Observing Books

Those who have observed with me know that I am primarily a manual star-hopper, typically eschewing Digital Setting Circles, laptop, and planetarium program-- even though I own all three. I feel more connected with the heavens when I sight by "Mark I eyeball" or stop at a serendipitously wonder en route to my target and then try to identify it. That is where the charts come in, both for creating an observing list beyond "the usual suspects" and for identifying these unexpected finds.

I got started with a copy of the Sky Atlas 2000 by Tiron and Sinnott (aka "Tiron 2000") when I got back into the hobby in (appropriately enough) 2000. I bought the deluxe field edition, and laminated the pages with acrylic spray paint for added durability. The atlas is just too large for convenient use, though, and as a result I've probably used it fewer than two dozen times in the seven years I've owned it.

My trusty Tiron 2000 and its companion volume

Instead, if I am observing from the light polluted suburban skies where I do 99 percent of my viewing, I tend to use a smaller and simpler laminated copy of the charts found in the Nightwatch book. If I am observing from truly dark skies, I'm more likely to actually use the DSC's on my scope, linking to a laptop and planetarium software, since the USNO 2.0 digital catalog of over 500 million stars beats any printed atlas in depth of material and ease of use.

Nightwatch and the separate notebook of laminated photocopies of the star charts

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Review of The Pocket Sky Atlas

Recently, at the recommendation of a fellow NOVAC club member, I bought a copy of Sky & Telescope's "Pocket Sky Atlas". When the book arrived from Amazon.com, I was initially underwhelmed. My first impression was that it looked like a copy of the Tiron 2000 atlas chopped into 80 chunks of the sky that would be too small for newbies to visualize the sky with ("soda straw"-like in their perspective) and at a scale (~2/3 that of Tiron's) too small for ease of use by more advanced observers. First impressions can be misleading, though, and I've come to appreciate this book to the point where I expect it will become my main reference for starhopping-- which means it will be my companion on virtually all observing sessions.

The Good:

The volume is small. Small enough, in fact, to fit comfortably on the observing tray that attaches to my Dobs Brutus and Natasha, and still leave room for eyepieces and other gear. The contrast is especially striking compared to the Tiron & Sinnott, which basically needs a dedicated observing table.

Tiron on the top, and the diminutive Pocket Sky Atlas beneath it.
Truly a "David and Goliath" size comparison!

It is reasonably comprehensive, especially for suburban observers working under light polluted skies. With over 30,000 stars-- everything visible to Mag 7.5-- and 1500 deep sky objects, it is a nice compromise between "too few" and Uranometria 2000. <g>

It has spiral bound pages and lays flat nicely.

It plots the constellation figures. Call it simple-minded, but since I tend to view the constellations in the sky by their H.A. Rey-style figures, I like having an atlas that does this, too, instead of just giving me the constellation boundaries (which this has.)

It has indexes listing such categories as the Messier objects, named stars, galaxies, open and globular clusters, the Caldwell list, etc. About the only extra one I found myself wishing had been included was the Herschel 400, especially since the authors make it a point to note that all of the H400's objects are plotted, even though some would not have made the cut going strictly by the brightness/size criteria employed in compiling the atlas

The Chart key mapping the 80 charts to the sky is printed on the inside of the back cover, instead of being a separate fold-out chart as in Tiron, where it always seemed to get in the way of flipping to the charts you had just looked up.

Printed inside the front cover is a Telrad finder template. You still have to copy it onto clear acetate film (which not everyone may have access to), but at least this gives you a start, if you like such observing aids. I made and customized a set of templates (see "tweaks" below), even though I may never use them. <g>

The Bad:

The volume is small. ;-) Sometimes I find myself wishing that Sky & Telescope had made the pages 25-30% larger--including the font size. At this scale it can be a bit of a strain to read easily by red light.

The Chart Key inside the back cover is too small to be read easily in the dark. While it is useable, I found it just small enough to be a pain, and ended up making an enlarged copy (see "tweaks" below).

Tweaking "Pocket Sky Atlas"

OK, I'm such an inveterate ATM'er that I even modify my books. ;-)

For Pocket Sky Atlas, I:

Laminated the front and back cover with clear acrylic spray to offer some protection against dew. Granted, the book is inexpensive ($19.95 list price, and considerably less on-line) enough that I won't feel bad if my copy "dies in the line of duty", but still there's no sense in not preserving it to maximize its longevity.

Made a plexiglass cover sheet large enough to fit atop the opened volume with ~1/2" overhang in all directions. This should protect the charts from dew during use under most conditions.

It may be hard to make out the clear sheet of plexiglass in this picture (you can see the shadow line of the edge of the top of the plexiglass across the page of the book). At least it shouldn't impede reading the charts!

Once I had copied the Telrad template onto acetate, I made a number of copies. Casting about for a way to secure these templates to the book, I ended up putting a bit of hooked velcro on each and affixing a large strip of fuzzy velcro to bottom of the inside front cover (where nothing is printed). I also put a small piece of reflective tape on each side of the templates, to aid in finding them if they blow off onto the ground during use. Some of the templates were further customized by adding a circle for the ~1 degree field of view of my Nagler 31/Paracorr combination in Brutus.

Two of the stock (without Nagler 31 circle) templates mounted at the bottom, with a third lying lose on the page at the top. The black velcro helps you avoid visually "losing" the template when it is on a chart.

Made a separate enlarged (140%) copy of the Chart Key that I placed in a sealed plastic page protector. This allows me to look up chart numbers without losing my current page in the book-- or exposing it to dew, and is much easier to read.

Here is the original bound-in chart legend at the top, and my enlarged version-- mounted in plastic-- at the bottom

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The bottom line? Based on my limited experience, The Pocket Sky Atlas fills a useful niche, balancing price and size against content rather nicely. Sometimes "less is more!"

I may add additional comments after I've logged more nights of observing with the Atlas. Even on the few quasi-decent observing nights we've had in northern Virginia since the book arrived (we're into "hot, humid, and hazy" summer weather, which means dreadful viewing conditions!), I've already used it to find some real gems near my usual observing target list.