The Astronomical Observer. A Handbook to the Observatory and the
Common Telescope. By W. A. Darby, M.A., F.R.A.S., Rector of St.
Luke's, Manchester. (Robert Hardwicke.)—This is "a catalogue of teles- copic objects " for amateur observers, and is mainly compiled from the catalogues of the two Herschels, the " Bedford Catalogue " of Admiral Smyth, Lord Rosse's "Catalogue of Nebulas," and some other minor sources. Of course it will be used most readily by possessors of a good equatorially mounted telescope, but it is also accommodated as far as possible to a non-equatorial telescope, so that observers aided by the excellent maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge may find the object they want tolerably easily, using the stars visible to the naked eye as pointers to the invisible. There is also in addition to the tabular lists an introduction containing much valuable information on the best method of observation, and the objects at which amateurs can most usefully aim. As to the accuracy of the tables themselves we are of course unable to testify, but the whole work is got up and the introduction written in a scholar-like fashion, and with such an entire absence of anything like book-making as induces us to think the author one who may be confidently trusted.
Previous page
