This guide provides comprehensive practical information for both beginning and advanced amateur astronomers on how to make scientifically significant observations. The book explains in detail how to observe every conceivable astronomical object--from meteors to distant galaxies. It presents a wide variety of methods ranging from the simplest visual observations, such as making pencil drawings of the surface of the Moon, to the use of highly sophisticated equipment, such as CCD cameras and photoelectric photometers. It also explains how to record and catalog observations using recognized...

How can you find new minor planets, comets and novae? How can you use photoelectric detectors to derive the temperatures of stars? And how can you predict future eclipses and occultations of stars by minor planets? The questions asked by serious amateur astronomers are answered in this guide. For each topic, sound practical methods of observation and the scientific background are given to lead you to better observations. Guidelines also show you how to record and catalogue your observations using the recognized professional terminology and classification schemes.

Featuring full colour photographs, this book displays the sheer beauty of the sky. It covers different aspects from diverse cloud formations, the golden colours of dawn and dusk, spectacular storms and unique weather, and a wide range of meteorological phenomena.

Although this book has been available for some time, it is only now appearing in an English edition. This gives me the opportunity of adding a few explanations. I have not struggled to include the very latest, tentative results. I have, instead, concentrated on presenting cosmological ideas to interested non experts. They often encounter considerable difficulties when attempts are made to explain even long-established results in this field, so the aim of this book is to provide them with help. Naturally, I have also tried to include modern findings. To help with the explanation I have made...

IAU Colloquium No. 98 The Contribution of Amateurs to Astronomy was held in Paris, at the Chaillot-Galliera Conference Centre, on 20-24 June, 1987. A total of 250 participants - professional and amateur astronomers - came from 27 different countries. It was the first time that such a meeting had been organized under the aus- pices of the International Astronomical Union, and the arrangements in Paris were made by the Societe Astronomique de France, which was founded one hundred years previously by Camille Flammarion, so the 100th anniversary of the SAF was also celebrated. Nine commissions of...

Throughout the ages, comets, enigmatic and beautiful wandering objects that appear for weeks or months, have alternately fascinated and terrified humankind. The result of five years of careful research, Atlas of Great Comets is a generously illustrated reference on thirty of the greatest comets that have been witnessed and documented since the Middle Ages. Special attention is given to the cultural and scientific impact of each appearance, supported by a wealth of images, from woodcuts, engravings, historical paintings and artifacts, to a showcase of the best astronomical photos and images....