Book Review: Celestial Sampler by Sue French

Title: Celestial Sampler
Author: Sue French
ISBN: 1931559287
Publisher: Sky Publishing Corp.
Price: $24.95



Published in 2005, this is another entry in the Sky and Telescope Stargazing Series of titles. The author, Sue French, has for some time pened a monthly column in Sky and Telescope devoted to targets in the night sky for small aperture telescopes (this column is now changed to more of a general deep sky column). Because of this, she is well-prepared to live up to the book subtitle: 60 Small Scope Tours for Starlit Nights. The book's 169 pages are filled with finder charts, object tables, photographs, and eyepiece sketches. The format of the book follows the night sky through the course of a calendar year, offering five different starhopping tours for each month. Before jumping into the tours, an introduction explains some basics of visual astronomy, how to navigate the night sky using a star chart and finder scope, how to judge the conditions of the night sky (seeing, transparency, etc.), and a few visual observation tips. Following this, a general all sky map for each month is included. Readers of Sky and Telescope will recognize these as the monthly maps the magazine always includes, complete with when to use timetables. Yet the meat of the book is found in the tours themselves.

Each month's tour selection involves five different options, and each option covers two pages. Three to four columns guide the reader from object to object and include background information about the listed items and helpful tips from getting from one to the other. Each tour also features a small sky map for the specific area being discussed, as well as an object table that lists the size and magnitude and object type of each item in the tour. Finally, a selection of photographs highlight objects for each tour or help the reader in picking out difficult objects in a field of view. The text is well-written, and Mrs. French handles the material excellently.

The book is not without its drawbacks, however, and chief among them is its construction. In a couple of observing sessions, I have had this book out beside my telescope. While it seems well made, it is not easily held while observing and it is difficult to get the pages to remain open without placing something on them. Since the book subject is actually night sky tours, it would have been far more logical for this book to have been bound in a spiral ring, much like Sky and Telescope's Pocket Atlas. The glossy paper used in the book also seemed susceptible to moisture much more than the Pocket Atlas, which I had laying beside it. Basically, it isn't made as a field book.

With that said, I find the book a valuable addition to my library. Only recently returning to visual observation from the dark clutches of astrophotography, I have enjoyed using the book to learn my way around less traveled areas of the night sky. It has also revealed many objects that qualify as small scope targets, but that look dazzling in a larger aperture instrument. For this reason, I don't think the book is only useful to beginners. Experienced astronomers who may own large aperture telescopes will also enjoy working through these tours. And if you live in the soggy Southeast, reading through these pages will remind you of what the night sky looks like, since it has become all but invisible here!