National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Night Sky,   ISBN:9781426202810

Customer Rating: 

The title says it all. Backyard Guide is exactly what I needed to help me review and prepare my scripts for operating a planetarium in NE Georgia. It's loaded with quick facts about anything I would be showing in our digital planetarium and most helpful in viewing all the major objects in the night sky.

Customer Rating: 

I bought this for my husband and he absolutely loved it! Interesting facts, pictures and info. on how to see the constellations, a really good read overall. Very happy with my purchase.

Customer Rating: 

This beautiful little book has become my steady stargazing companion. Not only is it an excellent, comprehensive guide to the night sky, it also makes for good reading when you're stuck inside. It's helpful, educational, and entertaining. It's also well organized, filled with current information and the latest science, and contains impressive pictures and charts.

This book is not a "coffee-table" book as one might sometimes expect with National Geographic, but rather it's published in a convenient field guide size that fits easily into a pack or in your hands, so you can actually use it outside.

One of the most impressive and helpful aspects of this guide is its information on the constellations and how to find deep-space objects within them, like galaxies and clusters. Each constellation is given its own succinct and trenchant treatment, with a heading, map, best times for viewing, associated mythology, and, of course, the location of deep space objects that can be found nearby.

There are only four sky charts given, however (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter), so one may need more specific times for viewing on certain days and hours that can be found in more detailed charts or almanacs. But that's a minor quibble. Indeed, scientists, laymen, kids, and beginners alike, everyone will find this guidebook a useful and joyful addition to their collection.