Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful - though mine had assembly problems
Review: This is an absolutely gorgeous book. After seeing it praised on various online astronomy forums I bought it. When I first received mine I thought something was very wrong. Some of the overlays were not in the right place. I've been into astronomy off and on for 20+ years and know the constellations pretty well, and the photo for Virgo, for example, was completely missing Spica, though it was shown on the overlay. Humm... After some head scratching and wondering whether to send it back, I realized the page numbers were out of sequence in places toward the front of the book. Fortunately, the way the spiral binding is made, it was relatively easy to remove the pages and re-assemble them, though nearly half the book had to be taken apart. When re-assembled everything was right, except that I am missing the page that contains pp 10-11, each of which is half of a full page spread...P>Still, this is an absolutely beautiful book, if slightly misnamed. It isn't an "atlas" in the normal sense and doesn't cover the entire sky, though it is very helpful for locating many objects it shows. If you love beautiful astrophotography, or just want the most impressive coffee table book around to help illustrate why you love astronomy, take a look at this. Even at the [$$$] list price and with the minor problem my copy has, I'd consider it well worth it!
Rating:
Summary: A Must for Astronomers and Sky Tourists
Review: _The Great Atlas Of The Stars_ is, of course, a beautiful book, grand book, a glorious book. One examines the wide field photographs and wonders if they were taken at zero magnification, only to conclude that they cannot be because they reveal details visible through telescopes alone. Low power scopes come to mind, but there are a few exceptions there as well. I personally concluded that the photographs were taken with a scope I should never be able to afford - one with perfect optics and an f ratio of about 1.2 :-) However Mr. Fujii got them, they are so nice, I sometimes find myself paging through the book on cloudy nights as consolation. I'm not going to tell you that the illustrations are substitutes for the real thing, of course, but there's a hint of the same zip in them. As an individual addicted to sky tourism (astronomy is a different concept altogether), I find the photographs very orienting. Many of the objects depicted are but faint smudges in an eight inch suburban SCT. To perceive them at all, an amateur has to understand where they are in relation to the stars around them. The contextual presentation of this book puts that information across in a way that mere drawings cannot. Yes, I would rather be instructed by an experienced mentor with a laser pointer, but this is the next best thing. I cannot help thinking that the material might also be suited to computer software. In such a format, a greater variety of transparent overlays would be available for the photographs, and one could impose various degrees of light pollution on the views to make them better correspond to the more miserable circumstances of the typical amateur. Perhaps such a product would not stand on its own in the bubble gum software market. It would be a worthwhile option for standard planetarium products, though. These products already have photographs of objects. Why not constellations? The software approach also obviates the oversized bookshelf required for storage. (I finally broke down and bought a coffee table.) The amateur sky tourist/astronomer has many books to choose from, and distressingly many of them are redundant. One learns quickly, therefore, not to waste money on material already in one's library. Let me assure you that if you don't have this book, the material isn't already in your library. The beginner will use it to find things in the sky. The experienced observer will sit over it with mouth and eyes agape.
Rating:
Summary: A Must for Astronomers and Sky Tourists
Review: _The Great Atlas Of The Stars_ is, of course, a beautiful book, grand book, a glorious book. One examines the wide field photographs and wonders if they were taken at zero magnification, only to conclude that they cannot be because they reveal details visible through telescopes alone. Low power scopes come to mind, but there are a few exceptions there as well. I personally concluded that the photographs were taken with a scope I should never be able to afford - one with perfect optics and an f ratio of about 1.2 :-) However Mr. Fujii got them, they are so nice, I sometimes find myself paging through the book on cloudy nights as consolation. I'm not going to tell you that the illustrations are substitutes for the real thing, of course, but there's a hint of the same zip in them. As an individual addicted to sky tourism (astronomy is a different concept altogether), I find the photographs very orienting. Many of the objects depicted are but faint smudges in an eight inch suburban SCT. To perceive them at all, an amateur has to understand where they are in relation to the stars around them. The contextual presentation of this book puts that information across in a way that mere drawings cannot. Yes, I would rather be instructed by an experienced mentor with a laser pointer, but this is the next best thing. I cannot help thinking that the material might also be suited to computer software. In such a format, a greater variety of transparent overlays would be available for the photographs, and one could impose various degrees of light pollution on the views to make them better correspond to the more miserable circumstances of the typical amateur. Perhaps such a product would not stand on its own in the bubble gum software market. It would be a worthwhile option for standard planetarium products, though. These products already have photographs of objects. Why not constellations? The software approach also obviates the oversized bookshelf required for storage. (I finally broke down and bought a coffee table.) The amateur sky tourist/astronomer has many books to choose from, and distressingly many of them are redundant. One learns quickly, therefore, not to waste money on material already in one's library. Let me assure you that if you don't have this book, the material isn't already in your library. The beginner will use it to find things in the sky. The experienced observer will sit over it with mouth and eyes agape.
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