The Southern Sky
The night sky is a wonder – from the fixed and almost changeless stars to the brief appearances of comets, it offers a universe of fascinating objects to view. With little more than a pair of binoculars or a small telescope, millions of light-years of space are available to all. The Southern Sky has been written to guide you through this space and introduce you to the pleasures of amateur astronomy.
In recent years, a number of spectacular events have drawn attentions skywards, but the lack of a suitable guide to the night sky has deterred many from taking their interest further. This book changes that. With chapters about naked-eye observing, binoculars and the selection and use of small telescopes, The Southern Sky provides all the information needed to make a start in amateur astronomy. Unlike many works from overseas, The Southern Sky is specially written for observers in the southern hemisphere, where differences in the night sky and the setting up of telescopes make most northern hemisphere books useless.
The Southern Sky will guide you through most of the techniques used by amateur astronomers in their observations to make the most of your instruments. An important part of the book is the selection of over a hundred objects which can be seen with just a sixty millimetre telescope. These objects represent the best that the best that the southern sky has to offer. There are galaxies, nebulae, double and multiple stars, enough to keep an observer busy for many evenings. Each object has a finder chart to locate it and many are accompanied by photographs
