Book
Review:
Celestial Sampler
Sue French
By Rob Lambert
I received a copy of Sue French's Celestial Sampler as a Christmas gift and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite books. Sue has been writing articles for Sky & Telescope since July 1999, when they first published her column, “Small-Scope Sampler”. Celestial Sampler is a compilation of her first 60 columns. Her column essays are arranged by month with five essays for each month. Each essay includes:
•descriptions of double and variable stars, star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies that can be viewed through smaller telescopes like the Orion Starblast
•some basic science behind many of the objects she observed
•photographs by amateur astronomers
•tabular listings of the deep-sky sights
•finder charts
•challenge objects that encourage you to push the limits of your equipment and skills
Celestial Sampler contains Sky & Telescopes' All-Sky Star Maps for every month of the year followed by five two-page essays describing the selected night sky treasures for each month. Each essay contains descriptions of 5 to 15 objects, photos, tables, and star charts to help you locate the highlighted objects. Objects are highlight in bold throughout the text for easy location. At the back of the book, Sue provides a list of the resources she used in the book, which gives the reader additional sources to aid viewing the night sky. There is also an index of all of the objects cited in Sue's essays. Celestial Sampler is suitable for use in the field; its glossy pages are dew-resistent and easy to read under red-filtered light.
Whether you are a beginning novice or an experienced stargazer, Celestial Sampler can be your guide to not only well known, but also obscure treasures of the night sky. If you've done the Messier list and are wondering “What now?” - maybe Celestial Sampler can lead you to new discoveries. Open this book and widen your repertoire of favorite deep sky objects.
With 60 essays, the Celestial Sampler can keep an amateur astronomer busy for at least a year observing different objects. Sue's guide can be an intermediate step between the Messier objects and the Caldwell or other object lists. Celestial Sampler is available in paperback directly from Sky & Telescope for $24.95 or from Amazon.com, where I got mine for $16.47.