[Friends_of_SSASTROS] Free Astronomy Book PDF Download

[jty.astro at ArtCentrics.com]

Hello,

 

James Yoder here,  I am a co-author of a new Free PDF book called the Star
Hopper's Guide to the Galaxy.  I though you might want to pass this
information along to your club.

 

Thanks!

James Yoder

 

The Star Hopper's Guide to the Galaxy is a free PDF book created for
astronomers in the northern hemisphere who do not have a GoTo telescope or
are interested in finding objects using the star hopping technique.

 

The book along with additional resources can be downloaded from the
ArtCentrics website at  https://artcentrics.com/books/

 

The book primarily consists of star hop instruction sheets developed by Jim
Mazur that were initially made available on his website Skyledge.net
<https://skyledge.net/> .  This compilation contains over 170 instruction
sheets with over 250 objects.  Each sheet contains two star charts; the
first chart is used to help orient you to the night sky and immediate area
around the target using familiar constellations or asterisms such as the Big
Dipper, the Summer Triangle, or the Great Square of Pegasus.  The second
chart is a detailed road map on how to hop to the highlighted objects.
Information on the targeted objects is provided, as well as a small image of
the object, when available.

 



 

 

The book is organized by constellations and the targets within the
constellation.  Each constellation has a page that summarizes the targets in
the constellation along with a table listing basic information on each of
the objects.  The table includes the name of the object, the type of the
object, links to the finder chart (within the book, and on the Skyledge.net
<https://skyledge.net/>  website), aliases for the object, and some basic
stats such as magnitude, separation (in the case of multiple stars), surface
brightness, and size.  A chart highlighting the constellation is also
provided on the page along with online links to Wikipedia articles where
more information on each of the targets can be found.  The constellation
summary page is followed by an image gallery where images for many of the
targets are provided for reference.

 



 

The book was specifically developed to be printed out so it can be taken out
in the field.  One can print out sections as needed, or print the entire
book and place it in a binder or have it spiral bound.  Additional
functionality is available when utilizing the book on a PC or smart device
such as an iPad. Many links with additional information are available
throughout the book with the purpose of providing in depth information
either in preparation of a viewing session, or additional research after a
viewing session.

 

The book is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/>  law, so it can be
freely printed and distributed provided there is no profit involved.

 

We think this book will be a valuable tool to help the observational
astronomer have a productive viewing session.

 

James Yoder, Andrea Matthias, Jim Mazur

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20250522/9367125f/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 174996 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20250522/9367125f/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 165700 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20250522/9367125f/attachment-0001.png>