LOOK TO THE NIGHT SKY: An Introduction to Star Watching

A clear, attractive introduction which starts at the very beginning, with such preliminaries as how to dark-adapt your eyes, prepare a flashlight, get physically comfortable for a session, and select the right weather for city viewing. Also indicative of the book's preprimer intent is the shortage of sky charts--only four seasonal diagrams, plus a few more of individual constellations, to accompany the orienting discussion of pole-circling constellations, seasonal changes, planet tracking, moon features, and ""special sights"" such as eclipses. Thus acclimated, sky watchers will certainly want to go on to Rey, Joseph, or another of the fuller, systematic guides. (And why, in a book so geared, devote a chapter to telescopes? Or bother at any level with the astrological addenda?) But this brisk and eminently readable orientation will surely succeed in making almost any youngster feel right at home with the night skies.