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Suggestions for good beginner book for granddaughter

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#1 Astrola72

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 07:56 PM

My daughter texted me that my granddaughter got a telescope for Christmas. I was not consulted, and they bought her what I'm pretty sure would be classed as a "hobby killer": Polaroid 76700 60mm f/9 reflector. So, nothing I can do about that. I didn't even know she was interested in astronomy. Anyway, I can't tell my daughter what a mistake she made, but I did tell her I'd ask around for advice on good books for beginners, and also possibly videos. My granddaughter is 14 and pretty smart, good student. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

Joe



#2 sctchun

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 08:01 PM

An oldie, but good beginner observing book

 

Turn Left at Orion


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#3 Dave Mitsky

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 08:17 PM

Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe by Terence Dickinson is considered by many to be the single best book for novice amateur astronomers.

 

http://www.fireflybo...ng-the-universe
 


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#4 hlee

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 08:38 PM

It was probably an impulse purchase.  Retailers always make a big push for telescope sales at this time.

 

I will mention the last one of the "Big Three":  The Backyard Astronomer's Guide.

 

https://backyardastronomy.com

 

Reach out to your granddaughter and let her know that you ready, willing and able to offer assistance.  If she shows some real interest, maybe you can offer her one of your older scopes as an upgrade down the line?


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#5 pj_thomas

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 08:40 PM

Peterson Field Guide for Stars and Planets.  A little dated but a great pocket reference.


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#6 Dave Mitsky

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 08:50 PM

Another good beginning observing guide book is Phillip S. Harrington's Star Watch: The Amateur Astronomer's Guide to Finding, Observing, and Learning About over 125 Celestial Objects.
 

http://www.philharri...n.net/swtch.htm

 


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#7 sevenofnine

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 08:51 PM

The books are excellent but I would also get her Sky Safari for her cell phone borg.gif


Edited by sevenofnine, 12 January 2023 - 08:51 PM.

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#8 Dave Mitsky

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 08:53 PM

Stellarium is an excellent planetarium program for desktop computers and it's free. 

 

https://stellarium.org/


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#9 KWB

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 08:55 PM

Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe by Terence Dickinson is considered by many to be the single best book for novice amateur astronomers.

 

http://www.fireflybo...ng-the-universe
 

waytogo.gif

 

All three of these books have been mentioned in this thread but if I could only pick one, it would be NightWatch. I like the the star charts.

 

WiPADF5.jpg.


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#10 hlee

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 08:57 PM

A couple of URLs for beginner astronomers:

 

 

Eyes on the Sky:

 

https://www.youtube.com/@Eyesonthesky

 

 

John Read, author of 50 Things to See with a Telescope:

 

https://www.youtube....adAuthor/videos



#11 Astrola72

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Posted 12 January 2023 - 09:04 PM

Wow. Thank you all for such great (and quick!) replies. More than enough to get her going I think. bow.gif

 

Joe


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#12 Ionthesky

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Posted 13 January 2023 - 12:38 AM

Joe,

 

+1 on Kenny's suggestion.  I also have "the big three", and enjoy them all.  What sets NightWatch up a notch (to me) is chapter 2 (The Universe in 11 Steps).  The progressive "zooming out" from our solar system to the known universe, along with some nicely annotated representations of our home galaxy, not only shows us what we can see out there, but why we can see it where and when we do.

 

And of course Sky Safari and Stellarium are great tools for us all!

 

I hope this newfound interest of hers can be the beginning of a grand adventure for the two (or three) of you.  I have to wait awhile...my granddaughter is almost 5...months old.

 

Regards, 

Dave 


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#13 Harry Jacobson

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Posted 13 January 2023 - 09:59 AM

I agree about the books and software suggestions. I think a 14 year old, after a day at school, might get excellent benefit from a local astronomy club and events where she could get hands on “show me” experience. The NASA Night Sky Network, https://nightsky.jpl...a.gov/index.cfm is a good place to identify clubs and events in her area.


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#14 jcj380

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Posted 13 January 2023 - 11:30 AM

Might be out of print now, but there are probably good condition used copies available - "What Star?" by Brian Jones.  It's a constellation guide with some nice color pics (not too many Hubble shots like some beginner books), line diagrams of each constellation, and notes on brighter stars and DSOs.   There's also a glossary in the back which could be handy for beginners.

 

ISBN 978-0-7858-3324-6

 

Add - Abebooks.com has a couple copies for $6-$7 with shipping.


Edited by jcj380, 13 January 2023 - 11:35 AM.


#15 kasprowy

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Posted 13 January 2023 - 11:35 AM

I concur with Turn Left at Orion. The drawings in the book match what you'd actually see with a 3" or under scope. And for her birthday you can get her a nice pair of 10x50 binoculars.



#16 jwnrw59

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Posted 13 January 2023 - 12:32 PM

On a bit different track you may want to look at the books by John Read. They are super practical and will get her viewing right away. Not that the other books aren’t food. In fact they are all great. However depending on her span of attention, it may be a bit painful painful for her to make full use of them as an adult might. 
 



#17 Keith Rivich

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Posted 13 January 2023 - 06:22 PM

Uranometria...smile.gif



#18 Lentini

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Posted 16 January 2023 - 09:53 PM

An oldie, but good beginner observing book

 

Turn Left at Orion

+1



#19 vtornado

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Posted 16 January 2023 - 10:46 PM

Depending upon her level of light pollution The Stars by H.A. Rey.

+1 for turn left at Orion.


Edited by vtornado, 16 January 2023 - 10:46 PM.


#20 yuzameh

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Posted 17 January 2023 - 08:29 AM

It is probably out of print nowadays but Garfunkle's "Star-hopping" published by CUP is an unfortunately rarely mentioned quality guide.

 

If she is a reader that is.  It's in the style of needing to be read, though illustrated, and not in the modern style of short and suite with "boxes" as asides style books have nowadays, trying to emulate a pithy webpage or chat thread with the boxes like oulinked webpages.

 

However, given it is 60mm, and worse a 60mm reflector as opposed to refractor, and will most likely have a lightweight altaz mount that makes a wobbling jelly look rigid, you're going to have to go visit, which if you live states' away will mean a week or so during a good season for dark of the moon.  Here in the UK "Polaroid" means made in China, however, not in the context of "what isn't?", but in the context of they now buy out brand names such that many trusted good old brand names are no longer actually made by those companies or even based on their last designs or patents, and are just using the name, so here you get tellies, dvd players, and even tellies that are smart, biggish, dvd and recording, and HD all for barely over £250 pound, impossibly capable of being good at that price, plus stuff like that going cheap that's too good to be true.  I mean, unless you've typoed, who makes a 60mm _reflector_!  Smallest I've heard of before is 3", but mostly the base is 4" (75mm and 100mm).

 

She's barely going to be able to make out Jupiter's main belts, I seriously doubt GRS, though she'll see the moons, and Saturn's rings will be visible this year, probably, just, but they are on the close.

 

So, pleiades, hyades, colourful naked eye double stars like Albireo (I assume the finder is either poor or worse red dot or possibly even laser free), the Orion Nebula, M31 is probably just giong to be a barely discernible splob, brighter Messier Open Clusters, especially ones with blue stars but also the odd red one, say M52.

 

This may sound veering off topic, but such a basic book as she would need for that scope may be too little kid-like and leave her intelligence insulted.  Most Messier marathon books will have many objects if not beyond her capabilities at least somewhat unrewarding at the eyepiece.

 

On the other hand, if you get her one of the many books recommended above you end up disappointed by it all and the scope she has been given.

 

She can learn the constellations, maybe a good constellation book, whilst you sieve together a target list of the brightest and best objects (you could always check them out in your finderscope if you have an 8x one) and find a way to visit near some dark of the Moon to show her a few objects, that is if you can manage to point the flimsy thing.

 

This new comet is a bit close, but she will have heard of it.  Unfortunately it will disappoint many as the dust tail in somewhat bland in shape, short, fat and stubby, and the nice long ion tail people keep showing us is only going to be easy for small scopes in very dark skies, or in stacked imaging.

 

Reminds me of my last manager, she called training first time workers a matter of "managing expectations", bringing dunderheads up to scratch a "training issue", and the economy going down the pan (again!) a "challenge", never in false bravado, always laconically and fatalistically.  This is going to be the same here, and even though your granddaughter is intelligent there is still going to be a training issue as this scope is going to be hard to use!  It is going to make my first telescope, a 60mm tasco refractor on a wobbly aluminium altaz mount, seem positively deluxe by comparision.  I was roughly the same age when I got that and it can be a surprise what you can see, but little detail.

 

PS in EDIT : but looking at you number of posts and status you likely know all this, so sorry for preaching to the converted


Edited by yuzameh, 17 January 2023 - 08:31 AM.


#21 Steve5006

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Posted 17 January 2023 - 09:57 AM

Depending upon her level of light pollution The Stars by H.A. Rey.

+1 for turn left at Orion.

What level of light pollution would make this resource not useful?



#22 vtornado

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Posted 17 January 2023 - 11:10 AM

What level of light pollution would make this resource not useful?  -- Steve5006

 

Bortle 8+, there are not many constellations that are naked eye visible.

 

IIRC I can see enough stars in ursa major, casseopia, cygnus, orion  probabaly a few others that I can't remember.  All other constellations do not display enough stars to make them recognizable as the constellations in the book.  It might be disappointing to see the stick figure of gemini in the book and only be able to see castor and pollux and gamma.

 

I can hop with binoculars to the bright stars, but even with widefield binos,

it is not the same.  (Except delphinius which is really beautiful in binos)

 

It is an excellent book.  I just don't have excellent skies bawling.gif


Edited by vtornado, 17 January 2023 - 12:39 PM.


#23 Paul Sweeney

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Posted 17 January 2023 - 12:37 PM

I just looked this scope up and it is the standard 76/700 scope. No idea where the 60mm comes from. I had one of these and they are not that bad at all.

Besides the book, you might want to consider a better finder scope, like a red dot finder. At least one low power eyepiece will make finding stuff much easier. The marketing people always go for high power, but this scope will do best at low to medium powers. A 25mm eyepiece will give 28x, and that is a good "overview" magnification.
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#24 Anony

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Posted 17 January 2023 - 04:14 PM

I just looked this scope up and it is the standard 76/700 scope. No idea where the 60mm comes from. I had one of these and they are not that bad at all.

Besides the book, you might want to consider a better finder scope, like a red dot finder. At least one low power eyepiece will make finding stuff much easier. The marketing people always go for high power, but this scope will do best at low to medium powers. A 25mm eyepiece will give 28x, and that is a good "overview" magnification.

If I am reading it correctly, I am seeing:

 

0.935" drawtube

 

Which is sort of weirdly bad... makes me think it may be a typo for a modern scope.



#25 Dave Mitsky

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Posted 17 January 2023 - 04:33 PM

Some of the information on astronomy, amateur astronomy, and observing presented in my post (#22) at https://www.cloudyni...mers/?p=5184287 may be of interest.  There are sections on various books, observing guides, star-hopping, stellar atlases, planispheres, planetarium programs, astronomy apps, deep-sky object observing, lists of worthwhile celestial objects to observe, binocular astronomy, urban astronomy, and other related topics.  There are also links to a number of videos.


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