Telescope Reviews: Re: After Messier

The "Celestial Handbooks" are a classic because they helped spark a firestorm within the amateur community. When the handbooks were published, all those thousands of galaxies, clusters and nebulae were new territory ready for exploration. No one had ever attempted a Messier marathon, there was no "Herschel 400" list, and the very mention of names like Arp and Hickson would have drawn a blank look from most astronomy enthusiasts. (When did the Astronomical League issue their first Messier club observing award?) Deep sky observing was ready to explode as the focus of amateur astronomy and Burnham helped light the fuse.

His timing couldn't have been better. The Moon had been conquered. NASA was sending probes to the nearest planets and the resulting photos were gradually removing the veil of mystery from these worlds. Burnham celebrated the deep-sky at a time when the amateur community was searching for a new frontier of visual observing.

Today, deep-sky observing is a well-established niche within amateur astronomy. Though harsh sounding, it may be that Burnham's time has passed. Burnham was, in some respects, one generation's prophet. He spread the good word about the wonders of observing the deep sky. But each generation finds its own prophets. Eventually, the "Celestial Handbooks" will be--if they haven't already been--replaced by a new touchstone for the next generation of amateur astronomer.

Rather than attempt to re-write or update an established classic, why not strive to be bold? Create a work that celebrates a new frontier of amateur astronomy at the very time when amateurs are ready to embrace and explore something new. But keep in mind, the next frontier of amateur astronomy is not visual observing.

Where does the next frontier reside? CCD imaging? video astronomy? Cosmology? Imagine a piece of software that allows a computer to mathematically model ideas expressed in common, every day language. Wouldn't it be something if this suite of computer tools served to inspire a new generation of armchair cosmologists? Wouldn't it be amazing if someone actually used that software to produce groundbreaking work?

Pie in the sky? Probably. But that's the kind of thing that's going to be embraced as the next Burnham's. We don't need an update of Burnham's. We need a fresh idea.

Bill in Flag

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Grand Canyon Adventure
Lowering the Threshold

18" Obsession
4.5" Meade 4500
10x50 Swift Audubon

Cosmic Voyage

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