lumpy darkness

Observation notes (with equipment details), photos, sketches, reviews, random thoughts, from my amateur astronomy sessions.

Monday, May 26, 2008

welcome to the library

I remember having the Red Rose Tea booklet called The Space Age when I was 6 or 7 years old. That might have been the first astronomy or science themed book I received. Since then, I've collected (accumulated?) over 25 books and many magazines. I have 6 atlases and 3 planispheres. And I regularly use a couple astronomy programs on my computers.

  • atlases and maps
  • books and booklets
  • periodicals
  • planispheres
  • other materials
  • software applications

 

Sunday, January 28, 2007

atlases and maps

Sky & Telescope's Messier Card. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 2003.

Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas. Roger W. Sinnott. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 2006.

  • stars: 30 800
  • down to magnitude: 7.6
  • deep sky objects: 1 500

Star Atlas. Drs. Jacqueline & Simon Mitton. Ontario: Prentice-Hill of Canada, 1979.

  • stars: 4 000
  • down to magnitude: 6.5

Sky Atlas 2000.0. Wil Tirion. Deluxe Version (bound, black on white, with some colouring for objects). Reprinted 1989. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 1981.

  • stars: 43 000
  • down to magnitude: 8.0
  • deep sky objects: 2 500

Sky Atlas 2000.0. Wil Tirion. Desk Version (unbound, black on white). Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 1981.

  • stars: 43 000
  • down to magnitude: 8.0
  • deep sky objects: 2 500

Sky Atlas 2000.0. Wil Tirion. Field Version (unbound, white on black). Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 1981.

  • stars: 43 000
  • down to magnitude: 8.0
  • deep sky objects: 2 500

 

Thursday, February 4, 2010

books and booklets

Amateur Telescope Making. Books One, Two, & Three. Albert G. Ingalls, editor. New York: Scientific American, 1974.

Astronomy | 365 Days. Jerry T. Bonnell & Robert J. Nemiroff. New York: Abrams, 2006.

Astronomy Data Book. Revised edition. J Hedley Robinson & James Muirden. Trowbridge & Esher: Redwood Burn Limited, 1979.

Astronomy: The Evolving Universe. Third edition. Michael Zeilik. New York: Harper & Row, 1982.

The Backyard Astronomer's Guide. Terence Dickinson & Alan Dyer. Ontario: Camden House Pub, 1991.

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Stephen W. Hawking. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.

Choosing and Using a Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope: A Guide to Commercial SCTs and Maksutovs. Rod Mollise. London: Springer-Verlag, 2001. 4th printing 2004.

Cosmos. Carl Sagan. New York: Random House, 1980.

double stars for small telescopes: More Than 2,100 Stellar Gems for Backyard Observers. Sissy Haas. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 2006.

An Easy Pocket Star Guide for Beginners. H.R. Kingston, compiler. London: University of Western Ontario, 1947.

Entering Space, An Astronaut's Odyssey. Joseph P. Allen, Russell Martin. New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang. 1985.

Full Moon. Michael Light. New York: Knopf, 2002.

Galaxies. Timothy Ferris. New York: Steward, Tabori, & Chang Publishers, 1982.

How to Make a Telescope. Jean Texereau. Translated and adapted by Allen Strickler. New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1963.

Moonshadow: The Story of the Total Eclipse. Terry Manners. London: Chameleon, 1999.

National Geographic Encyclopedia of Space. Linda K. Glover. 2004.

National Geographic Space: The Once and Future Frontier. 2008.

The New Atlas of the Universe. Patrick Moore. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1988.

Our Universe, National Geographic Picture Atlas of. Roy A. Gallant. Washington: National Geographic Society, 1980.

The Planets. Dava Sobel. USA: Viking, 2007.

Practical Skywatching, The Nature Companions. David Levy & John O'Byrne, consultants.

Salyut Orbital Stations. Moscow: Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, 1975.

Seeing and Believing: The Story of the Telescope, or How We Found Our Place in the Universe. Richard Panek. London: Fourth Estate, 1998.

Skyguide: A Field Guide to the Heavens. Revised edition. Mark R. Chartrand. New York: Golden Press, 1990.

Skyways Astronomy Handbook for Teachers. Mary Lou Whitehorne. Toronto: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 2003.

The Space Age. Henry C. King, curator. Ontario: Brooke Bond Canada Limited, 1969. Missing cards 2, 5, 10, 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, 24, 25, 26, 29, 42, 44, and 45. Cards 1 and 27 are in rough shape...

Splendors of the Universe: A Practical Guide to Photographing the Night Sky. Terence Dickinson & Jack Newton. Ontario: Firefly Books Ltd., 1997.

the Starlore handbook: An Essential Guide to the Night Sky. Geoffrey Cornelius. Ontario: press élan, 1997.

Turn Left at Orion: a hundred night sky objects to see in a small telescope—and how to find them. Third edition. Guy Consolmagno & Dan M. Davis. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

The Urban Astronomer's Guide. Rod Mollise. London: Springer-Verlag, 2006.

We Reach the Moon. Third printing. John Noble Wilford. New York: Bantam Books, 1969.

 

Thursday, February 4, 2010

periodicals

Omni. Magazine. New York. Multiple issues from 80s.

Observer's Handbook. Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Older editions lost. Current editions: 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.

night sky: backyard astronomy for everyone. Magazine. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corp., Sep/Oct 2005.

Sky & Telescope. Magazine. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corp., Apr 2001; Jul 2007; Jan 2010.

Astronomy. Magazine. Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Corp., Sep 1999; Jan 2010.

Discover. Magazine. New York: Nuena Vista Magazines, May 2002, cover Article: Is There Life on Europa?; Jun 2001, cover Article: Supernova in a Can.

SkyNews. Magazine. Ontario: SkyNews Inc., Jul/Aug, Nov/Dec 2000; Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec 2007; Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec 2008; Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec 2009; Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr 2010.

Sky at Night. Magazine. Bristol: Bristol Magazines Ltd., Jan 2008.

 

Sunday, June 28, 2007

planispheres

Stars in Your Sky. George Lovi, Suzanna P. Kane, David M. Seager, Robert C. Firestone, & Richard S. Wain. National Geographic Society, 1980.

Glow-in-the-Dark Star Finder with Zodiac Dial. USA: 1995.

The New-Way Star Map. London: University of Western Ontario, 1947.

RASC IYA Star Finder by Ron Macnaughton, English and French, print your own, based on the NRC planisphere, 2009.

 

Monday, February 25, 2008

other materials

Telescope Making. Magazines, 1 through 33. Wisconsin: AstroMedia Corp., 1981.

How to Build Your Own Observatory. Reprints from Telescope Making magazines. Richard Berry, Robert E. Cox, & Katherine M. King. Wisconsin: AstroMedia Corp., 1981.

How to Build a Dobsonian Telescope. Reprints from Telescope Making magazines. Wisconsin: AstroMedia Corp., 1981.

 

Sunday, February 14, 2010

software applications

Procyon X Pro. Version 1.13. Psion/EPOC operating systems. Pedro M.G. van Can & John S. Sussenbach. Bunde: Vampire Vengeance, 1994. Updated 2007 to correct Saturnian moon calculations.

  • stars: 1 600+
    • stars down to magnitude: 6
  • deep sky objects: 8 000
    • down to magnitude: 12

RedShift. Version 2. Macintosh and Windows operating systems. Nick Maris. Maris Multimedia, 1995.

  • stars: 250 000
    • down to magnitude: 12
  • deep sky objects: 40 000
    • down to magnitude: 20

Cartes du Ciel. Version 2.76. Windows. Patrick Chevelley. Astro-PC, 2004.

  • freeware (really!)
  • basic package includes
    • bright stars catalog, 9096 stars to mag 6.5
    • 10 000 nebula from SAC 7.2
    • planet, comet, asteroid info
  • Hipparcos catalog includes 118 000 stars to mag 8.5
  • Sky2000v4 catalog with 300 000 stars to mag 9
  • added Tycho catalogues (with 2.5 million stars) on Jan 2008 to go to mag 12!

Stellarium. Windows versions 0.9.x and 0.10.x. Fabien Chéreau. SourceForge.net, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

  • realistic atmosphere, sunrise, sunset
  • realistic Milky Way
  • over 600 000 stars (default catalog)
  • over 210 000 000 stars (extra catalogies)
  • freeware (GNU GPL)
  • Linux and Mac versions too
  • very easy to use

Sky Screen Saver. Windows version 3.1b. John Walker. Fourmilab, 2006.

  • over 9000 stars to 7th magnitude
  • Moon in correct phase
  • Sun, Moon, and planets in correct positions
  • constellations
  • over 500 deep sky objects
  • shifts position of map to avoid burn-in
  • freeware

KStars. Version 1.2.5 (using KDE 3.5.8 running on ubuntu linux 7.1). KStars Team. KStars KDE Education Project, 2007.

  • over 125 000 stars to mag 9.0
  • realistic sky with adjustable stellar colour and saturation
  • good zooming and searching controls, easy to use
  • built-in planning and logging features
  • freeware (GNU GPL)

TheSky6 Professional Edition. Windows only. Licensed by the RASC Toronto Centre. Software Bisque, 2008.

  • large star catalogs, extensible, 1.2 million to 1 billion
  • double star catalogs
  • realistic sky
  • realistic landscape ground or horizon
  • easily configurable FOV indicators

 

 

 

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