Beginner's astronomy guide

Beginner's astronomy guide - 4th edition

Designed for novices, this easy-to-read and highly educational book will accompany your first night outings thanks to its pocket format.

This simple and accessible introductory guide covers the main concepts of astronomy, provides tips for choosing an instrument based on what you want to observe (solar system objects or deep sky), your budget, and your place of residence (city or countryside), and offers essential advice for successfully making your first observations.

The reader thus learns to adjust their instrument, navigate the sky, point to what they wish to observe, and keep it in their viewfinder, etc. For those who wish to go further, a final chapter introduces the various techniques of astrophotography.

Table of contents:

• What can we see in the night sky?
  • The two types of objects
  • The planetary: rewarding observations
  • The deep sky: a more challenging domain
• Basics of celestial mechanics
  • The movements of the sky
  • The vocabulary of the sky
• Choosing your instrument
  • Anatomy and characteristics of instruments
  • The different types of instruments
  • Choosing based on the type of use
• The first observations
  • Before observing: preparing your evening
  • Adjusting your finder
  • The focus
  • Preparing the mount
• What objects to observe?
  • Finding your way in the sky
  • Some choice targets (the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, Orion Nebula, etc.)
• Approaching astrophotography
  • The necessary equipment
  • Choosing the technique based on the subject