Night Sky Atlas

There are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches. In Australia stargazers may espy a constellation called Norma. The plural of ‘nebula’ is, apparently, ‘nebulas’. Unsuspected facts like these ambush the reader at every page-turn of this remarkable atlas. Having given us an idea of the immensity and complexity of the astronomic concept, the Atlas leads us round the night skies month by month, each one featuring a different constellation, a monthly sky-map for each hemisphere (worldwide sales, you see) and a selected astro-phenomenon. So for September we examine Cygnus and the solar system’s inner planets (that’s Mercury, Venus, Mars and us). Each constellation has a transparent overlay explaining its fancied resemblance to its nickname – Cygnus may look like a swan to some but ‘stick insect’ will do for me. And in my copy at least, Virgo (April) seems to have lost hers (overlay, that is).

This is a book for the serious astro-freak – something which, despite living beneath unpolluted night skies, I will never become; but in scope, presentation and seeming authoritativeness it’s mighty impressive and its spiral binding ensures that it can lie flat on the observatory table or bedroom windowsill during use. Just one thing worries me, though – who counted all those grains of sand?