Your best astonomy book?

Question

Here is an opportunity to share just one book, the book you consider most useful to a back yard astronomer. My choice is "Burnham's Celestial Handbook an Observer's Guide To the Universe Beyond the Solar System in Three Volumes" by Robert Jr. Burnham

Despite its age (1979) these books provide us amateurs with a wealth of accurate information about stellar and deep-sky objects constellation by constellation. I particularly like the detailed stellar images which allow me using my dobsonian to star hop to deep-sky objects. I have found very few books to rival my beloved Burnham's.

What is your one pick?

Answer 1

there are so many.....but i really like timmothy ferris' writing style, so im am going to have to say my favorite book of his is "The Whole Shebang"

Answer 2

All great suggestions. I must admit that I didn't really learn to appreciate Burnham until I was well into the hobby. Too much to digest for a beginner. However, there are two books that I can recommend ( I know, one book, but Burnham counts as 3 ):

1. Nightwatch - also by Dickinson (woops). The best part of this book was the dew resistant deep sky charts that I used until I made my own. Very helpful and geared toward guys that are struggling to locate stuff.

2. Astronomy Hacks - by Thompson and Thompson. Very informative and very helpful. Full of great ideas and dumb stuff I should have known. For example, led me to the freeware that I now use to make my own charts.

Answer 3

I would recemmend The Backyard Astronomer's Guide by Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer (Firefly) as the best general guide to backyard astronomy. Get the latest edition (2002).

Answer 4

Faint Echoes, Distant Stars by Dr.Ben Bova

Answer 5

Isaac Asimov's "The Universe". It was written about 1978 and I've lost the book over the years, but it was very detailed and showed his genius on his favourite subject. He was a chemist by profession and famous for his robot stories, but his real love was astronomy. I owe my interest in astronomy to him.