The Stargazer’s Guide to the Night Sky

The Stargazer’s Guide to the Night Sky
By Dr. Jason Lisle
Published at MasterBooks

About the Book

Explore the night sky, identify stars, constellations, and even planets. Stargaze with a telescope, binoculars, or even your naked eye. Allow Dr. Jason Lisle, a research scientist with a masters and PhD in astrophysics, to guide you in examining the beauty of God’s Creation.

Lisle designed Stargazer's Guide to the Night Sky for everyone from young students to amateur astronomers. In it you will:

• Learn the best ways and optimal times to observe planets and stars
• Discover how to choose the best telescope for you
• Find 150 stunning, full-color star-charts and other easy to use illustrations for success

“How do phases of the moon work? When will the next solar eclipse take place? What is that bright star setting in the west? How do I find Saturn? What sorts of objects can be seen with binoculars?” These questions and many more are easily answered with the helpful tips and basic understanding of astronomy presented in this book.

Create or expand the hobby of stargazing; an outdoor, educational hobby to enjoy with friends or family. Regardless of your circumstances and the economy, you will always be able to marvel at the beauty of our night sky.

Who is Dr. Jason Lisle?

Dr. Jason Lisle is the Director of Research and a featured speaker and writer for the Institute for Creation Research. He holds bachelor of science degrees in physics and astronomy from Ohio Wesleyan University, as well as a master’s and PhD in Astro-physics from the University of Colorado in Boulder. As a creation scientist Dr. Lisle effectively communicates a broad range of topics from in-depth presentations of distant starlight, Einstein's relativity, and problems with the big bang to topics from astronomy and general science to apologetics and dinosaurs. Dr. Lisle has authored a number of books which include: Taking Back Astronomy, The Ultimate Proof of Creation, Old-Earth Creationism on Trial, and his brand new title releasing in April 2012 The Stargazer’s Guide to the Night Sky.

My Thoughts

This book would be a marvelous springboard to study astronomy with a Christian perspective with your middle or high school student.    The information contained in it is explained in clear terminology that even if you haven’t done any observation of the night sky before, you will be able to comprehend.

The book contains twelve chapters and will slowly introduce you to the terminology and the how to of stargazing.   Take a look at the table of content:

• Chapter 1: Motions in the Sky – Basic.  This chapter will explain to you how the Earth rotate on its axis and how any object in the sky will complete a circuit in 24 hours.   With clear pictures and explanations, you will get the basic understanding on how the stars travel in the sky, the phases of the moon, the seasons, the planets and much more.
• Chapter 2: Motions in the Sky – Advanced.  This chapter will provide more in depth information about how the the sky move above our heads.   With more details, the author provide insights on sunset and sunrise, how the moon orbits, eclipses, the motion of planets and how they are divided in superior and inferior ones, comets, meteor showers and much more to satisfy the curiosity of any student.
• Chapter 3: Understanding the Eye.  Have you taken the time to understand how your eye work?   This chapter will highlight the basic functions of the eye so that you can get he most of your observations during the night.
• Chapter 4: Astronomy with the Unaided Eye.  This specific chapter will provide you guidance on how to identify the constellations and bright stars without using a telescope during the various seasons of the year.  It also highlights some of the most frequent constellations that you would want to see during a specific time of the year.
• Chapter 5: Celestial Events.  This chapter covers the main celestial events that we could observe in a year.  It also gives you dates of future events as well as tips on how to protect your eyes during a solar eclipse.  Other events like atmospheric phenomena, solar system dust and satellites are also mentioned in this chapter.
• Chapter 6: Telescope Basics.   Now that you have observe the night sky with your own eyes, this chapter will introduce you to the use of a telescope.  It will also provide information on what to look for if you are looking to purchase one.
• Chapter 7: Telescope Observing Sessions.   This chapter will guide you on how to dress up and what to do for an observation session.  
• Chapter 8: The Moon and the Sun.   This chapter provides detailed information on our moon and our sun.
• Chapter 9: The Planets. This chapter concentrates on each individual planet that we can observe with a good telescope.
• Chapter 10: Star Classification and Telescope Viewing.   This chapter will give you more detailed information on the classification of stars as well as telescope viewing.    With plenty of images, charts and graphs, you can learn more on how to observe the stars with your telescope.
• Chapter 11: Deep Sky Objects. This chapter will provide information on how you can also observe deep sky objects like open star clusters, globular star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. 
• Chapter 12: Astrophotography.  Finally, this chapter will guide you in developing your passion with suggesting the type of equipment you will need in order to do astrophotography.   

Though the book challenge you to experience yourself with the information read in the chapters, I think it would be nice to have some sort of reading comprehension test for the student.    However, even though I find it is missing on the quizzing to discover how much was retained, I find the book is very complete in guide you in the discovery of a fun activity that could be done with your kids.  Taking the time to understand our night sky and observe it will open your eyes to see the majestic creation that God has done.

I find this book would be a great item to have for homeschoolers of middle, high school and college/university students.

The Stargazer’s Guide to the Night Sky is available at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Thanks to New Leaf Publishing Group for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.