Reviews for Out of the blue

The average rating for Out of the blue based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-02-16 00:00:00 Justin Hanuse The heavens are complicated -- a child can ask why the sky is blue or how rainbows are formed, but the answers are surprisingly complex and difficult to explain. John Naylor does an admirable job in this well-illustrated volume, dividing his attention between the day and the night sky and showing equal skill in describing atmospheric physics and celestial mechanics. The whole is written in consistently clear, engaging prose directed to the curious layman, and it's equally valuable as a reference and as a source of fascinating browsing. Well done.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-21 00:00:00 Jimmy Kellum This reference volume starts with not quite 50 pages of useful information about celestial coordinates, dates, time, astronomical instruments (including binoculars and the different types of telescopes, as well as mounts and a variety of common accessories), and imaging. This is followed by another 50ish pages of information about the objects in our own solar system, including the sun, the planets and their moons, as well as comets, meteors, and artificial satellites. Of particular interest is a stunning four-page map of the moon's Earth-facing side along with four accompanying pages of features identified by name and location. Next comes about 30 pages worth of information about stars, nebulae and galaxies, including stellar evolution and galaxy classification, and a series of 18 star charts (includes stars of magnitude 6 or brighter) and accompanying tables. This is an amazing reference work, and reasonably affordable as star atlases go. For use out in the field with your telescope, however, I think there are much better options (the binding, for example, should be spiral for ease of use). This is the kind of reference you use to plan a viewing session at home.