The Cambridge Star Atlas

This is a wonderful tool for the amateur astronomer. I love the spiral binder. And the pages are somewhat resistance for times of relatively high humidity. It has great lists of DSOs and provides coordinates. It is a must have those that are learning their way around the night sky with a telescope.

I purchased this as a companion for the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas I have been using for the past 8 or so years. I find myself preferring the S&T at the telescope but for planning, the wider field of view and chart layout of the Cambridge has an advantage. Other value adds of the Cambridge are a set of moon maps for nights when the moon is up as well as a listing of prominent stars which you will use as anchor points during star hopping.One thing I was disappointed to see omitted from the Cambridge was the Caldwell catalog, not even just a listing mapping the C-numbers to NGC/IC-numbers. While technically not-a-catalog, the Caldwell catalog is specifically designed for amateur observers starting out with smaller scopes. Not a deal breaker as if you already are aware of the Caldwell catalog you can easily look it up on-line and do the mapping yourself then look up the object by its NGC/IC identifier in the Cambridge charts.From a pure "star chart" perspective I still think the S&T is superior but the additional information in the Cambridge I think makes it a good first sky atlas choice, especially over other beginner resources that are effectively reference books with a few whimpy charts.If you can afford both the Cambridge and S&T, you can't go wrong getting both to keep you busy for a while.

This was recommend as a companion to another star atlas by a noted authority. While this wasn't his first choice it was his second. I have his first choice already so wanted to get this one. It gets a four star rating because it is good, better than the average star atlas. However it is not as good as the better of those recommended. For an beginner I think this is all that you'll need, this and a planisphere. Recommended.

This is a wonderful atlas that that required some in-depth use before I fully appreciated it. The content organization is uniue but works well.I've looked at stars for over 60 years and still have my 1964 Norton's Atlas which is finally falling apart, so I wanted something newer and more up-to-date. I purchased Wil Tirion's Star Atlass 2000 back in the early 1990s so it was easy to go with him. I wanted something with text, recommendations for objects to view and the like, and this fully meets the bill. Hard to read because of the small font, especially for my eyes, but this is an atlas, a reference manual, so I can deal with the small font. But I get how this could be a non-starter for some p eople.The more I use this atlas, the more I like it.

The sky maps are easy to read, while still having all the pertinent information. There are three tables that I went back to again and again to help me learn the night sky. Using the list of constellations, the list of the brightest stars in the sky and the list of Messier objects, I was able to locate landmarks in the sky that correspond well to the atlas maps. Along with each map is detailed technical information about (for example the brightness of) major stars, nebulas, galaxies and globular clusters. More organized and much more information than the Sky and Telescope pocket atlas. A similar book I found essential is the Celestron Sky maps, which do a great job of pointing out and mapping the easiest-to-see objects with either binoculars or a telescope in a concise and durable format. The other essential companion to the Cambridge Star Atlas is "Turn Left at Orion", which has a step-by-step guide to what you can see in each season of the year and a lot of useful information about what you are looking at!

This has been perfect for me, an adult with some understanding of astronomy from a distant childhood, wanting to learn the sky and find objects to look at with my telescopes. I mainly use the numbered star charts. They are perfect because they present enough scale on each page to orient myself in the sky, and learn the constellations, and show enough detail to find the objects I'm looking for. The page next to each map lists the deep sky objects found in the adjacent map, with size and magnitude to give you some idea of what to look for. I also find the book beautiful to look at, with nice colors, easy to read fonts. I have had it out in heavy dew conditions, where it got soaked, and I thought I had ruined it, but after it dried off, it was fine, although the pages were no longer perfectly flat. No book is for everyone; this might be too advanced for children, and people wanting to track down the more obscure objects will want more detail. But for someone starting out with a telescope, I found this book to be a delight.

Just comparing this atlas to my others: Uranometria, Sky Atlas 2000, Edmond Mag 5. I see that many diverse sources were included here to make the final product albeit software of sorts, highly stimulating and useful to our quest of knowledge of the heavens. Having used it now several times in the field, added another star for it's ease of use where it gathers less dew than my sky atlas 2k- probably last longer. General penetration into the universe is presented on a nice scale and balance with the deep sky objects. You can wake up to these charts and be filled with the wonder of creation. Happy hunting