Are Classic Books Still Relevant?

When anyone in the usual astronomy forums talk about “classic” books, i start thinking about how relevant they are in today’s stargazing arena. Most books i’ve collected have been sourced from archive.org and are over a hundred years old. I have found that for general stargazing, almost all of these books carry a wealth of information that the common stargazer will find useful. But…that’s not the only attraction of these classic volumes, they do hold many more features that today’s astronomers seem to have overlooked.

A lot of authors who wrote astronomy books at the end of the 19th century were well respected and often professionals or experts in their field. Their equipment was the best money could buy and the observatories funded by universities or millionaires. In this respect you know that the information was the best that could be achieved at that time. It makes sense that all these books can be used as a baseline when looking at how astronomical equipment and observing have improved over the last hundred plus years. But as always there’s a little niggle that gives the amatuer like myself a reason to be cheerful. A lot of the observations and tips for the amateur in these classic books were made using the authors own 3 or 4 inch telescopes at home. Compare this to todays wealth of information gathered by satellite mounted telescopes using infrared,x-ray,ultraviolet etc technology and what have we got?. Simply we have the easily achievable common equipment goals set out by the earthbound stargazers of yesteryear, or the only “photographically” or “radiotelescopic” achievable goals of the present.

It may sound harsh for me to “write off” current technological advancements as beyond the average stargazers reach, especially as astrophotographers of today provide such stunning images of our night sky. But as a stargazer myself i’m only really interested in what my own eye can see, sadly i cant see the joy of pointing one of my telescopes at a patch of empty sky and waiting to see what the minutes or hours of camera exposure are going to reveal. There’s a lack of connection a bit like a photo shows a view from a mountainside, but it’s nothing like standing on that mountainside and experiencing the view personally. There’s no feeling, no emotion and ultimately no connection. Modern books on the other hand provide a more up to date experience of astronomy, they provide the reader with advice on which equipment to buy and roughly what can be achieved with said equipment, but somehow they lack the ability to engage the reader

So are these classic books still relevant? I would say more than ever! They hark back to an age where observations were a personal experience, where writers would try to explain their feelings about what they had just observed. Words like “beautiful” “exciting” “breathtaking” etc appear on every other page alongside equipment used and seeing details. Present astronomy publications look more like coffee table glossies, full of photographic images of objects the eye can never see, with details of exposure times and processing software used. There are some really good modern observational astronomy books available, but very few authors write with the same passion or with enough feeling to engage the reader the way classic authors do. Maybe this is because almost everything that can be seen by the amateur, has already been written about a hundred times before. Or could this be down to editorial control? Sir Patrick Moore was the UK’s most popular astronomer and part of his popularity came from his ability to engage the viewer or reader. His enthusiasm was infectious, his manner was friendly his ability to “dumb down” complicated astronomical detail so the common man would understand came naturally. This nature is also present in a lot of “classic” books, the author giving the reader a personal account of what has been observed. I feel that the “classics” aren’t just classic because of their age, but as a representation of the authors experience at the eyepiece. have a look around archive.org for Garrett P Serviss and enjoy some classic writing style. 🙂

 

Celestial Sampler (60 Small Scope Tours)

I felt a quick review of the above title was in order, mainly because it’s one of the titles i fall back on when looking for a few new objects to search for. Because this title is backed by Sky & Telescope magazine, it has the familiar “Monthly” sky maps and close up views of that months targets. Full colour maps are invaluable if you’re looking at an area of sky that’s unfamiliar, red stars are shown as red or orange and make orienting your view just a little easier than looking at the monochrome atlases that are readily available.

 

The author Sue French has managed to fill the pages with all the necessary information any astronomer would need to locate the objects featured. The only caveat i have with this title is the number of objects that require a 4 inch telescope to be seen. Luckily the third telescope i bought was a Celestron 102GT, one of synta’s notorious 4 inch offerings that include a goto mount at a bargain price. So for me at least this whole book is “do-able” with only a few difficult targets from my urban location. Some of the ghostly nebulae are almost impossible to see but this book’s strength lies in the number of objects available, if seeing doesn’t allow the object to be observed there are a multitude of others to seek out.

 

Not all doom and gloom for the smaller apertures, there are many objects that can be seen with smaller scopes. Indeed many of the 4 inch targets observed by the author can be seen with a 60mm scope albeit with less detail, but still an acomplishment for the smaller scope enthusiast like myself. There are some targets that can be seen easily with binoculars and in greater detail with a 50 or 60mm scope, and that’s the beauty of this book.

 

The author has referenced a lot of information from the sky & telescope archives and from such great authors as Garrett Serviss,Stephen James O’Meara and Walter Scott Houston along with well known cartographers like Will Tirion and Roger Sinnot plus others involved in the creation of their fantastic star maps. So despite the leaning towards the larger aperture end of small scopes, there’s a lot of really good material for the smaller aperture enthusiast. If you can find a copy… buy it. (i borrowed mine but will buy a copy when available.)

 

Getting Annoyed With Short Sighted Authors.

This week started out with a sky full of cloud and no sign of it clearing ’til the end of the week. So… what does the average amateur astronomer do when the night sky isn’t being cooperative? In my case it’s been reading books, so what does todays blog title mean? Simply put, the books i’ve been reading are beginning to really annoy me! More small scope rubbishing by people who should know better. especially as the book has the words “small telescopes” in it’s title.

 

The book in question is “Seeing Stars-The Night Sky Through Small Telescopes” by Chris Kitchin, Robert W Forrest, which in itself is a very good and very informative book for beginners, with handy tips for the slightly more advanced. My issue with the “Authors” or maybe even the editorial staff (let’s not forget that editors have the final say on what’s printed) have decided that refractors of 4-6cm and reflectors of 7-12cm are only good for observing the “bottom of the dustbin(which is where you will throw it soon after buying it)”**. Annoyed… you bet i am.

 

Not only have the Authors/editors chosen to rubbish small telescopes, they also have had the nerve to say that 50mm binoculars with 7-10x mag are fine…. So without further ado, maybe the authors should tell all the owners of telescopes such as Unitron, RoyalAstro, Zeiss, Pentax etc, that what they have spent hundreds of dollars/pounds on are just rubbish telescopes, and that maybe they would have more success with a pair of binoculars. Personally i find that binoculars are good for learning constellations as well as picking up a few clusters etc along the way, but I wouldn’t have thought that my 50mm refractor at 100x mag, capable of viewing the bands of Jupiter etc would have deserved such a poor reputation.

 

I know i harp on about what small telescopes are capable of and indeed what they have done for science over the last 500 years, but sometimes i feel that todays experts who decide to put pen to paper, have truly forgotten about the history behind their topic. Both authors are Batchelors of sciences and “Fellows” of the Royal Astronomical Society, yet they allow such pre conceived rubbish go to print with their names on it. This is not the only publication to have such contradictory views. There are several books and authors along with hundreds of forum users, journalists, broadcasters and institutions, that believe a beginner in astronomy is better served by a pair of 7×50 binoculars. This narrow minded, uninformed and misguided view of small telescopes needs to change. Today’s refractors far outperform anything Galileo could fabricate and the recent popularity of Apochromats also speaks volumes about small scopes.. so why print such total rubbish? Still annoyed.. maybe the weekend’s clearer weather forecast might brighten up my mood a little.. and if it is clear i’ll be observing the bottom of my dustbin with a 50 or 60mm refractor.

 

**Seeing Stars-The Night Sky Through Small Telescopes-page 22, Table2.1

Further Inspiration…..

Okay, After doing some “Homework” the Operaglass observing has ground to a halt… sort of. I still intend to follow Serviss’ book, just using slightly different equipment. The homework i undertook was to read the book itself a bit more closely, rather than skipping to the interesting parts!. The main reason for changing equipment is both financial and practical, Serviss states he used opera glasses of 1½ inches objective with 3-4x Mag. In my experience so far, finding opera glasses that give more than 2.5x is near impossible as most dont have a printed mag. It seems also that people selling these glasses rarely give the size of the objectives and sometimes no pics of the objectives at all. So rather than waste money on an unknown quantity and failing my mission from the start, i opted to use an old pair of 8×40’s i have lying around. I have 2 pairs 1xOmiya and 1xHilkinson, I’ll star test the pair and choose the best.

The next big rule changer is to be able to skip a few observations. The book opens it’s Summer observations based around Scorpius, not really a problem for all you US readers but for myself located at 53.6 degrees north, seeing Scorpius is somewhat of a problem. Nearly all of my time is taken up with family as I’m the “Stay at Home” Dad to my 3 year old, so driving a few hundred miles south to get a good view of the stars and clusters around Scorpius is out of the question.

Having a few nights observing over the last week or so has given me a good idea of what to expect. Serviss was observing from either southern england or north america, my best guess is north america as what he describes in his book is far from visible in northern england. With light pollution on my horizon the lowest point of clear view is around -27 degrees, this is pretty low as we’re into the southern hemisphere constellations. the next problem is “seeing”. The weather is pretty torrid at the moment in the uk, most nights are blanket cloud with no chance of observing, i did manage a couple of nights getting a good look at Antares and other sights in Scorpius. I stayed up past 3am one really clear night to see what Sagittarius would bring, but by 3am the sun was rising and the sky got pale before i could see anything. Nevermind eh, the nights are getting longer from here on in, hopefully I’ll get some good views before the end of August.

click picture for larger size

The one clear night so far was truely clear at my location, after about 30 minutes of dark adaptation the moon had just set and was no longer washing out my view I was lucky enough to see Alcor by naked eye. since october last year i have been reading about seeing Alcor with the naked eye and how it was a test of vision in past times. So i can rest happy now knowing my eyes though old are still working okay. With the 8×40’s i got clear views of the Hercules Cluster M13 but M92 was just apparent as a feint fuzzy. I had my 50×600 cheaposcope standing by with a few eyepieces as well as my Hilkinson 15×80’s just incase i needed confirmation of what i was seeing. i double checked both messiers and crossed them off my list. The messiers in Scorpius were out of my range, M4 was low and in the haze and my choice of backup telescope meant M80 was also invisible that night. I will try again as Scorpius should still be visible until the end of July.

other highlights for me were Albireo showing nice colour in my 15×80’s, normally they are just split and barely coloured at this mag but a good clear night brought out some better defined colour from the pair. All stars in Cygnus were  beautifully bright with fantastic milky way stars around the area of Sadr. Unfortunately for me i hadn’t brought out my star atlas  or i would have bagged M29 and 39, i hadn’t bothered with the atlas as i was observing from Serviss’ book and only concentrated on Scorpius and Hercules. Lesson learned ….

Further Reading (free books)

So, as promised i’ve been through some of the books i already downloaded from archive.org. i’ll list them with a brief description. I’m only listing those with maps and diagrams as most beginners will have need for them. The best part and in keeping with my blog, is that these books for the most part are aimed at “Naked Eye” or “Common” telescope observing. Common telescopes of the time were usually 3 inch refractors or smaller, or Newtonian reflectors up to 6 inches. the mirrors of that era weren’t as accurate or finely finished as todays equipment and were deemed equal to refractors of 3-4 inches.

Star Atlas – Winslow Upton, This book has star maps and guides to constelations,nebulae,doublestars etc and leans toward naked eye and small telescope observing.

A Fieldbook of The Stars – William Tyler Olcott, This book has seasonal guides and maps, Olcotts books are a good start for anyone as the diagrams are simple and easy to follow. i found one of the hardest steps as a beginner was translating what i saw in books to what you see in the night sky. Olcott made this a lot easier than some of the modern Mag 9 star atlases.

Half Hours With The Stars – Richard A Proctor,  As the title suggests, a monthly guide with maps showcasing constellations for each month of the year. Proctors books like Olcott’s are easy to follow and very useable with small telescopes. i like Proctors books more for entertainment value, writers from his era wrote with passion and enthusiasm that i find lacking in a lot of todays dry scientific guides.

An Easy Guide To The Constellations – James Gall,Another constellation guide with maps, like the others above each constellation has a map and brief description along with the folklore behind the names of each constellation listed.

Poole Bros Celestial Handbook – Poole Bros, This book is a little more technical than the others, mainly through it’s very indepth tables of double/triple stars and their magnitudes. There are constellation guides with magnitude information and descriptions of star positions. a very good book if you want a little more information than those already listed. I still class it as a “beginners” book as all the info is easy to follow, each guide tells you if observing the stars being discussed is easy or hard with a common telescope.

This list could go on and on, i’ve downloaded over 50 books/guides from archive.org and haven’t had time to thoroughly read them all. other titles to consider are books by Patrick Moore, there are yearbooks from 1961-1979 and other observing guides written by Moore. another good way to find books is to look in the Appendices and bibliographys at the back of these books as they list other titles worth downloading. I’ll probably list a few others once read.. 🙂

Free Astronomy Books

Thats right, books for free, there are so many that sorting out what’s relevant for today’s amateur astronomer and what people may find useful, would take far too long to be listed here. instead i’m just giving you the web address and a few pointers for keywords.

the site is  https://archive.org/  it’s a repository for old out of copyright (free) books. once on the main page look top left, there’s a “search” box and next to it a drop down menu that defaults to “all media types”

a good search keyword here is “astronomy” then use the dropdown “types” menu and choose “texts”. you will then be faced with listings of old books in several formats, PDF being my favourite. a good starter book for new amateurs is “in starland with a three inch telescope” by William Tyler Olcott.

Obviously the three inch telescope title gives a nod to what i’m doing here on my blog. reading some of the old books you find there are like stepping back in time, some of the comments made by the authors have since been proven or disproved. I’ll add more titles or even lists when i get time. enjoy