Peterson First Guide to Astronomy

by Jay M. Pasachoff, Roger Tory Peterson, Jay M. Pasachoff Professor of Astronomy

Book Overview

The Peterson First Guide to Astronomy provides an introduction to astronomy for beginners, featuring photographs taken from the MESSENGER spacecraft and predictions for meteor showers, comets, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395935423
• ISBN13: 9780395935422
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 3.8" x 7.3"
• Age Range: 11 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 6 and higher

Customer Reviews

Handy and accurate

I find this book most useful for the 12 star maps found at the very begining. It gives basic information about astronomy in a comprehensible manner. The book is handy enough to keep with you and with a small penlight you can reference the maps while observing the night sky, easily fits in a jacket or pans back pocket. Additionally I found the mythology behind the traditional western culture naming of the constellations interesting. Only criticisms include 1) as previously mentioned, no star charts for the Southern Hemisphere and 2) wasted pages printing illustrations of the characters the constellations represent. These pages could have been used to add Southern Hemisphere maps or to discuss more then the listed 13 constellations.

Compact;concise.

Great little book for the beginner.Portable,so you can take it with you on your nighttime prowling of the universe.Written in a manner that newbies such as myself can understand.A good companion to all my other amateur astronomy books.Inexpensive,as well.Not as comprehensive as those other books,but this is a field guide,and it serves its purpose well.

This is a great little book

The Peterson guide is small and compact, but packed with information. When you can't take a huge volume with you, this fits the bill perfectly. I take it on cycling tours and hiking trips, where it fits nicely in a pannier or pocket. It's easy to understand, too - I gave a copy to my young neice for Christmas last year.

The First Astronomy Book You Should Buy.

Thanks to this book, I am now an amateur astronomer. I have a lot of astronomy resources but this is the one I use over and over again. This book is designed for someone without any experience and is an excellent guide for showing someone where to look. Within just a little while the reader will be looking at galaxies, nebulas, and globular clusters... Bob Flater