A dark night and a small- to medium-sized telescope are all you need to enjoy the deep-sky splendors that dot Earth’s skies. Oh, and one other thing — a good guide that describes what to look for and what you’ll see through the eyepiece.
We’re excited to offer one of the best deep-sky observing guides of the past decade. Author and Astronomy magazine Contributing Editor Tom Polakis created an exclusive series of articles for the magazine called “Celestial Portraits.” The series ran in Astronomy from April 1998 through March 2004, and now you can purchase and download the whole series in digital format.
In each of the 45 articles, Polakis features one or more constellations and the sparkling star clusters, glowing gas clouds, stately galaxies, and other deep-sky objects that backyard astronomers can’t get enough of. In addition to detailed descriptions, each article features great amateur photos and a star chart that pinpoints every object’s location.
We put together 11 packages, and each contains four articles from the series.
To browse the catalog, visit Astronomy.com’s new “Constellation Observing” section. There you can find your favorite constellation, preview each article, see what constellations each package contains, and download “Orion the Hunter” for free.
Keep your eyes peeled for more downloadable articles just like these from Astronomy magazine.