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Re: The Millennium Star Atlas

Starwolf — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:05:58 GMT

Well stated Leo.

Truth be told, I love reading the higher quality printings of Astronomy books. Just on Friday, I drove over to my local Barnes & Nobel (I love that place) and looked over a couple of the books there. Without making a purchase I read through the books for an hour and a half. Very nice selection indeed.

If I had a copy of the Millenium Star Atlas, it would never leave the house. I would use it as a desktop reference only (for fear of having it damaged while performing "field" study (humidity, dropping on the ground in the darkness ect..).

Re: The Millennium Star Atlas

leo731 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:31:05 GMT

Starwolf:
You have to be plum out of yer mind to pay $85 for a star atlas. Maybe all you rich guys with yer high falutin' razzle dazzle computer powered electronic telescopes need to have your coordinates down to 1/1,000,000th of an arc second.

Quite funny Starwolf.

Seriously though, I used to sell books for a living and I can tell you that the Millenium Atlas was not priced to gouge customers. It was a first class printing of a demanding sort with a print run that was too small and thus could not be reduced in price because of something called the economy of scale. It may be reprinted in an inferior, and thus cheaper, format someday if demand warrants it.

I recently wanted to buy a the new Cambridge Atlas of Double Stars at $35 but the wife and my own frugal nature forbade it. (mostly the wife )

http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521493437

I attacked this problem with vigor. First I cashed in $20 of my credit card points and received a $25 gift card (that's $5 free bucks folks). I then waited for a Borders coupon which arrived in my e-mail for 30% off if I bought a book on line and since the atlas was over $25 they shipped it for free. In the end I paid $2.97 for my new Atlas. My wife approved and my home remained a happy one.

Don't give up so easily. There are many alternatives and many ways to seek out bargains. I use my Starry Night Pro software to pinpoint areas I am interested in and just print out the copy I want. Yes, I know a plain bit of paper will not last long in the dew and other hazards of the night but putting my copy inside one of those plastic sheet protectors saves it from the worst of the elements and it makes for a very easy read at the eyepiece.

Starwolf:

Now...where was I...oh yeah. Ice.

Oh, and a nice smooth drink isn't such a bad idea either.

Re: The Millennium Star Atlas

Starwolf — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:27:17 GMT

Yikes! All this YELLING hurts my ears...

You have to be plum out of yer mind to pay $85 for a star atlas. Maybe all you rich guys with yer high falutin' razzle dazzle computer powered electronic telescopes need to have your coordinates down to 1/1,000,000th of an arc second. For the rest of us here's my home brew remedy...

4 parts whiskey 1 part ice.....er...no not that. Nevermind.

1) Orion's "The Sky" Comes free with any scope purchase. Mine's a few years old and when I still zoom all the way in on Jupiter, the moons are in their accurate positions still. My reckoning is that if all 4 moons are still "dead on" then the stars gotta still be pretty darn close to exact also.

2) Meade's planetarium (I don't use it but if you own a Meade LPI, DSI, DSI II or DSI III then you already have it. It comes bundleded with Autostar suite.

3)Just buy Astronomy's "Atlas of the Stars". I think the last printing was 2006. Not sure though but it's got everything down to (X?) magnitude.

I mean, what's the purpose of spending $85 on a book that has the same accuracy as a $14 magazine. Plus, I'd assume the book to be pretty big and heavy. I would be afraid to take it outside for fear of damaging it. With the magazine, I take it out and fold it back all the time. It's light enough that I can hold it against the sky for orientation. Try that with your giant Encyclopedia Brittanica's Sky Atlas of Everything in the Stinking Universe Volume XIX....

Now...where was I...oh yeah. Ice.

Re: The Millennium Star Atlas

tunedinturnedon — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:12:54 GMT

I hearby declare myself a member of DAROSGU !!!

RE: The Millennium Star Atlas

RenatoAlessio — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 05:58:31 GMT

I like my copy of Millennium, but it has had limited usage from me because of it's size. In the field I far prefer the Herald Bobroff AstroAtlas (which is now back in print), which has more DSO's listed in it than Millennium.

But every now and then, I find that some objects I'm observing in the AstroAtlas's C and D charts are difficult to make out (e.g the Centaurus galaxies) and then a volume of Millennium comes to the rescue on my next observing session.
Renato

RE: The Millennium Star Atlas

tiger roach — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:26:38 GMT

I had wondered what happened to this atlas. Looks like I will be sticking with Uranometria for the time being.

RE: The Millennium Star Atlas

MaddCow — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 21:35:09 GMT

If I remember right, the problem with the MSA was that it only plotted 10,000 galaxies- fine for a 10" scope, but this is far too few for big scopes. And generally, it is people with big scopes that want an atlas like this.

RE: The Millennium Star Atlas

lairdascott — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:56:11 GMT

To see what all the fuss is about, you can get sample pages from The Millennium Star Atlas at: http://astro.estec.esa.nl/Hipparcos/pstex/vol14sample.pdf

Laird

RE: The Millennium Star Atlas

starramus — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 11:53:56 GMT

Lairdascott, Yes it is out of print and why? Because their exorbitant pricing squelched almost all sales. It was a marvelous Atlas, but it was discarded because of human greed.

Aristaeus, Yes i have seen the $84.95 price on Amazon, but i doubt you will get them for that. A www.barnesandnoble.com used book seller has the three volumes listed for $472.45.

Too bad that our socio-economic system is counter-productive. And that an extraordinary product of human energies such as this is cast by the wayside.

RE: The Millennium Star Atlas

aristaeus63 — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 03:37:15 GMT

I found two of the volumes on Amazon.com for $84.95 each.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0933346816/qid=1108697465/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-2556861-1832768?v=glance&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0933346824/104-2556861-1832768

Andreas

RE: The Millennium Star Atlas

lairdascott — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 01:38:39 GMT

I think it's out of print.

Laird

The Millennium Star Atlas

starramus — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 21:28:57 GMT

I hereby suggest that we amateurs that frequent this site form a union with the prime goal of demanding that Sky Publishing reduce the price of The Millenium Star Atlas to at least 50% of its list price. I have had it with this price gouging and will take it no longer. I hereby declare the DAROSGU to be in existence and will draw up a petition laying out our demands. DAROSGU = Disgruntled And Ripped Off Star Gazers United. If it tastes like SPAM it is SPAM.