Here’s a guide to the books, charts, magazines and software mentioned in the Night Sky Course.
| Resource | Rating | Author | Comments | ||
| Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics | ***** | Zelik and Smith Second Edition |
Course used at Carleton U given by the late Prof. Dan Kessler |
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| Horizons | ********** | Michael Seeds | EXCELLENT textbook | ||
| Turn Left at Orion | ******** | G Consolmagno, D Davis | A *must* to learn starhopping | ||
| Celestial Sampler | ******** | Sue French | She also wrote Small Scope Sampler – Sky and Tel. | ||
| Messier’s Nebulae and Star Clusters | ******** | Kenneth Glyn Jones | Superb observing guide and companion | ||
| Atlas of the Moon | Rukl | classic ref may be out of print | |||
| 365 Starry Nights | ****** | Chet Raymo | Nearly as good as Turn Left | ||
| The Joy of Gazing | *** | David Levy | Might be vanity press – tiny book | ||
| Deep Sky Objects | ********** | David Levy | Based a lot of the course on this – infectious joy! | ||
| The Stars Belong to Everyone | **** | Helen Sawyer Hogg | Good and poetic explanation | ||
| The Stars | ***** | H.A. Rey | Good illustrations – concept book | ||
| The Isabel Williamson Lunar Observing Program | **** | Handbook from the RASC | Must be RASC member | ||
| Star Charts | |||||
| Pocket Sky Atlas | ******** | Roger Sinnott | |||
| Phillip’s Color Star Atlas | ******* | Cox and Monkhouse | Important for understanding spectra – | ||
| Sky Atlas 2000 | ******* | Wil. Tirion | Do your Messier and NGC certificate with this. | ||
| Magazines | |||||
| Sky and Telescope | **** | sky publishing | Focused on observing and imaging – american magazine | ||
| Sky News | ** | RASC | Canadian beginner magazine | ||
| Astronomy | **** | the more popular american magazine | |||
| Journal of the RASC 2000 http://rasc.ca/jrasc | ***** | RASC publication some peer reviewed papers |
see also http://rasc.ca/rasc-publications | ||
| Software | |||||
| Stellarium | ********* | Free Software Linux and Windows versions | Use this to plan observations | ||
| Earth Centered Universe – Observer’s Handbook Edition | ******** | ||||