to start skygazing. Anton takes you through all the things you can discover with just the naked eye. The book is suitable for use in the northern and southern hemispheres - two sections give equal coverage to where to start and what you can see wherever you are in the world, whenever.

From the Author
Prepare yourself for an adventure ... that will take you deep into space and far back in time. This great journey begins the moment you cast your eyes up into the night sky. After a while you'll be looking beyond the stars, wondering about distant life or maybe thinking just how fantastically big this whole Universe thing is.

I vividly remember when I was six, gazing out of my bedroom window with a desire to learn the names of the bright stars and the patterns I knew existed in the form of constellations. Little did I know what I had started - a lifelong trip which never ceases to amaze me.

Hopefully I can share some of my wonderment through these pages. None of this is rocket science. The name of the stargazing game is easy, short observing whenever you have a few spare moments while the stars are twinkling overhead. Living in a town, city or anywhere with light-polluted skies need not deter anyone form stargazing. Although the sku glow washes out the fainter stars, the major constellations will still be visible. It won't take long to learn the night sky, and I hope this book will insire you to make a start.

From the Inside Flap
Simple Stargazing is a lively, practical guide for the first-time skywatcher. Stylishly presented, with lots of clear illustrations, it introduces all the basic concepts and guides you simply through the trickier ones.

Anton believes learning about the night sky can be quick and easy, and that by simply taking a few spare minutes each day over the course of a year,you can quickly find your way around. His approach is completely straightforward: you don't need any expensive equipment, and you don't have to spend hours with a compass and star charts to get going. This is stargazing you can do wherever you live in the world, simply with the naked eye.

Working at the planetarium in Greenwich, Anton Vamplew has met hundreds of enthusiastic but utterly bemused beginners of all ages, and has made sense of the night sky for them. In Simple Stargazing, his first book, he takes you on a tour of the night sky just as if he were by your side, pointing everything out. With suggestions for star sights to look out for during each eason of the year, everyone can enjoy the main star patterns, whether you live in the town, city or countryside.

Customer Reviews

First book on astronomy?
This book is very easy to read and very amusing. My only criticism is that the star charts are not too clear on where to look in the sky when you are a very unknowledgable beginner like me! definately worth buying though.

An Astronomy Book from an Enthusiast.
Simple Stargazing is a book that has been written by an enthusiast. In fact, you can hear his enthusiasm bursting forth from every page.

Forget the dull, dry books of facts that used to be the choice for astronomy textbooks, here is a book that lives.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who has at least a passing interest in the stars above them. It will inform, but furthermore it will entertain.

Simple Stargazing
Astronomy for most of us is the joy of looking up into the night sky and view the vista of stars and planets clearly above us, but try to find a simplified explanation for what you are looking at is not that easy - Astronomy for Dummies appears on my bookshelf from a way back.

Baffled by jargon?

Scientifically challenged?

No, but looking for something that will educate, entertain and help you enjoy the night sky - Simple Stargazing is a book for you. Almost completely jargon free and technically/scientifically only 3 or 4 parts needed to be explained throughout the entire book.

It shows you what you should find, how to find it, what it should look like in very easy steps.

The quarterly sky sections show you the night sky in spring, summer, autumn and winter - explaining how the sky moves and what it meant to the human race over the millennia - and in jargon free English!!

The style of writing is that of almost a conversation with you.

The explanations of how the constellations got there names and olde worlde plates alongside the star configuration is very complementary.

The use of photographs that show the sky as is and alongside or opposite the same photograph with the "dots joined" is a clever use of the medium.

I have one small criticism - the occasional description of a named galaxy or nebula, but the accompanying photograph is another galaxy or nebula could be a little confusing.

One noted error, the Transit of Venus took place on the 8th June 2004 and not 4th May as stated in the book.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 7 to 70+ - this is an ideal purchase as it covers both the Northern & Southern Hemisphere in great and easy detail.

It should become a classic astronomical standard reference for most amateurs.