Turn Left at Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope – and How to Find Them

I bought this on the strength of the reviews here as I am considering getting into astronomy and might buy myself a telescope. Opening this book I immediately felt drawn in by the friendly style, engaging text and loved the layout. I quickly found myself armed with a working understanding of some ideas that had evaded comprehension previously and couldn't wait to get started. From the infectious enthusiasm of the author I went straight outside with my bird watching binoculars and immediately found the Andromeda Galaxy, a smudge in the sky, billions of stars in a galaxy like our own Milky Way, easy to find when you know where to look, and also when you know what it is going to look like. That's how easy it is to get started with this book. Pick it up, and ten minutes later you are doing astronomy. I am looking forward to exploring the sky, now that I have an authoritative guide. Perfect gift for the scientifically curious. Should be given out free to every 10 year old child at school. When I can afford it I will probably be getting a 200mm Newtonian reflector with an equatorial mount that can be upgraded with a motorised mount and a finding computer added. There are fabulous images in books and online from big telescopes that show the hearts of galaxies in beautiful detail. These can be compared with images in this book of what you will actually see through binoculars or a telescope together with instructions on how to find them.

This is the best beginner book for astronomy. Purchased for my Grandson who loves it.It gives you realistic expectations of what you might be viewing through your telescope or even binoculars.It has pages and pages of detailed guides to galaxies and stars. Detailed insight into every single phase of the moon and how to view the planets.

This is a great book to help you "learn the sky" to begin your star watching / gazing / spotting.Its easy to understand and well written,it's probably a must for new starters, intermediates or well experienced sky watchers,you have to read it all and probably more than once,but it is worth it.

The best thing about this book is the absence of satellite images of objects. All objects are drawn, and drawn as you would see them under ideal (ie very dark) conditions through an average telescope. Having been weaned on books by Patrick Moore it's slightly jarring to encounter the Americanisms but once you're tuned to that, it's a very informative work.The first section is an excellent introduction to types of telescope which will allow you to make an informed choice and even if, like me, you already have a 'scope it does not denigrate any particular type, pointing out the pluses & minuses of each.The remainder of the book is a great reference to objects which can be seen from the northern hemisphere divided into the four seasons.The flaw in this book is the spiral binding. To my mind, spiral bindings are great for things like engineering manuals where you may want to spread out on a desk and indeed I can see some occasions where you might want to have the book alongside your telescope but for the vast majority it will be read while sitting in an armchair, where the care needed to turn pages without tearing is a major distraction. This is the only reason I haven't awarded 5 stars.

I read quite a few 'Astronomy for beginners' books before buying this and it is by very far the best I have read.Too many people buy their first telescope only to put it away after looking at the moon as they are unaware what other facinating sights await them.Many books which are 'written by enthusiasts for beginners' fall into the unskilled author trap of assuming the beginner has some basic knowledge which is obvious to the author. (One simple example being that the view in your scope can be inverted and or mirrored from that shown by their example. A source of great confusion otherwise).The authors of this book have not fallen into this trap and have the skill of clearly imparting what you need to get started, giving examples of what you will see applicable to your viewing device, where to look for and find it etc. etc. Plus the skill to appeal to the more experienced without appearing to be talking down to them.You only need to buy one book to get you, and keep you, on the path to an enjoyable hobby and this is it. So a well deserved full 5 stars.

There is a 1-star negative review of this book that is being flagged as the most helpful, the review is absolute nonsense. This is hands down the best beginner book for astronomy. It takes you through what you can see at any time of the year, gives you realistic expectations of what you might be viewing through binoculars or various sized telescopes. It has pages and pages of detailed guides to Messier Deep sky objects, like galaxies, nebula and star clusters as well as very detailed insight into every single phase of the moon and how to view the planets.You'll learn a bit of history, latin and star lore along the way.Buy the spiral bound version and it easily folds out on your lap or chair as you watch the night sky.It's a book recommended by thousands of astronomers around the world, on every astronomy forum and in every club.

Recomendo pra iniciantes e experientes

I've always wanted a book like this, as a useful tool for deciding what to observe: some star atlases do have tables of the objects, but they only contain basic information (like position and magnitude); on the other hand, reference books like Burnham's contain too much information on too many objects.This book in my opinion is a perfect balance between the two: it gives you both descriptive information and star charts (for finderscopes, smaller and larger scopes) for only the most interesting objects that can be observed with smaller scopes: double stars, deep sky objects, and a few variable stars etc.In terms of the content, it has a few pages at the beginning about telescopes, followed by moon maps and how to observe the planets (which includes a Mars map). After that, most of the book is dedicated to the deep sky, organized in seasons and the polar regions. And there are tables of the objects at the end of the book.As for the things I don't like: 1)The star charts lack scale. Not something important but would definitely be nice to have 2)It would be helpful to have a summary table of the objects in each constellation, not just having a big table of all the constellations at the end of the book.Overall, I highly recommend this book.

Es el libro imprescindible para todo aquel que se inicie en la astronomía. Perfecto.

Absolutely a must for every amatuer astronomer! Exceeded every expectation!

Manuale ben fatto. Ottimo anche per principianti come me.