Pattern Asterisms: A New Way to Chart the Stars

By John Chiravalle

This book provides a valuable learning tool to facilitate identifying patterns and stars in the sky. It reflects a new aspect of astronomy that does not involve serious science - but makes it easy to learn about the night sky.

In most cases, the minimum equipment needed for observing these is just binoculars, or at most a low-power telescope. This catalog includes star pictures, dot-to-dot outlines of the objects (on a negative photograph for clarity), and an artistic image next to the star patterns. Size, stellar magnitudes, and coordinates are provided, along with north direction, star-hopping instructions and Sky Atlas 2000 references. With the help of this book, the imaginative observer will soon begin to develop a new insight into star patterns, and will start seeing patterns of their own.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1846283272
• ISBN13: 9781846283277
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Finding asterisms has been a blast!

I purchased this book after accidently finding the more famous of asterisms, the "coathanger," a few months ago. While astronomy naturally provides educational and more hard-core scientific pursuits, this book addresses the more joyful aspects of the hobby. It makes it easy for those entering the hobby by providing them with a low-stress method of learning some easier and larger targets. I like the way the asterisms are shown in several examples, each. The author uses artwork, starcharts and line drawings, giving the reader a clear pattern to search for. I found about four or five my first night out. Most importantly, they have helped me learn the night sky in more depth than I had previously.