A fantastic guide to a wonderful hobby (How to Use an Astronomical Telescope - James Muirden)

Member Name: markos9

Product:	How to Use an Astronomical Telescope - James Muirden
Date:	23/08/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very comprehensive yet readable.

Disadvantages: None.

Amateur astronomy is a wonderful hobby. No other pastime gives people a sense of the scale of the universe and of our place within it as astronomy does. An observer gazing up at the sky on a dark night through a telescope can see objects so far away that their light has travelled for millions of years to reach us.

With an amateur telescope, it's possible to see mountains on the Moon, the polar caps of Mars, Jupiter's great red spot, star clusters, remote galaxies, comets and asteroids.

Seeing, for example, the great Andromeda galaxy with one's own eye, is far more impressive than seeing a picture; the light from that distant object has crossed the vastness of space and impacts on your retina directly!

Amateur astronomy has never been as popular or as inexpensive as it is today. Many good quality telescopes are available from as little as £250. A reasonable quality, small telescope will increase the number of stars visible to the observer from around 2,000 (seen with the naked eye) to several million.

Unfortunately, many people buy a telescope with the best of intentions (often a poor quality item from a catalogue), get frustrated at its limitations and difficulty of use, and never use it again.

What's needed for the beginner is a good book to give help and advice on selecting and using a telescope to ensure that the user gets the most out of the hobby. 'How to use an astronomical telescope' is exactly the sort of book required.

The author James Muirden is an accomplished astronomer and author. His aim in writing this book is to give the beginner sufficient information to select a good telescope, then enough information to start using it.

This is a comprehensive book. At 400 pages, it packs a huge amount of information on the subject between its covers. Fortunately, the author avoids presenting the reader with a turgid technical manual. Rather, his approach is to guide the beginner gently whilst all the while attempting to transmit his endless enthusiasm for the subject.

The result is one of the best and most complete beginner's guides on the market today. Anyone interested in amateur astronomy will learn all of the basics here. One of the strengths of the book is that it's likely to leave the reader wanting to know even more (and every amateur astronomer has this thirst for knowledge; it never diminishes as there's always more to learn in this developing field).

The book starts, naturally enough with the selection of an instrument. There are several types of telescope on the market, in many different sizes, giving a bewildering choice for the beginner. The author takes the time to describe each type, their advantages and disadvantages, before giving advice on the size of telescope to buy (a larger telescope will give brighter images, but will be more bulky and much heavier as well as more expensive).

A brief chapter on the night sky follows. Here, the author explains how the sky appears to move. Lots of technical terms such as ecliptic and sidereal time are introduced (don't panic, we don't need to understand these completely!). This gives the new astronomer a basic understanding of what he or she is seeing as the night progresses.

At long last, we move onto using the new telescope. The author starts in day time, observing the sun. This has advantages; the sun is big and contains interesting features like sunspots. The author explains the disadvantages too. Looking through a telescope at the sun will result in instantaneous, permanent blindness. There are techniques to safely observe the sun and the author explains these in detail.

From the sun, Muirden moves on to observing the Moon. The Moon is the most popular target for amateur astronomers for obvious reasons. The craters, seas, and mountains of the moon are very easy to observe.

The waxing and waning of the Moon enhances features due to lengthening shadows meaning that no observing session is ever the same. Many of the features of the Moon have been named (such as the Sea of Tranquillity where Apollo 11 landed forty years ago) and the author shows many of these features in the book.

For many observers, the planets offer the most exciting viewing experience. Gazing at the small disc of Mars, from forty million miles away, it's difficult not to speculate whether there is life on that cold, dry world, as you look at the polar caps, dust storms, and the ruddy orange deserts.

The author explains that the first view of the planets will probably disappoint as the eye needs to be 'trained' to see detail on the tiny discs seen through a telescope. Techniques for doing this are described in the book.

Stars are the next target for the author. Many people know of the three sun system of Tatooine from Star Wars. Well many star systems are double or even triple like this fictional solar system. What appears to be a single star to the naked eye can be resolved in the eyepiece into two or more differently coloured points of light (yes, stars have colours).

Many stars are variable; that is their brightness changes over a period of time. The author explains that this is a fascinating subject where amateur astronomers can actually add to scientific knowledge by their observations of variable stars.

The final section concerns the observations of so called 'deep sky' objects; star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. The number and variety of these objects is amazing and they have very evocative names such as the Whirlpool Galaxy, the Owl Nebula, and the Jewel Box.

Finding these, often faint, objects can be quite challenging, but the author guides the reader, using star charts and a technique called 'star hopping' to point the telescope in the right direction. The sense of satisfaction as you manage to train your telescope to get your first glimpse of (say) the Ring Nebula is immense!

The four hundred pages of this book contain an incredible amount of information for the beginner astronomer. The author has done well to get across this important information in an interesting and informative way. Reading this book will probably convince the beginner that astronomy is the fascinating subject they thought it was. They may then find themselves waiting impatiently for the next clear night to start observing (something the author can't help with!).

This book is both a superb resource for the beginner and a readable reference book for the more experienced observer. It is not a coffee table book, all the photographs in it are monochrome, but it is fascinating all the same. Anyone thinking of getting a telescope for themselves or a member of the family would do well to pick up a copy of this book first.

The book is available from Amazon for £12.70 in paperback.

Summary: Anyone interested in amateur astronomy will benefit from reading this.