Sky and Telescope: A Constellation Album

Title: Sky & Telescope: A Constellation album

By: P.K. Chen
$34.95 US

In my opinion, this book is perfect as a learning aid for the constellations. All astronomers are familiar with the usual "Stick-Figures" for the constellations. Now take those figures and put them on clear acetate film, and overlay that film onto an actual photograph of that constellation. This is the premise of A Constellation Album.



I found the book well laid out. It was separated into 4 seasons, and covers 53 constellations that can be seen from the northern hemisphere (Or at least what can be seen from Hawaii, where most of the images were taken).

The book is spiral bound with a hardcover. A question came to me asking about the quality of the overlays, thinking they may be too thin, and possibly tear, but I found the overlays are a fair thickness, and seem to hold up quite well. Each overlay has the recognizable stick-figures, as well as the mythological folklore rendition drawing showing the constellation. The stick-figures are punctuated by circles that correspond with the key stars in each image. In my copy, all overlays except ONE lined up perfectly with the underlying image. The one that was off seemed to have been punched wrong for the spiral binding, and was offset by a slight amount, just missing the key stars. All of the images are beautiful quality, and great to look at.



With each constellation comes a page containing the description, as well as information about the brightest members, and key objects that can be seen. This information is not only for the beginners, but seasoned veterans as well.



I found the overall quality of the book to be good, but this is NOT a field guide of any sorts, and is best served in your home library. The pages and acetate are a little on the heavy side, and the way the spiral binding is held on the hardcover is my only concern. With any abuse, the whole inside of the book will pull away from the cover.

Overall, I love this book. It makes a great coffee-table book, and the pictures are great to look through. And for those new to astronomy, A Constellation Album is a great way to learn the constellations, as you can easily see the familiar stick-figures, and compare to the real view photo.

2 Thumbs up from me.

Neo…