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

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You don't need an ideal sky to engage in this love of the night sky. The perfect night with the star-crammed firmament is usually only read about. The authors mostly observed with a three-inch scope 15 miles from Manhattan. You will be outdoors observing in an environment not scripted or canned for you. It is a hobby, don't forget. Don't torture yourself; don't burden yourself with the seriousness of your intent. It isn't necessary to find useful work to do with your telescope. If it is work, is someone going to pay you? 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: A Hundred Night Sky Objects To See In A Small Telescope - And How To Find Them [PDF] Best astronomy ebook or pdf (non-hard copy) - Beginners Forum (No Astrophotography) - Cloudy Nights

The first views you will have of the planets, conditioned as we are to the necessities of NASA's photos as fulfilling a need to impress the taxpayers, are going to be disappointing. You will need patience, perceptive skill, your highest magnification at the scope, and a night conductive to good seeing. Be prepared to at first see a tiny trembling blob of light. Any expectation of awesome fine detail to be seen on a planet's surface is greatly diminished. It is there, some important features can be see. It takes training, training takes time. Venus - its phases. Mars - tiny with dark patches and polar caps. Jupiter - zones, belts, festoons, the Great Red Spot, and Jup's moons. Saturn - its rings, Cassini's division in those rings, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan. 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 book is excellent for anyone who has just bought a telescope. Do not buy it unless you have bought one.If one were giving an autodidact a telescope, they should also give them this book. There is only a chapter's worth of true reading -- maybe 15% of the book -- but much of that is the information that unfortunately didn't come with the telescope itself. The remainder of the book has very practical astronomical targets--organized by season so you are looking for objects high in the sky--along with very practical approaches on how to actually see them through your eyepiece. Diagrams are also provided that illustrate how they might appear depending on what type of instrument you are using. I would recommend this for any new owner of any decent telescope who is without access to a decent astronomy community to learn from--particularly if they've been frustrated by a few unsuccessful first attempts and are getting discouraged. Don't give up; get this book instead. 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 Ultimately it is just not the book for me, if others like it then fine and that is good for them. But I still suggest that people have a look at it first rather then assume that because people say you have to have it then you go out and buy it regardless. This document was uploaded by our user. The uploader already confirmed that they had the permission to publish

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 In Turn Left at Orion, Guy Consolmagno and Dan M. Davis are of the opinion that amateur astronomy is not made up of GOTO telescopes and CCD apparatus. With GOTO scopes, a computer finds the celestial object for you by knowing where the object is and by how much to move the telescope until the object is seen in the eyepiece of the scope. You are a low-level operator, you sit in the stands, and the computer plays the game. No virtues are instilled. A CCD (charged coupled device) digitizes an image of the astronomical beauty and you, again as an operator, see what it sees for you. A machine in each case is doing it for you. In the US in the 1960s there then flared a national discussion filled with concern that Americans were becoming spectators as opposed to participants. They were not participating in sports, that was the touchstone of the matter. Huge football stadiums would fill on Saturdays for the watchers of the collegiate struggles. There were thousands and thousands across the land who only watched and did not do more. The poor devils could only idly observe and see what was before them. It wasn't as real as the doing of the sport; the leisure activity was commended for the values it instilled. 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. 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.After delving into how to use a telescope, the book teaches how to locate specific objects in the night sky, and how to use a telescope to see the Moon, planets, star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. It even talks about how to locate and utilize geostationary satellites. This outstanding book is often recommended in these threads as the best guide to what you might expect to see through telescopes of various types/size. The expectation of many novices is unreasonably high due to magazine "Hubble" sourced images. This book quite rightly lowers that expection, raises confidence and enhances the enjoyment of the amateur telescope. Turn Left at Orion : A Hundred Night Sky Objects to See in a Small Telescope - And How to Find Them Someday the scopes can be talked to and they will go where wanted to find what can be seen. But, by then, why bother to look? Let the scope tell you what can be seen and push out a super DVD, color corrected, blown up to gigantic screen size as you sit and impatiently for the scope to get on with it, there are those other 55 tonight and you have only 19 minutes more. The scope knows the sky conditions, the temp, does autofocus, knows what you had for dinner, and it knows if your toenails need to be trimmed.

A small telescope, no toenails involved, can show one million stars. There are thousands of double stars for a small telescope. Some people never go much further than the Moon. The Cosmos sparks wonder and some feel the need for powerful gadgets as an equalizer, as a hurry-up offense. The Cosmos need not put you on the defensive, you need not run at it. Why does it need to be a contest, a game like football? Into the stands you go or can you realize how important you are with the small telescope? Spectator or in the field of endeavors? Turn Left at Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope ? and How to Find Them The book is much larger than I imagined and ring-bound; great for the field, not ideal for the tube. I closed this book out with some beautiful viewing this morning around 4am, where the chilly 24 degree F temps made for a crystal clear sky. A great way to celebrate the finale of this book.

It gives very clear and concise instructions about finding different stars, constellations and other astronomical sights.

One thing that I find extremely helpful is a music stand to hold star maps, books like LTAO, tablet running SkySafari, etc. Turn left at Orion. A hundred night sky objects to see in a small telescope and how to find them. Third edition. 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. I have the book and tried to read through it from cover to cover but I just can't do it. I lose interest. How exactly do those of you that love this book use it?You can on this job, if you insist in getting into such a state, be as emotional as you want. "No detector matches the human eye in capturing subtlety and emotion. No computer guider can give you the serendipity of the things seen on the way to the things sought." Turn Left at Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope â and How to Find Them Received this last week and working my way through. Since then, my knowledge of DSOs and their home constellations has improved dramatically. An exceptionally useful text, irrespective of whether you are a novice observer or a seasoned veteran. The changes that have been made to the book are so substantial that even those who own earlier ones will find it refreshingly new. It's not just recommended, it's simply a must have!' Astronomy Now