50 Things to See with a Telescope: A Young Stargazer’s Guide

Read’s juvenile guidebook to star gazing is accurately described on the back cover as “A beginner’s guide to the night sky”. While it provides information to help identify over fifty celestial objects ranging from individual starts to star clusters and galaxies, it can also serve as a good introduction to star patterns (constellations or asterisms) that can be seen with the naked eye. In fact, the targets are all given a difficulty rating of one to three, with the easiest ones often visible with the aid of binoculars.

For telescope users, the book includes a brief introduction to the two main types of telescopes—refractors and reflectors, and the importance of a solid mount on stable tripod legs. Tips on choosing an eyepiece and using the telescope may appear daunting, especially when the following tip is digested:

Adapting your eyes to the dark
Viewing objects like galaxies, nebulae and globular clusters also requires you to prepare your eyes. It takes about 30 minutes to adapt your eyes to see these objects. This means you can’t look at car headlights, porch lights or cell phones. It also means no flashlights (unless covered with red cellophane) and no looking at the Moon.

The book is nicely designed and organized. A typical page identifies a constellation and within it or associated with its stars a telescope target such as a star cluster, planet, or nebula. An enlarged circle pointing to the small circle in the constellation shows the reader the object as it may appear in a telescope eyepiece. The target is rated for difficulty; easy ones include a binocular icon to remind you that you can see this without an actual telescope. “Stellar Facts” are included on most pages. For example, on a page identifying The Orion Nebula (M42), the facts are: “A nebula is a cloud of gas and dust visible in the night sky as a bright patch.” For reinforcement and expansion, a one page glossary elaborates on 20 astronomic terms.

The book is written for users in the northern hemisphere. It is broken into chapters largely based on the season. Chapter 1 contains year-round objects. The next four chapters describe objects visible in winter, spring, summer, and autumn. One final chapter focuses upon other objects, mostly planets. Chapters begin with two sky charts showing the constellations one can see when looking north and when looking south. Due to the heavy use of black backgrounds throughout the book, with light blue lines to link stars in a constellation with the constellation names also in light blue, the text may be very difficult to use by readers with visual challenges. The sky charts are crucial to help readers identify the range of constellations and their positioning relative to one another.

Overall, 50 Things To See With a Telescope will appeal most to kids and parents who are keen stargazers. The fact that it can be used to find constellations and objects visible with the naked eye or with the aid of binocular adds tremendous value to this volume as an addition to a well-stocked library. Since most North Americans live in cities, it may be a challenge for many to see all of the constellations in the book due to light pollution. However, anyone who can get out to the dark countryside and marvel at the night sky on a clear night will find 50 Things To See With a Telescope an invaluable guide. In this regard, it can be a useful reference book for kids of all ages. Just remember the bug spray.