I can’t rate this book enough. It is helping me make the best of my telescope, and has helped me see wonders of our universe that have taken my breath away. A must have for beginners, and a great way to pass the time if your waiting on a long delivery time for your telescope. Turn Left at Orion is an essential guide for both beginners and more experienced amateur astronomers who will find much inside to reinvigorate their passion for the stars. The diagrams are simple, clear and functional, and the text eloquently captures the excitement of observing. Stargazing has never been made so easy and if you buy just one book on observational astronomy, make sure it's this one.' Keith Cooper, Editor, Astronomy Now Mostly written for the northern hemisphere observer, 'Turn left at Orion', is set out through the seasons. What I like most about this work is the size of the star maps. These maps are set out from naked eye view, then to spotter scope image, and finally a scope eyepiece view. It really is written and set out for the amateur astronomer with binoculars or a 3 inch refracting scope in mind, and is an excellent aid to go star hopping and locate the feint fuzzies of galaxies, star clusters and nebulae. Turn Left at Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope - and How to Find Them This book is great when combined with WiFi and SkySafari Plus (or Pro). You use a "pinch" technique to open up your on-screen path to GoTo the additional objects from the primary. If accurately aligned (I use Starsense) you don't need to fiddle with HC slews as GoTo each is precise. However SkySafari descriptions tend to illustrate Hubble type images; when "Turn left at Orion" highlights exactly what you are actually likely to see in various scopes. It completely transformed my expectation, but is perhaps of higher value to those with larger scopes (6" and above) as many of the objects will be tiny blurred smoky blobs in lesser scopes (as they are in reality). Most owners love it.

Getting to Beta is not difficult. Other celestial objects that the authors have selected for you are somewhat more difficult to locate and some are easier to find. Currently in amateur astronomy, there is a divide that is getting larger with every new computer-driven scope that comes on the market. They do the finding for you. These scopes are usually referred to as GOTOs. To GO-TO or not to GO-TO? This matter was mentioned earlier but it does bear amplification as the entire nature of amateur astronomy is changing. Turn Left at Orion : A Hundred Night Sky Objects to See in a Small Telescope - And How to Find ThemPraise for previous editions:‘Turn Left at Orion is an essential guide for both beginners and more experienced amateur astronomers who will find much inside to reinvigorate their passion for the stars. The diagrams are simple, clear and functional, and the text eloquently captures the excitement of observing. Stargazing has never been made so easy, and if you buy just one book on observational astronomy, make sure it's this one.' Keith Cooper, Editor, Astronomy Now Never understood the reason behind showing you what the view should be like through the eyepiece. Simply none seem to match the reality. What scope 70mm or 200mm both these days are small and common. One person recently started with a 12" reflector. I can see the idea behind it but the reality just did not seem to correspond. Throw in that these days there are 50 degree plossl's up to 100 degree ES eypieces.

The moons of either Jupiter or Saturn look like stars and stars aplenty you can see. The finest stellar objects for smaller scopes are groups of stars. The group may be no more than a double - two stars in orbit about one another or it may be a cluster of stars from a dozen to a few hundred stars or it may be hundreds of thousands of stars in a compact sphere. Here and there a galaxy can be found but they are no more than wisps of lines except for the great galaxy in Andromeda. Most of these occupants of the sunless sky require finding. Hi, this is not a pdf, but definitely a good read for a beginner (such as myself) never the less. A practical guide to choosing eyepieces. Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope – and How to Find Them Authors:Guy Consolmagno, Dan M. Davis Guy Consolmagno is a Jesuit brother at the Specola Vaticana (Vatican Observatory) dividing his time between Tucson, Arizona and Castel Gandolfo, Italy. He studied the origin and evolution of moons and asteroids in our solar system. His telescope is a 3.5” catadioptic. In general I'm not a fan of books like this. They tend to not do a good job at what they try to teach but this one is an exception. I think it will help make the night sky much more accessible to newcomers to amateur astronomy.

The authors' directions are not difficult to understand, for example, to find a triple star named Beta Monocerotis in the constellation called Monoceros - "Find Orion, high above the southern horizon, and find the very bright red star, Betelgeuse...Then, from Orion, turn left and follow the stars in Orion's belt which point to the southeast towards a dazzling blue star, Sirius...A little less than halfway between Sirius and Betelgeuse you'll find two faint stars, lying in an east-west line. Aim for the one to the east, the one away from Orion. That's Beta Monocerotis." Once seen, whatever it is, are you done? How about a different filter? A different altitude or attitude? Different eyepieces, different magnification, collimation, new seasons, new hours of the night, differing temperature, the mud of spring or the frost of autumn, and a differing time of your life? You ultimately see with your mind. How have you changed? What you see will then change. The secrets of the starry night change too. This is quite possibly the most inviting guidebook ever written to help people with binoculars and small telescopes find, view, understand, and, most of all, enjoy everything in the night sky from the Moon and planets to distant star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. And if you think it's only for beginners, think again - every telescope owner should have a copy.' Dennis di Cicco, Senior Editor, Sky and Telescope But there is the Moon, aren't lunar reruns a dime a dozen? Always there, well sometimes not for long, it is absent from the sky occasionally. It can be high or low. You see different regions of it at differing times. Well, yes, not similar enough of a view until about 20 years have past. It was once the most tempting object in the sky. Now we have been there. What's the point of seeing the fascinating detail in and around the crater named Clavius? Most of us see the waxing, not the waning Moon. You will see lunar features that are three miles across. Easily seen are the highlands, giant mountains, basins, "seas", rays, and magma oceans. Once amateurs in the thousands knew the names and appearance of hundreds, if not thousands, of the characteristic Moon, the lunar museum. Stars go behind the Moon and the Moon's mountains can alternately hide and reveal the star as it appears to graze the edge of the Moon. Large parts of the Moon, in a smaller scope, will be seen to have a smooth, flat look. This is a more pleasant appearance than that found in large telescopes, which give you a grainy, grating and smeary view.