Bøger i The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series serien

Ice and Fire: Great Comets to Come was written because a special celestial event climaxes towards the end of 2013 - the arrival, fresh from the Oort Cloud, of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON).

Written for amateur astronomers, this book reviews portable equipment, accessories and mounts, describing which are best for different kinds of viewing. Shows how to use your grab 'n' go telescope to observe a wealth of solar, lunar and planetary objects.

This guide not only tabulates positions but also explains the orbital mechanics that dictate how the planets and stars move as observed from Earth. It places seemingly disparate astronomical events into an understandable three-dimensional structure.

Designed to appeal to readers at all skill levels and involvement, it provides a digest for sky watchers interested in all-in-one-place information that includes history, current events, and of course interesting objects to be observed on any given day.

In these pages you will find lunar features, planets, meteor showers, single and multiple stars, open and globular clusters, as well as distant galaxies. Just like moving to a new city, everything will seem unfamiliar at first, but with a little help from some maps, you'll soon be finding your way around like a pro.

SketchingtheSkies Suddenly and without warning, a new star appeared in the night sky, and everyone in the community was alarmed.

This book is an amateur astronomer's guide to the mythology and symbolism associated with the celestial bodies in the Solar System, and even includes some of the legendary tales of people who had or have a connection with these objects.

Amateur astronomers who have been disappointed by the results of an observing session can take comfort in the guidance of this book, which advises how to still gain useful experience in seemingly "failed" nights at the telescope.

This is the must-have guide for all amateur astronomers who double as makers, doers, tinkerers, problem-solvers, and inventors. In a world where an amateur astronomy habit can easily run into the many thousands of dollars, it is still possible for practitioners to get high-quality results and equipment on a budget by utilizing DIY techniques.

Amateur astronomers who want to enhance their capabilities to contribute to science need look no farther than this guide to using remote observatories. The contributors cover how to build your own remote observatory as well as the existing infrastructure of commercial networks of remote observatories that are available to the amateur. They provide specific advice on which programs to use based on your project objectives and offer practical project suggestions. Remotely controlled observatories have many advantages-the most obvious that the observer does not have to be physically present to carry out observations. Such an observatory can also be used more fully because its time can be scheduled and usefully shared among several astronomers working on different observing projects. More and more professional-level observatories are open to use by amateurs in this way via the Internet, and more advanced amateur astronomers can even build their own remote observatories for sharing among members of a society or interest group.Endorsements:"Remote Observatories for Amateur Astronomers Using High-Powered Telescopes from Home, by Jerry Hubbell, Rich Williams, and Linda Billard, is a unique contribution centering on computer-controlled private observatories owned by amateur astronomers and commercialized professional-amateur observatories where observing time to collect data can be purchased. Before this book, trying to piece together all of the necessary elements and processes that make up a remotely operated observatory was daunting. The authors and contributors have provided, in this single publication, a wealth of information gained from years of experience that will save you considerable money and countless hours in trying to develop such an observatory. If you follow the methods and processes laid out in this book and choose to build your own remotely operated observatory or decide to become a regular user of one of the commercial networks, you will not only join an elite group of advanced astronomers who make regular submissions to science, but you will become a member of an ancient fraternity. Your high-technology observatory will contain a "high-powered telescope" no matter how large it is, and from the comfort of home, you can actively contribute to the work that started in pre-history to help uncover the secrets of the cosmos."Scott RobertsFounder and President, Explore Scientific, LLC."In the past three and a half decades, since I first became involved with remote observatories, the use of remote, unmanned telescopes at fully automated observatories has advanced from a very rare approach for making astronomical observations to an increasingly dominant mode for observation among both professional and amateur astronomers. I am very pleased to see this timely book being published on the topic. I highly recommend this book to readers because it not only covers the knowledge needed to become an informed user of existing remote observatories, but also describes what you need to know to develop your own remote observatory. It draws on more than two decades of remote observatory operation and networking by coauthor Rich Williams as he developed the Sierra Stars Observatory Network (SSON) into the world-class network it is today. This book is the ideal follow-on to coauthor Jerry Hubbell's book Scientific Astrophotography (Springer 2012).Remote observatories have a bright future, opening up astronomy to a new and much larger generation of professional, amateur, and student observers. Machines and humans can and do work well together. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I have and will take advantage of the developments over the past several decades by the many pioneers of remote observatories."Russ Genet, PhD.California Polytechnic State UniversityObserving Saturn for the first time is a memory that stays with us for the rest of our lives, and for many it is the start of an odyssey--an odyssey into observational astronomy. Remote Observatories for Amateur Astronomers is a book written for observers, beginners, and old hands alike, providing detailed advice to those wishing to improve their observing skills. Many will want to build and operate a remotely controlled observatory, and for those, Part I of this book is an invaluable source of information. If, like me, you choose to avoid the capital outlay of owning your own facility, Part II describes how you can use one of the many professionally run large scopes where, for a few dollars, you can capture spectacular color images of nebulae, galaxies, and comets. My own scientific interest in short period eclipsing binaries has been made possible through the availability of remote telescopes such as those operated by the Sierra Stars Observatory Network (SSON). Whichever route you take, this book is essential reading for all who aspire to serious observing.David Pulley The Local Group (UK)

The software required to process the images is explained and step by step examples provided, with various digital instruments around the world highlighted based on input from many experienced amateurs who have shared their experience in building and using their spectroheliographs.

This book is for anyone who owns, or is thinking of owning, a Vixen Star Book Ten telescope mount or its predecessor. The Star Book Ten is the latest version of computer telescope control using star map graphics as a user interface, first introduced in the original Star Book first offered in 2003.

There are comprehensive lists of deep sky objects of all kinds, along with Steve's own observations describing how they look through telescopes with apertures ranging from 4 inches to 36 inches (0.1 - 0.9 meters).Binocular observing also gets its due, while the lists of objects have been amended to highlight only the best targets.

In this book Astronomy Magazine editor Michael Bakich presents all the information you'll need to be ready for the total solar eclipse that will cross the United States on August 21, 2017.

Bob Mizon, one of the world's best known campaigners against the veil of light pollution that has taken away the starry sky from most of the world's population, takes readers to a hundred places in the UK and the USA where the wonders of the night sky might still be enjoyed in perfect or near-perfect night skies.

This book serves as a comprehensive guide for using a Nexstar Evolution mount with WiFi SkyPortal control, walking the reader through the process for aligning and operating the system from a tablet or smartphone. The next generation Go-To mount from Celestron, this is compatible not only with the Nextstar Evolution but also with older mounts. It is the ideal resource for anyone who owns, or is thinking of owning, a Nexstar Evolution telescope, or adapting their existing Celestron mount. Pros and cons of the system are thoroughly covered with a critical depth that addresses any possible question by users.Beginning with a brief history of Go-To telescopes and the genesis of this still new technology, the author covers every aspect of the newly expanding capability in observing. This includes the associated Sky Portal smartphone and tablet application, the transition from the original Nexstar GoTo system to the new SkyPortal system, theuse of the Sky Portal application with its Sky Safari 4 basic software and Celestron WiFi adaptations, and discussions on the use of SkyPortal application using the Celestron adapter on older Celestron mounts. Comments and recommendations for equipment enable the reader to successfully use and appreciate the new WiFi capability without becoming overwhelmed. Extensively illustrated using actual screenshots from the program interface, this is the only guide to the Nextstar SkyPortal an observer will need.

This book enables anyone with suitable instruments to undertake an examination of nebulae and see or photograph them in detail. Observing Nebulae provides a ready resource to allow anyone with a little experience in astronomy, whether professional or amateur, to locate, identify and record the nebulae in our home galaxy.

This book is based around the author's beautiful and sometimes awe-inspiring color images and mosaics of deep-sky objects. The book describes how similar "Hubble class" images can be created by amateur astronomers in their back garden using commercially available telescopes and CCD cameras.

This is the first of a two-volume set that deal with the entire Milky Way. In addition to the descriptive text, there are many star charts and maps, as well as the latest up-to-date images made by observatories around the world and in space, as well as images taken by amateur astronomers.

These activities range from observatory visits and other simple ways to build an astronomy event into a holiday, to full blown specialized astronomy travel.Many trips give the opportunity to visit some of the world's famous attractions.

Video astronomy offers a wonderful way to see objects in far greater detail than is possible through an eyepiece, and the ability to use the modern, entry-level video camera to image deep space objects is a wonderful development for urban astronomers in particular, as it helps sidestep the issue of light pollution.

This second edition of Mike Inglis's classic guide to observing the Milky Way in the Southern Hemisphere updates all of the science about the target objects with new findings from the astrophysics field.

This revised edition of the original 2014 book Getting Started in Radio Astronomy provides a complete overview of the latest technology and research, including the newest models and equipment on the market as well as an entirely new section on radio astronomy with software-defined radios (SDRs).

This title is a comprehensive set of visual descriptions of deep-sky objects visible from the northern hemisphere. 3,000 deep-sky objects are listed with short descriptions of the visual appearance in the author's powerful binocular telescope. Full indexes by catalog numbers and names allow searches for specific objects.

For many astronomers, the holy grail of observation is to discover a comet, not least because comets always bear the name of their discoverer! Hunting and Imaging Comets was written for comet hunters and digital imagers who want to discover, rediscover, monitor, and make pictures of comets using astronomical CCD cameras and DSLRs. The old days of the purely visual comet hunter are pretty much over, but this is not to say that amateurs have lost interest in finding comets. The books also covers the discovery of comet fragments in the SOHO image data, CCD monitoring of older comets prone to violent outbursts, the imaging of new NEOs (Near Earth Objects) that have quite often been revealed as comets - not asteroids - by amateur astronomers, and the finding of recent comets impacting Jupiter.