Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
Autor de Observer's Handbook 2019: USA Edition
Sobre El Autor
Obras de Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
Journal of The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Vol.85/6 [633] December 1991 ( pp.291-394) (2022) 6 copias
The Observer's Handbooks 1 copia
Observers Manual 1 copia
Aurora and the solar section 1 copia
A General Index To The First Twenty-Nine Volumes Of The Monthly Notices Of The Royal Astronomical Society (1870) (2010) 1 copia
The Observer's handbook 2016 1 copia
The Observer's handbook 1995 1 copia
The Observer's handbook 1994 1 copia
The Observer's handbook 1993 1 copia
The Observer's handbook 1992 1 copia
The Observer's handbook 1991 1 copia
The Observer's handbook 1990 1 copia
The Observer's handbook 1989 1 copia
Observer's Handbook: 1975-1989 1 copia
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
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Miembros
Reseñas
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 20
- Miembros
- 38
- Popularidad
- #383,442
- Valoración
- 4.5
- Reseñas
- 2
- ISBNs
- 8
Excellent edition for the year.
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PLOT OR PREMISE:
This is the annual observer's guide published by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
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WHAT I LIKED:
"Each year, the Observer's Guide is produced and sold to amateur and professional astronomers across North America, and those astronomers vary considerably in their capacity and interests. It's hard to serve any ""one group"", but as I am at the intro stage to the hobby, I'll review from that perspective. Some highlights include:
- List of observatories, star parties, planetaria (pp 11-14);
- Observable satellites of the planets (pp 25-26);
- Observing artificial satellites (p 38);
- Overview of filters (pp 64-67);
- Deep-sky observing hints by Alan Dyer (pp 85-87);
- Lunar observing (pp 158-161);
- The brightest stars (pp 274-283, 285); and,
- The deep sky (pp 307-337).
Of course, it also has the key reference materials:
- The Moon (pp 148-157);
- The Sun (pp 184-193);
- Dwarf and minor planets (pp 241-251); and,
- Double and multiple stars (pp 291-294, 296-297).
And it has specific highlights for the year:
- The Sky month-by-month (pp 94-121);
- Times of sunrise and sunset for 2019 (pp 205-207);
- 2019 transit of Mercury (pp 139-143);
- The planets in 2019 (pp 211-229); and,
- Comets in 2019 (p 264).
I'm happy too that some of the errors in URLs published last year have been corrected."
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WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
I still find the pages on telescope exit pupils (pp 50-53) to be incredibly dense. I keep meaning to find a more basic set of explanations online for it, but never get around to it. I would add the next section on magnification and contrast in deep sky observing (pp 54-57) as equally confusing. I have to believe that dense text can somehow be explained more easily to the newbie into some basic guidelines for common scopes and ages of users. Equally, I'm not thrilled with the astrophotography section (pp 91-93) which still shows as the "big cameras" are best, in the same way that many photography websites ten years ago suggested the professionals would never go digital. There is an emerging market for people sharing prime shots they take with their smartphones -- souvenir quality shots, not NASA shots -- and it is almost completely ignored by the section (grudgingly it says "even cell phones"). I also find that the economic bias of last year towards higher end binoculars and scopes continues. But those issues are mostly me just being picky -- they aren't enough to reduce the overall rating.
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DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the editor, nor do I follow him on social media. I am, however, a member of RASC.… (más)