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Reflector Book Review:
Night Navigator
Category: Observing
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Night Navigator
Samuel Lee
Lee AstroProducts, 1996 P.O. Box 3838
Durango, CO 81302
Telephone (970) 385-7145
(12 x 12 in.) spiral bound, 33 pages, $29.95
Night Navigator is an impressive
looking book, large and printed on extra heavy card
stock. At its heart are twenty maps of the night sky,
each with accompanying tables for the dates and times
of their use. The last section of the book consists
of additional information about each of the planets
along with tables of planetary positions through the
year 2014, information on the constellations, twenty-nine
of the brighter starts and forty-two of the best known
deep-sky objects. Also included is a table of information
about each of the annual meteor showers.
Night Navigator is billed as
an easy and fool-proof system designed to help the novice
locate and identify constellations, bright stars, planets,
and deep-sky objects quickly. Since the book was designed
to be used by the beginning star gazer, I felt I could
not give the book a fair trail. I gave it to a couple
in my astronomy club, Jerry and Donna Schroeder, who
are just starting out in the hobby. What follows is
their report.
"We spent approximately an hour carefully
reading the instructions about how to use the maps before
taking it with us on a viewing session. Our overall
impression was very positive. The book is written well,
is easy to follow, and has a good study feel to it.
We were particularly impressed with the large, bold
type and the simplicity of the language. It feels particularly
suited to young novices.
"Our only 'criticism' of the book
itself is that the spiral binding started to unravel
with very little use. This did not distract from the
process of using it, but if it had unraveled any more,
it may have been awkward to handle.
"We found it to be an excellent guide
for introducing the night sky. It took a little concentration
to understand how the maps worked, but with very little
effort one can go out and start learning a great deal
about what is up there. We were very impressed with
the amount of information compacted in the book.
"The book does not work well for people
who are looking at the sky and wondering what a certain
bright object of constellation might be. It works best
if you already know what you want to find before you
go viewing.
"Perhaps the best thing we can say
about it is that within a very short time we learned
the location of many constellations, stars, and other
night sky objects, and that our interest in the night
sky was enhanced by the experience."
Paul Castle
Astronomical League Book Service
Reviewed in the November 1996 issue.
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