Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas,   ISBN:9781931559317

Customer Rating: 

A great sky atlas, perfectly detailed and colorful. I often use it rather that the large format atlas I also have.

Philippe Barraud

Customer Rating: 

As a beginner, I didn't like this much. However, as I developed my observing skills, I really LOVE this! This is really a requirement if you're going to get serious about observing.

If you're new to astronomy, hold off a bit and pick up a good guidebook instead, like Turn Left at Orion, Nightwatch, and Star Watch. Once you get through those, then you can find things on your own, without a computer, using this atlas. I have a computer on my dob, but it's more fun to star hop using this guide than to just type it in and push.

Think of this as a map to the universe. In fact, that's what it is! You wouldn't go on a trip without a good map, would you?

Customer Rating: 

Heaven knows I don't need another star chart, but the other day I received
yet another one after the recommendation of a friend. It was the Pocket
Sky Atlas.

There was something in the descriptor that struck a chord with me.

The one I got I received new, still sealed and in perfect condition.

If I were to change anything, and this is a very petty complaint, I
would rather have seen that the front and back cover were both separate
pages individually bound on the spiral rather than the front merely
being a wrap around from the back.

Also, I found a link mentioning two serious errors in the charts, an
omission concerning part of Corona Borealis and the Virgo Cluster,
however I see nothing wrong with those parts of my Atlas that I received.

Apparently you want the second edition 2006 or later to avoid this very
tiny discrepancy.

The Pocket Atlas is interesting in that it is broken into 8 vertical
sections or orange peels based on Right Ascension, but different in that
each starts at the north pole and works all the way to the south pole,
for just that section (45° sector out of the full 360° sphere), and then
starts back at the north pole again in the next section, rather than
starting at the north and spiraling down to the south pole like a
corkscrew as most other charts do.

At first I had my doubts about that approach but in fact it works quite
well here.

If I am to suggest and do anything, that would be to number each "peel"
as "1" through "8" on the Contents page, then stick a numbered
tab on the first page of each section. this way you could look up the
month or time of year (or time of night) on the contents page, find
which section that date is under, then flip right to that section using
the tab! Or use the back page to look up the particular area of sky by
page number.

The charts themselves are essentially like a Deluxe (Color) Sky Atlas
2000 just shrunk down in size. As such they have the benefit of having
nearly all of the objects and detail of its larger brethren but also
with the liability of getting a little "busy" and harder to read due to
the crowding and smaller size of symbols needed--- a necessary and
acceptable "evil" of being both powerful and pocket-able. But they
manage this very well and the charts remain very attractive and readable.

In the back are cross references for stars, DSO's and the like so that
one can look up NGC 1234 and find out which chart it is on. All in all,
I agree, this may overall become my most often used set of charts, not
because it is my "best" or my favorite, but because it is perhaps one of
the most well thought out and practical set of charts for at the
telescope (or nightstand) table, for ready and convenient reference.

Customer Rating: 

This is a very precise atlas, but it is not for beginners or those who don't read the map very well. It's in latitude/longitude terms and diagrams.

Customer Rating: 

I met this atlas in a star party that was conducted by the Israeli astronomocal association in the desert.I was delighed to use it:it has a very accurate star charts with many objects that are not mentioned in many other atlases like "the snake nebula" - i did'nt know it is even exist without this atlas!.the atlas is very friendly and is sutible for the novice astronomy amateur and for the advanced one.it contains objects for small aperture telescopes and for large ones as well.it is in A5 size and is very convenient to carry to the field.a very convenient atlas "to the eyes": the constellations lines are colored in green,the milky way in blue and deep sky objects are in:red,yellow,and green.It is highly recommanded product by me!