Turn left at Orion
by Guy Consolmagno · first published 2011
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Practical guide to finding and observing the objects visible in the night sky with ordinary equipment; a favorite starting point for beginning amateur astronomers and first-telescope owners.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"With over 100,000 copies sold since first publication, this is one of the most popular astronomy books of all time. It is a unique guidebook to the night sky, providing all the information you need to observe a whole host of celestial objects. With a new spiral binding, this edition is even easier to use outdoors at the telescope and is the ideal beginner's book. Keeping its distinct one-object-per-spread format, this edition is also designed for Dobsonian telescopes, as well as for smaller reflectors and refractors, and covers Southern hemisphere objects in more detail. Large-format eyepiece
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One of my favourite books is Turn Left at Orion by Guy Consolmagno. It describes the different astronomical objects that you can expect to see and how to find them in the sky. I think it also does a good job of setting expectations because you just…
on “AstroNavigation – A free course” ↗…(both fun and expensive). With all that as background, I'd recommend a 6" or 8" Dobsonian if you've got the budget. Something like an Orion Sky Quest XT8 or XT6. My favorite book, by a light year, is "Turn Left at Orion". It'll help you find thousands of cool things in the night sky, and it's great for beginners on up. — https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundreds-Telescope/dp... P.S. Definitely checkout r/telescopes…
on “Ask HN: What entry-level telescope should I choose?” ↗You mean Guy Consolmagno? He co-authored "Turn Left at Orion", which is one of my favourite reading recommendations to beginning amateur astronomers of any age :)
on “Why Catholics Built Astronomical Features into Churches” ↗I bought Orion SkyQuest XT4.5 classic dobsonian telescope. It turned out to be really good first telescope for me. Turn Left at Orion(5th ed) by Consolmagno & Davis is really good book that you should consider buying.
on “Ask HN: What entry-level telescope should I choose?” ↗My personal recommendation: start with a pair of inexpensive 10x50 binoculars and a copy of Consolmagno & Davis' "Turn Left at Orion". If you live in the US, you shouldn't have too much of a problem finding dark skies. Dark skies are the most important ingredient :). Good luck, and clear skies to you.
on “Ask HN: How to get started in amateur astronomy?” ↗Telescopes: depends on your use case. Check out the sticky on reddit.com/r/telescopes Books: Again, depends, but Turn Left at Orion and Cosmic Challenge are good ones.
on “Ask HN: What entry-level telescope should I choose?” ↗Turn Left at Orion is a popular suggestion (see sibling comment) but the other question is what do you want to do, what part of astronomy interests you? Amateur astronomy is a vast field and depending on what you're interested…
on “AstroNavigation – A free course” ↗