References For Getting Started in Amateur Astronomy
By John Case
Two excellent books to help you get started in Amateur Astronomy,
what to buy for what purposes, meaning of terms, etc. are [1,2].
A good starting book on how to locate sky objects of interest is [3].
These books are available from their publishers, can be ordered (in
some cases purchased) from book stores, and also can be ordered from
[4] which also publishes the excellent magazine for amateur
astronomers, Sky and Telescope.
A (commercial) web site providing a good deal of advice and
information for Amateur Astronomers is [5].
My own Amateur Astronomy web site is [6]. Local star parties and
clubs (mentioned there) are very helpful too. At a star party you
can look through a variety of scopes to see which enables you to get
the views you might like in a scope of your own. At clubs you can
get information and meet people with amateur astronomy interests.
REFERENCES
[1] P. Harrington. Star Ware. John Wiley & Sons, New York, second
edition, 1998. ISBN 0-471-18311-3; authors's web site for book
at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pharrington/Sw2.htm.
[2] T. Dickinson and A. Dyer. The Backyard Astronomer's Guide.
Firefly Books Ltd., Willowdale, Ontario, Canada, 1997.
ISBN 0-921820-11-9.
[3] G. Consolmagno and D. Davis. Turn Left at Orion. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1998. ISBN 0-521-48211-9.
[4] Sky Publishing Corporation. Web site at http://www.skypub.com/;
phone orders at 1-800-253-0245.
[5] Astronomics. Web site at http://www.astronomics.com/.
[6] John Case's Amateur Astronomy Page. This web site is located at
http://www.cis.udel.edu/~case/astronomy.html.