Book review:

Binocular Astronomy by Craig Crossen & Wil Tirion

Willmann-Bell, Inc. ISBN 0-943396-36-0

Have you ever wondered how many deep sky objects you can see with ordinary binoculars?

Craig Crossen’s rather surprising answer to this is:

"With my 10x50s I have identified a half dozen planetary nebulae, over twenty diffuse nebulae (including two supernova remnants), six dozen galaxies, and scores of open clusters, most of which my glasses could at least partially resolve".

This book will help you find and enjoy these, along with numerous globular clusters, double and variable stars, star associations and star clouds, all visible in small, inexpensive binoculars.

Dutch amateur Wil Tirion is certainly the best-known celestial cartographer, and his Sky Atlas 2000, Uranometria 2000 and other smaller-scale atlas are the charts by which most of the world’s amateur astronomers find their way across the sky. This book contains his ten-page "The Bright Star Atlas 2000.0". This is a mag. 6 atlas, comparable to Norton’s or Tirion’s own Cambridge star atlas, but the scale is slightly smaller. This makes it somewhat compressed for a field atlas to be read by faint, red light. Supplementing this are seasonal overview charts and several detailed finder charts, as well as labeled photos. However, I suspect the serious observer will sooner or later upgrade to a larger, easier to read (but not to transport) chart such as Sky Atlas 2000.

The rest of the book is Crossen’s. I feel it was written with the same kind of love of the subject as Burnham’s celestial handbook, and contains a closely related mix of observational facts, constellation lore and history, and a good deal of basic astronomy and astrophysics. However, even if Crossen is standing on the shoulder of giants, his view is very much his own.

This book starts with the basic facts of observational astronomy - the basic celestial mechanics you need to find your way are simply but adequately explained. Choosing and using binoculars is also covered, with equipment and observing tips. After an overview of the constellations of the seasons, the bulk of the book is filled with descriptions of objects by constellations - with ample details of appearance, history, and astrophysical background.

The illustrations are well chosen. The beautiful historical photos of E E Barnard and F E Ross are supplemented by photos by modern amateur astrophotographers, and the scale is comparable to binocular fields of view.

This book is for you

• If you are an armchair astronomer - it may provide you with the enthusiasm to go out under the skies and look at the real thing. Or if the skies are cloudy, it will provide you with hours of highly enjoyable reading.
• If you own, or plan to get, binoculars for astronomy - it will teach you what you need to select them, to use them to advantage, and to find the sights worth seeing.
• If you own, or plan to get, a telescope - learning to find your way around the constellations is by far best done with binoculars. And for the observing opportunities when you can’t bring a telescope, it will help you find the many sights better seen in binoculars than in a telescope.

This book is not for you (this is a lot harder!)

• If you have a computerized goto telescope, and don’t want to bother about getting to know the constellations.
• If you just want a casual look for the great Orion Nebula and the great Andromeda nebula - you might get lost in the wealth of facts in this book.
• If you observe from the southern hemisphere - as many other handbooks, this was written for observers at mid-northern latitudes and does not cover the southern circumpolar sky.
• If your main interest is observing shallow-sky objects such as comets and minor planets - this book doesn’t cover this field, but it may help you get the familiarity with the deep sky that you need.

Nils Olof Carlin