Deep Sky Wonders

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Deep Sky Wonders: A Tour of the Universe with Sky & Telescope’s Sue French

Deep Sky Wonders: A Tour of the Universe with Sky & Telescope's Sue French

Stars: ***

Firefly Books (2020)
Astronomy
320 pages

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.

Summary: Sue French writes the popular column “Deep-Sky Wonders” for Sky and Telescope magazine and also teaches deep sky observation. She has earned a loyal following among enthusiasts and is welcomed by beginners for her skill at presenting astronomy in an understandable way. After selling 10,000 copies of Deep-Sky Wonders in hardcover, we expect a good response for this paperback edition at an accessible price.

Deep-Sky Wonders is a collection of 100 of French’s best “Deep-Sky Wonders” columns originally published in Sky and Telescope, which has a monthly readership exceeding 100,000. The book is organized by season and subdivided into months for a total of 100 in-depth tours of the deep sky. Each deep sky tour illuminates little-known seasonal wonders that lie off the beaten path.

Features include:

  • Full-color photographs and detailed sketches of each deep sky 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 sites
  • Color 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. Suitable for beginner and intermediate small-scope astronomers as well as large-scope viewers and astrophotographers, this book will be greeted enthusiastically by all Sky and Telescope readers. It is also an outstanding introduction to deep-sky viewing for novice observers.

Deep Sky Wonders

This book is separated by seasons and months of the year and features things you can look for with your telescope. This book is more complicated than I needed, especially since I don’t own a telescope (yet!).

Here is a picture of one part of one page so you can see what I mean:

Inside Text of Deep Sky Wonders by Sue French

Since I don’t fully understand it, I’m not sure what to say. This is not for the beginner. But if you own a telescope and know how to use it, this book can help guide you to the different things you can see in each season.

The star charts include specific placements of stars, star magnitudes and degrees so you can find them.

Here are some more photos from inside:

Inside Text of Deep Sky Wonders by Sue French
Inside Text of Deep Sky Wonders by Sue French

If this is the book for you…

Buy Deep Sky Wonders at Amazon.com and help support the blog

Find Deep Sky Wonders at Goodreads.

About Kathleen

I've been a nonfiction lover for as long as I can remember. I love children's nonfiction as well and love to share my knowledge and the books I gained them from, with the world. I wish more people would give nonfiction a chance.