The Backyard Stargazer: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Skywatching With and Without a Telescope

Stargazing is an activity that lasts a lifetime. There is nothing like the thrill of glimpsing at the rings of Saturn for the first time or seeing, with the aid of a simple pair of binoculars, a fuzzy patch in the sky resolve into a cluster of sparkling stars. The Backyard Stargazer will help you discover new wonders in the night sky, whether you observe from a lounge chair in your backyard, a camp set up far from city lights, or the deck of a ship on a special stargazing cruise.

Written in a conversational, accessible style, The Backyard Stargazer is a down to earth guide to observing the night and daytime sky without having to invest in a lot of equipment.

You will discover:

• What you need to get started: a clear night, a red light flashlight, and a copy of The Backyard Stargazer to guide your observing sessions
• Seasonal star maps to help you spot constellations ,and more, year round
• Things you never knew about the Moon, Sun, and planets
• What causes an eclipse and how you can travel to see one
• How stars are born and where comets come from
• How to photograph auroras, meteors, and constellations
• What you can see with the naked eye, binoculars, and, when you're ready, a small telescope

Includes 46 easy projects for planet watching, moon viewing, and constellation spotting!

Pat Price is a freelance writer and editor whose interest in astronomy was sparked in the late 1960s by the Apollo Moon missions and kindled in the '80s by a stint as a writer/producer of astronomy shows at the Edmonton Space Sciences Centre in Alberta, Canada. She lives, writes, and stargazes with her amateur astronomer husband in Edmonton, Alberta.