Product Description
The modern classic, completely updated. The newest edition of The Backyard Astronomer's Guide includes the latest data and answers the questions most often asked by home astronomers, from beginners to experienced stargazers. Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer provide expert guidance on the right types of telescopes and other equipment; photographing the stars through a telescope; and star charts, software and other references. They cover daytime and twilight observing, planetary and deep-sky observing, and much more. With over 500 color photographs and illustrations, The Backyard Astronomer's Guide is one of the most valuable, beautiful and user-friendly astronomy books ever produced. New and updated for this edition: A 20-page full-color Atlas of the Milky Way provides location and context for hundreds of celestial objects mentioned throughout the book. A chapter on Astrophotography with Digital Cameras specifies what equipment works best and how to use it to collect a color gallery of celestial portraits. Telescopes for Recreational Astronomy features assessments of a wide range of new telescopes, from models for beginners to those for veteran astronomy enthusiasts, with special emphasis on computerized telescopes and how they work. Accessory Catalog spotlights the best of the accessories and flags the frivolous and irrelevant. Three practical appendices: Polar Aligning Your Telescope; Optics Cleaning and Collimation; Testing Your Telescope Optics. Any serious home astronomer must have this superb guide as an ongoing reference. (200308)

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 64 reviews)

Best beginners astronomy book by Kevin M (Fremont, CA)

5 Stars
November 01, 2009
This is a great book for those interested in visual astronomy with a telescope. Probably my favorite for beginners. Has excellent tips on what kind of scope to get and how to find objects to view. Very easy to read. A must read for anyone interested in a telescope or anyone who as recently obtained one.

Must-Have Volume for your Astronomy Library by T. A. Ashley (Upstate New York, USA)

5 Stars
September 14, 2009
Terry Dickenson is a force of nature when it comes to astronomy literature. His writings are prolific and polished, without ever seeming to be ponderous or pretentious. I've owned a first edition copy of TBAG (the white cover version) for years, and had heard that this newer version had quite a bit of material added and updated to reflect changes in technology. Boy, they just weren't kidding! I'd estimate the Third Edition is 1/3 again as large as the original! While it comes packed with information and images, Terry keeps it all very approachable with his writing style. If you're just getting into the hobby, before you consider buying a telescope, get this volume as well as Dickenson's other great volume, Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe [NIGHTWATCH 4/E]. They both have great sections on helping you decide on which scopes are best suited to you and your lifestyle. The Backyard Astronomer's Guide is one substantial volume, both in terms of the data it contains, as well as its sheer physicality...it's a true "coffee-table" book that visitors will find themselves thumbing through just for the vibrant images (many of which were captured by Dickenson himself, as he's become quite an accomplished astrophotographer.) If there was one book that could rightly be called "the amateur astronomer's bible", then this one would be it.

Outstanding information by Peter Gresik (Libertyville, ILL)

5 Stars
March 30, 2009
Once you start reading you will not be able to put it down. Great information and the book gives you the basic to get started.

Backyard Astronomer's Guide by Stephen C. Reed (Littleton, Colorado)

5 Stars
March 10, 2009
In my opinion, this is the best book available for amateur astronomers. The authors are very candid in their reviews of equipment and their advice is excellent.

Aterrific book for beginners as well as experienced die hards by K. Kinucan (Polson Montana)

4 Stars
January 20, 2009
There are good things and some not so good I have a copy of the first edition published in 1991,so I compared the two.and discovered that the colored digital images and the star charts opposite each photo were not as easy to read as the standard photos and charts were in the 1991 edition. The conventional photoography showed the bright stars that outline the constelations much moe clearly. I could barely find them in the digital pictures. However, the chapter on astrophotography was superp and the astrophotos were superb. I would rate the book a must have for anyone interested in telescopes binoculars and astrophotography.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe by Terence Dickinson (Author), Terence Dickinson (Photographer), Adolf Schaller (Photographer), Victor Costanzo (Photographer), Roberta Cooke (Photographer), Glenn LeDrew (Photographer), Timothy Ferris (Photographer) Thoroughly revised, updated and expanded. The first three editions of Night Watch sold more than 600,000 copies, making it the top-selling stargazing guide in the world for the last 20 years. The key feature of this classic title is the section of star charts that are cherished by backyard astronomers everywhere. Each new edition has outsold the previous one because of thorough revisions and additional new material. Night Watch has been acclaimed as the best general interest...
	Turn Left at Orion: A Hundred Night Sky Objects to See in a Small Telescope--and How to Find Them by Guy Consolmagno (Author), Dan M. Davis (Author), Karen Kotash Sepp (Illustrator), Anne Drogin (Illustrator), Mary Lynn Skirvin (Illustrator) A superb guidebook described in Bookwatch as 'the home astronomer's "bible"', Turn Left at Orion provides all the information beginning amateur astronomers need to observe the Moon, the planets and a whole host of celestial objects. Large format diagrams show these objects exactly as they appear in a small telescope and for each object there is information on the current state of our astronomical knowledge. Revised and updated, this new edition contains a chapter with ten new spreads describing...
	Star Ware: The Amateur Astronomer's Guide to Choosing, Buying, and Using Telescopes and Accessories by Philip S. Harrington (Author) Praise for Star Ware "Star Ware is still a tour de force that any experienced amateur will find invaluable, and which hardware-minded beginners will thoroughly enjoy." - Robert Burnham, Sky & Telescope magazine "Star Ware condenses between two covers what would normally take a telescope buyer many months to accumulate." - John Shibley, Astronomy magazine Whether you're shopping for your first telescope or your fifth,...
	Deep Sky Observer's Guide by Neil Bone (Author), Wil Tirion (Illustrator) 'Deep Sky' refers to the universe beyond our own solar system. Using binoculars or telescopes, any sky-gazer can become a deep sky observer. Deep Sky Observer's Guide looks beyond individual stars to target: - Star clusters - Double Stars - Nebulae - Galaxies. The Deep Sky Observer's Guide introduces the basics of observing and explains what equipment is required. A chapter is devoted to each type of deep sky target. There are more than 200 such objects featured, with 126 color...
	Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas by Roger W. Sinnott (Author)