| Celestial Delights, by Francis Reddy and Greg Walz-Chojnacki, is a month-by-month guide to the astronomical sights and events of the first decade of the 21st Century that is decidedly “user friendly" for the novice backyard observer. It covers common beginning astronomer’s concerns like the best times to view different planets, moon phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, meteor showers, and the like. The 83 charts and figures, 38 photos (15 in color), and 24 tables make this a good introduction to basic astronomy. Sky & Telescope commented, “Celestial Delights makes an almost complete short course in descriptive popular astronomy. . . . The feature that makes this book stand out is a text crammed with easy-to-use diagrams – probably the best we've seen. The style is so breezy we wish we'd written it ourselves. Indeed, after reading this book, if you don't understand how the heavens work and how to find objects in the ever-changing night sky, you never will. Why didn't someone think of writing one of these before?" This newly revised (October 2002) paperback edition has 268 7" x 10" pages. It includes chapters entitled: The Meaning of the Sky; Moon Dance; Morning Stars, Evening Stars: Venus and Mercury; Eclipses of the Sun and Moon; Mars: The Red Wanderer; Distant Giants: Jupiter and Saturn; An Introduction to the Starry Sky; Meteors and Meteor Showers; Unpredictable Sky Events; Celestial Events, 2003-2010; Phases of the Moon, 2003-2010; Greatest Elongations and Oppositions, 2003-2010; Recommended World Wide Web Sites; and a Glossary and Bibliography. Through 2010, North Americans will be treated to an exciting parade of meteor showers, planetary transits and occultations, lunar eclipses, and strong displays of northern lights. You can learn to identify what’s happening in the night sky with this book, which is both an introduction to astronomy and a calendar of upcoming celestial events written for urban and suburban sky-gazers – dark country skies and expensive telescopes are not required. This revised edition predicts and explains numerous naked-eye events with the same lucid writing and easy-to-grasp diagrams that earned the first edition rave reviews. An astronomy guide for the layperson, Celestial Delights will deepen your appreciation of what you see when you gaze at the skies, and will inspire you to do it more often.
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