A Year in the Life of the Universe: A Seasonal Guide to Viewing the Cosmos

From our viewing platform on Earth, the night sky changes throughout the year. Autumn and spring are best for observing galaxies, winter is ideal for sighting nebulae and star clusters, and summer is the season of the Milky Way.

A Year in the Life of the Universe, published in collaboration with Sky & Telescope magazine, takes us on an intimate seasonal tour of these ever-changing heavens. Stellar photographs by renowned astrophotographer Robert Gendler helps us identify more than 120 deep-sky objects that stand out by virtue of their beauty, visual impact, and scientific interest, presenting the celestial objects in the order in which they apear through the seasons. This is not only a beautiful photo book, however-it is also a practical, hands-on guidebook for astronomy buffs at all levels, with coordinates, detailed captions, and wide-field sky charts to help stargazers young and old navigate the night sky.

Robert Gendler is the world's leading amateur astrophotographer. A physician who spends his free time taking pictures of the night sky, he is the author and photographer of A Year in the Life of the Universe, and his images appear regularly in Sky & Telescope magazine. He lives in Avon, Connecticut. www.robgendlerastropics.com/Foreword writer Neil deGrasse Tyson is a professional astrophysicist. He is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History and the host of NOVA scienceNOW on PBS. Tyson is the author of nine books on the universe, most recently Death by Black Hole and The Pluto Files. He lives in New York City.Timothy Ferris is the author of such bestsellers as The Whole Shebang and Coming of Age in the Milky Way. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.