I then went to a used book store in Yorba Linda called Books Redux and purchased a wonderful astronomy book by Ian Ridpath. It was a American Nature Guide series called Astronomy and Gallery Books is the publisher. The cost was $4.00 and some change for the state tax. The book was copywrited 1990 but most astronomy books do not go out of date that quickly. The book is terrific. The explanations are concise and explained very well. The page material is almost cardboard thick. The binding is spiral so the book lays flat which is really neat for the star charts. The star charts are quite good, done by Wil Tirion. The printing is color and black and white and very good quality. I did find the star charts a bit hard to see with the star chart size being so small and resulting print size so small. I would carry a magnifying lens to view the star charts. The moon feature part of the book is simply terrific. I have not seen many books that offer both moon features and star charts under one cover. The instrument and observing chapter is a bit thin but the rest of the book is simply all there. The size is not that large, about 5″ and 7 1/2″, not shirt pocket but small enough to throw in the tripod bag. The weight is not back pack friendly, if you are looking for a book to take while camping out (Collins gem Stars should be considered instead, same authors as above). I do recommend this book to be used with your telescope. It is worth keeping an eye out for at book sales and garage sales. Also, check Internet sales.

I really recommend that this book be updated and released again with the same wonderful features.