Plot or Premise
This is the annual observer’s guide published by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
What I Liked
Each year, the Observer’s Guide is produced and sold to amateur and professional astronomers across North America, and those astronomers vary considerably in their capacity and interests. It’s hard to serve any “one group”, but as I am at the intro stage to the hobby, I’ll review from that perspective. Some highlights include:
- List of observatories, star parties, planetaria (pp 11-14);
- Observable satellites of the planets (pp 25-26);
- Observing artificial satellites (p 38);
- Overview of filters (pp 64-67);
- Deep-sky observing hints by Alan Dyer (pp 85-87);
- Lunar observing (pp 158-161);
- The brightest stars (pp 274-283, 285); and,
- The deep sky (pp 307-337).
Of course, it also has the key reference materials:
- The Moon (pp 148-157);
- The Sun (pp 184-193);
- Dwarf and minor planets (pp 241-251); and,
- Double and multiple stars (pp 291-294, 296-297).
