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Product Description
Product Description
Sue French's elegant, informative monthly columns in Sky & Telescope magazine have won this astronomy writer a passionate following among astronomy enthusiasts. In 2005, French published 60 of these columns in Celestial Sampler, a book that garnered rave reviews and earned bestseller sales. Deep-Sky Wonders is a welcome expansion of that winning format. A new collection of the best of French's Deep-Sky WondersA" columns, the book is organized by season and subdivided into months, offering readers a total of 100 in-depth tours of the deep sky with enduring relevance. The book includes: Full-colour photographs and detailed sketches of each tour; Descriptions of double and variable stars, star clusters, nebulae, galaxies and exotics; Historical and scientific background of particular interest; A tabular listing of the deep-sky sights; Colour charts showing the position of each target in the night sky; An index to all of the deep-sky objects covered. Deep-Sky Wonders also features a variety of challenging objects that encourage observers to test the limits of their equipment and skills. Fragments of poetry and prose enliven the text, while each tour illuminates little-known seasonal wonders that lie off the beaten path. From a January journey down the celestial river Eridanus to an autumnal visit to the den of Vulpecula, the Little Fox, French brings the wonders of the sky to life. Suitable for beginning and intermediate small-scope astronomers as well as large-scope viewers and astrophotographers, this book will be greeted enthusiastically by all Sky & Telescope readers, especially French's many fans. It is also an outstanding introduction to deep-sky viewing for novice observers.
About the Author
Sue French has been an avid deep-sky observer for 32 years and has worked as a planetarium educator for 18 years. She sets up her telescope in her backyard but travels regularly to enjoy the deep sky from different vantage points.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Sue French is my favourite deep sky author, her mixture of poetic descriptive writing, historical and scientific reference coupled with her own multi scope eyepiece observations tick every box for me. I use this work alongside of her earlier and also superb celestial sampler for both observing inspiration and for reference when researching deep sky objects.
I can't recommend this book highly enough, good value too.
The only negative is that from my perspective there are rather too many 'Hubble type' images which maybe misleading for the less experienced observer in what is primarily a practical text.
I can't recommend this book highly enough, good value too.
The only negative is that from my perspective there are rather too many 'Hubble type' images which maybe misleading for the less experienced observer in what is primarily a practical text.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Deep-Sky Wonders by Sue French
14 Oct 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Back in the early 1940's, Walter Scott "Scotty" Houston began writing a column for Sky & Telescope Magazine called "Deep-Sky Wonders." He continued to write this column until his death. Then ten years lapsed before Sue French picked the column back up in July of 1999 and she continues to write the column for Sky & Telescope today. This wonderful hardbound book is a compilation of her monthly columns and I consider it a terrific source of information for the novice and experienced observer alike. The chapters are arranged by month making it easy for the user to pick out targets appropriate for the time of year. Each month contains eight or nine columns giving a wealth of targets to choose from.
Now, many of these objects require a large aperture scope and/or very dark skies, however I have personally viewed a large number of these objects with my 3" and 4" refractors from my suburban home, as I have been following her column since she started it back in 1999. This is a rather massive book, over 300 pages, hard bound, with a glossy paper cover. There are many full color illustrations and images to grab the eye, making this a book that I love to simply browse through as much as I use it for resource material. The chapters are laid out basically the same as in the magazine columns. There is a target chart with magnitudes, angular sizes, and celestial coordinates; star charts; full color photos and illustrations; and of course the text giving the reader full access to these celestial gems in the sky. Sue's writing style is thorough, giving the reader not only information about the objects but instructions on how to find them as well. Still, I might recommend (especially for the novice observer) using a larger star atlas or computer software as an aid in finding the targets. The reader will find Sue's knowledge extensive, and she shares that knowledge in the text about the objects, the constellations they reside in, and often some history as well. I almost always learn something knew from Sue, regardless of how commonly known the object is. Sue's choice of objects is highly varied, from galaxies to gas clouds to multiple stars. She uses targets from commons lists, like the Messier Objects, but she also pulls from a number of perhaps lesser known lists, such as the Sharpless or Barnard catalogs. I consider this book to be a valuable addition to anyone's personal library, as it is so rare to get such a combination of knowledge, observing experience, teaching skills, and professional writing abilities all from one author.
David Elosser
Kernersville, NC
Now, many of these objects require a large aperture scope and/or very dark skies, however I have personally viewed a large number of these objects with my 3" and 4" refractors from my suburban home, as I have been following her column since she started it back in 1999. This is a rather massive book, over 300 pages, hard bound, with a glossy paper cover. There are many full color illustrations and images to grab the eye, making this a book that I love to simply browse through as much as I use it for resource material. The chapters are laid out basically the same as in the magazine columns. There is a target chart with magnitudes, angular sizes, and celestial coordinates; star charts; full color photos and illustrations; and of course the text giving the reader full access to these celestial gems in the sky. Sue's writing style is thorough, giving the reader not only information about the objects but instructions on how to find them as well. Still, I might recommend (especially for the novice observer) using a larger star atlas or computer software as an aid in finding the targets. The reader will find Sue's knowledge extensive, and she shares that knowledge in the text about the objects, the constellations they reside in, and often some history as well. I almost always learn something knew from Sue, regardless of how commonly known the object is. Sue's choice of objects is highly varied, from galaxies to gas clouds to multiple stars. She uses targets from commons lists, like the Messier Objects, but she also pulls from a number of perhaps lesser known lists, such as the Sharpless or Barnard catalogs. I consider this book to be a valuable addition to anyone's personal library, as it is so rare to get such a combination of knowledge, observing experience, teaching skills, and professional writing abilities all from one author.
David Elosser
Kernersville, NC
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A Beautiful Book
19 Oct 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I finally received this book after waiting a few months for publishing and it was all worth it. As an amateur astrophotographer/astronomer, this is a beautiful book to look at and read. The photographs are gorgeous and produced by all the great names in current astrophotography like Gendler,Block,and Misti.The prose is mixed with poetry by Sky and Telescopes' Sue French, already well known for her beautifully written magazine column.
The book is set up like the monthly columns with the four seasons as major sections and specific constellations and areas of the sky then receiving specific discussion and photographs of star clusters, planetary nebulae, galaxies and even asterisms of interest.The book induced me to try my luck with Planetary NGC 6781 in Aquila and it turned out pretty nice.Maybe not at Mr.Block's level ,but I'll take it til I can go deeper.
Its a beautiful and useful book, worth the wait and the price.
The book is set up like the monthly columns with the four seasons as major sections and specific constellations and areas of the sky then receiving specific discussion and photographs of star clusters, planetary nebulae, galaxies and even asterisms of interest.The book induced me to try my luck with Planetary NGC 6781 in Aquila and it turned out pretty nice.Maybe not at Mr.Block's level ,but I'll take it til I can go deeper.
Its a beautiful and useful book, worth the wait and the price.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Beautiful and useful guide to deep sky observing.
13 Oct 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
There are many mediocre guides to the wonders of our universe out there, but this is not one of them. Besides being one of the most beautiful observers guides that I have ever seen, it is also highly useful. The book is lavishly illustrated with pictures taken by both amateur(I do not consider Robert Gendler, R.Jay Gebany or Tony Hallas amateurs!) and professional astronomers, and the HST. This is a definite must have. Sue French has proven herself as the heiress to Walter Scott Houston's shoes, and she is doing a great job. "Twinky" Houston would have agreed.
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