Exploring the Night Sky: The Equinox Astronomy Guide for Beginners

by Terence Dickinson

Book Overview

200,000 sold to date

Exploring the Night Sky is aimed at novice star gazers anxious to expand their astronomical repertoire beyond the Big and Little Dippers. Dickinson has designed a superb introduction to astronomy that is clear, concise, beautifully illustrated and very "user friendly" no matter what the child's age.

The book is divided into three sections. The first is a 10-step voyage from the Earth's vicinity to the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0920656668
• ISBN13: 9780920656662
• Release Date: February 1987
• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Length: 72 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 8.3" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 10 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 12

Customer Reviews

A GIFT FOR MY UNIVERSE LOVING SON

THIS GUIDE IS VERY USEFUL AND INTERESTING. WE ARE TOTALLY BEGINNERS AND FACINATED AT THAT.

Young Minds Latch onto the Stars

My eight-year-old grandson practically ate up this book, he was so excited and interested. He had gotten a telescope for Christmas and this book brought his explorations of the night sky to life.

The bok that hooked me onto astronomy

This wonderful book is the one that got me hooked onto astronomy when I was just an 8-year old boy. Now as I am in college and studying astronomy, this book even though old (written c. 1986), has not lost its charm and magic to me. The best part of this book is the beautifully rendered paintings of the night skies and other sights around the universe, which will leave you breathless and in awe of the majestic canvas of the skies. I give it a 2 thumbs up and many stars!

Forget about children, this book is great for adults too!

This book is great for anyone who (like me) has never been able to figure out stars beyond the big dipper or to understand what are the relationships of scale between stars, galaxies, clusters, etc.... Adults (including me and my father, age 73) will enjoy this book as much as (probably even more) than children.Not only it contains celestial maps that make it easy to find the stars, but also it gives some extremely useful tricks for finding them (i.e. using your fist to estimate 10 degrees of arc). Finally, it gives some extremely well narrated and illustrated examples of relative astronomical dimensions, starting from the distance between the earth and the moon and ending with the distances between galaxies. Definitely the best first book to buy to get a clear idea what our universe is all about.

A good way to introduce children to Astronomy

This book won the New York Academy of Sciences award for children's science literature. And with good reason. The pictures are out of this world. The constellation maps are the easiest to use out of any I have seen. If you are thinking about buying a telescope for your child, you may want to get this book first. It will help you make a decision about how to buy your first telescope, and ensure that your child knows what he or she is looking at.