My early years in astronomy
Back in the early 1980s, when I was a newbie in astronomy, one of my very first books on the topic were :
1. "The Hamlyn Guide to Astronomy", David Baker, Hamlyn Publishing Group (1981)
2. "Skyguide - A field guide for amateur astronomers", Mark R. Chartrand III, Golder Press NY 1982.
3. "A Field Guide to the Star & Planets", Donald H. Menzel, Collins Publishing, 1964 (1980 reprint).
Books on astronomy was a bit hard to come by in those days - that's before Amazon.com and mega book stores like MPH, Kinokuniya and Borders. Back then the Internet was not that accessible either, so resources on this subject area were very scarce. "Skyguide" was perhaps one of the most useful books on this topic, the illustrations were very helpful for the beginners and I would recommend this to any one who'd like to get started in this hobby. The Hamlyn guide was a bit more technical.
Since then, I have collected more books in astronomy and space science, some of my favorites :
1. "The Guinness Book of Astronomy", Patrick Moore, Patrick More & Guinness Publishing, 1983.
2. "Amateur Astronomy - a comprehensive and practical survey", Colin Ronan, Hamlyn Publishing, 1984.
3. "Astronomy - the evolving universe", Michael Zielik, Harper & Row Publishers, 1982 NY.
My most recent acquisition is "Voyage through the Universe" by Fraknoi et al, Thomson Publishing. It was RM152.90 and I found it at the MPH bookstore at the Subang Parade. It is a colorful book with very good illustrations. It even comes with the student edition of TheSky software.
And of course, if you are an avid astronomer you can't miss the ASTRONOMY magazine. I still have my October 1987 copy, and back then it was only US$2.95. In Malaysia, it was going for RM13.60 at the news stand. Lucky for me, my mother owns a stationery shop and it sells magazines! I would be the first get my hands on the latest copy and go from cover to cover, reading the articles and ogling at the size of the equipment  the 16 inch ones were enormous ... the telescopes I mean.
Star charts i.e. the map of the night sky, an astronomer will not be complete without one. Back then I couldn't find any in the school library, so I went to the British Council Library looking for one, and there is was - the famous Norton's Star Atlas! But much to my disappointment, it was labelled as a reference book and could not be loaned. That was until I saw the photocopier and it could take A3 size pages. At RM0.20 per copy, with 16 pages that would be RM3.20.
Equipment - My very first was a Binox 7x50 Binoculars I bought with RM135 (approx USD45)the"Ang Pow" money that I collected during Chinese New Year. It was a great piece ofequipmentt, it was MILES better than those toys I used to have! And almost every night, I would be lying on the see saw at the playing field right in front of our house scanning the night sky and amazed at the colors of the stars.
Those were the early years of my adventures until Halley's Comet came along in 1986 ... now that is one amazing story.
1. "The Hamlyn Guide to Astronomy", David Baker, Hamlyn Publishing Group (1981)
2. "Skyguide - A field guide for amateur astronomers", Mark R. Chartrand III, Golder Press NY 1982.
3. "A Field Guide to the Star & Planets", Donald H. Menzel, Collins Publishing, 1964 (1980 reprint).
Books on astronomy was a bit hard to come by in those days - that's before Amazon.com and mega book stores like MPH, Kinokuniya and Borders. Back then the Internet was not that accessible either, so resources on this subject area were very scarce. "Skyguide" was perhaps one of the most useful books on this topic, the illustrations were very helpful for the beginners and I would recommend this to any one who'd like to get started in this hobby. The Hamlyn guide was a bit more technical.
Since then, I have collected more books in astronomy and space science, some of my favorites :
1. "The Guinness Book of Astronomy", Patrick Moore, Patrick More & Guinness Publishing, 1983.
2. "Amateur Astronomy - a comprehensive and practical survey", Colin Ronan, Hamlyn Publishing, 1984.
3. "Astronomy - the evolving universe", Michael Zielik, Harper & Row Publishers, 1982 NY.
My most recent acquisition is "Voyage through the Universe" by Fraknoi et al, Thomson Publishing. It was RM152.90 and I found it at the MPH bookstore at the Subang Parade. It is a colorful book with very good illustrations. It even comes with the student edition of TheSky software.
And of course, if you are an avid astronomer you can't miss the ASTRONOMY magazine. I still have my October 1987 copy, and back then it was only US$2.95. In Malaysia, it was going for RM13.60 at the news stand. Lucky for me, my mother owns a stationery shop and it sells magazines! I would be the first get my hands on the latest copy and go from cover to cover, reading the articles and ogling at the size of the equipment  the 16 inch ones were enormous ... the telescopes I mean.
Star charts i.e. the map of the night sky, an astronomer will not be complete without one. Back then I couldn't find any in the school library, so I went to the British Council Library looking for one, and there is was - the famous Norton's Star Atlas! But much to my disappointment, it was labelled as a reference book and could not be loaned. That was until I saw the photocopier and it could take A3 size pages. At RM0.20 per copy, with 16 pages that would be RM3.20.
Equipment - My very first was a Binox 7x50 Binoculars I bought with RM135 (approx USD45)the"Ang Pow" money that I collected during Chinese New Year. It was a great piece ofequipmentt, it was MILES better than those toys I used to have! And almost every night, I would be lying on the see saw at the playing field right in front of our house scanning the night sky and amazed at the colors of the stars.
Those were the early years of my adventures until Halley's Comet came along in 1986 ... now that is one amazing story.
posted by Orion | 10:27 PM
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