Starlight nights;: The adventures of a star-gazer,

by Leslie C. Peltier

Book Overview

This classic autobiography of one of the 20th century's foremost amateur astronomers was originally published by Harper & Row in 1965. In his new foreword, Sky & Telescope contributing editor David H.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0007DRJU4
• Release Date: January 1965
• Publisher: Harper & Row
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The heart and soul of skygazing !!!

Peltier has written a wonderful book - a true classic ! - that explores the heart and soul of amateur astronomy. If you love the night sky, get this book - you will cherish it! And better yet, it's available at Sky for only ~ $20 !!! [...]

A message from another world.

This is a jem. The author would likely fail to recognize the world of 2002, and would certainly be horrified to awake in it.He lived, really lived, in an earlier era when discovery of a new comet by an amateur simply looking through a telescope, without the CCDs and other fancy technology, was celebrated, and civilization grew at a pleasant pace in the midwest where he lived, away from the hustle, rush hours, and UN crisis. His humility in accepting the gifts of slowly increasing aperture telescopes and the way in which alone, he found good ways to use them to their best are balm to the soul.Get a copy of this little book, turn off the TV and computer and regress to Peltier's world of worthwhile ways of spending your time while seeing the universe. Fortunately, you don't really have to wait weeks to get a copy if you'll dial up Sky and Telescope.

A trip back in time...

Remember those movies where an old man tells his story in the form of a flashback? The kind that makes you wish you could go back in time to hang out with them, experience their life? Starlight Nights is one of those stories. Leslie Peltier's book is full of warmth and humor. He takes us back to a 1905 farm and describes what it was like to grow up without electricity, television. The beginning of his story predates the spread of the automobile. We watch as he buys a small telescope, and without the benefit of a college education, becomes the friend and colleague of the eminent astronomers of his day. We experience the thrill of finding comets and novae, and at the same time, the quiet joy of country life a century ago. The book is wonderfully illustrated by Mr. Peltier himself, and the introduction includes family photographs. Absolutely recommended for everyone, not just stargazers.

"A hymn to the sky" - David Levy

"A hymn to the sky" -Levy. To me, no book more beautifully captures the spirit of amateur astronomy that Peltier's Starlight Nights. I first read this book several years ago and still remember marveling at Peltier's intensely personal autobiography. In writing of his childhood in Delphos, Ohio, he spares few details of life on the early 1900's farm, and we wait spellbound with him as he orders his first telescope after catching the astronomy bug as a young teenager. We breathlessly await the partial eclipse of 1918 (the teenaged Leslie lacked the funds to travel the 500 miles necessary to see totality in the US's first total eclipse of the century), and are swept away again that very night as he was one of the first to note the spectacular Nova Aquila as it rose to a stunning -1.4 mag.Peltier's descriptions of his experiences are as elegant as they are simple. His deep respect and admiration for nature are woven into every page, not only for things astronomical, but terrestrial as well, for he was a naturalist of varied interests.This reissue comes with a new foreword by David Levy, as well as several rare photographs (on the cover and back, as well as a few in the foreword) of Peltier, his early telescopes and homes. If you are familiar with this book, take this opportunity to read it again. If you've never read it before, set aside a long evening - you won't put it down after you start.

A wonderfully uplifting read!

If you can get hold of a copy - send it to me! This has to be one of my all time favourite books. It brings back the magic and romance of star-gazing and makes you wish you could go back to those simpler, less troubled days. It's a long time since I read Starlight Nights which charts the life of Peltier from his childhood memories through to his mid-somethings. Anyone got a spare copy? Please??