The Urban Astronomer's Guide: A Walking Tour of the Cosmos for City Sky Watchers | Date: 08 May 2011, 01:17
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Most amateur astronomers yearn to observe more frequently. Many of them, however, live in urban and highly developed suburban areas that are heavily light polluted. Due to this light pollution, they are under the impression that deep sky objects-nebulae, galaxies, star clusters-are either invisible or not worth viewing from home. This book describes the many objects that can be seen in a bright urban sky, and shows the city or suburban astronomer how to observe object after object, season after season.
This book covers the "why," "how," and "what" of astronomy under light-polluted skies. The prospective city-based observer is told why to observe from home (there are hundreds of spectacular objects to be seen from the average urban site), how to observe the city sky (telescopes, accessories, and moderns techniques), and what to observe. About 50% of the book is devoted to describing "tours" of the sky, with physical and observational descriptions, at-the-eyepiece drawings, and photographs.
Review:
Great Book for City Dwelling Amatuer Astronomers!
Living in the South Florida Peninsula, you get used to light pollution. In 2005, I purchased my first "real" telescope and soon learned how badly light polluted South Florida really is. Although a trip to a dark sky site is only 60 miles away, I live in the suburbs outside of Miami and wanted to take advantage of my decent sized back yard. My sky's limiting magnitude is around 4, the sky towards the north is a grayish white haze where only Polaris is visible and the big dipper if high enough in the sky. The rest of the sky is a little better but after 2 years of limited success in searching for DSOs, I decided to look for help.
The Urban Astronomer's Guide may be the help I require. The book is well written and easy to follow. This book was written where beginners as well as intermediate amateur astronomers would find it interesting.
Part I of the book entitled: Telescopes and Techniques covers everything from the why one would want to observe from the city to the writers experience with types of telescopes and needed techniques to beat the light pollution blues. Mr. Mollise explains the advantages in large and short focal length telescopes and which objects benefit from either type. The author discusses in great detail the differences between the different types of Light-Pollution Reduction Filters, eyepieces, finders, computer software, print atlases, etc.
The book discuses techniques which experienced amateurs may be familiar with but beginners and intermediates may have heard have but not understand completely. Things like the use of averted vision, "jiggling" the telescope to tease out details in faint objects. Dark Adaptation is discussed and it's importance, all invaluable lessons that every amateur astronomer should learn.
Part II of the book entitled: A Walking Tour of the Cosmos is what makes this book a keeper. This section of the book goes over examples of objects that are perfect for city observation. The four chapters as you might imagine are broken up by season, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Each season gives 4 lists of objects that the Author feels are viewable for the given season and time. An example of such a tour is Spring's Tour 1. Objects included in this tour are M94, M51, M106, M63, M81, M82, M101, M97, M3 and the Double Star Cor Caroli.
Each object is discussed in detail with the author's notes from his personal journal. Mr. Mollise discusses the use of filters that can enhance a particular object, magnification that should be used to view certain objects, and what you should expect to see at the eyepiece. The author also includes his personal illustrations of objects he's included in his journals, which gives you a good idea of what you should be able to see in the eyepiece. The illustrations are very good and to me are much more useful than the Hubble type images commonly seen in astronomy books.
The only thing I found a little odd abo
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