Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews).
Stargazers residing in the Earth's northern hemisphere who are contemplating purchase of this (Northern) volume should be aware the title refers to the CELESTIAL hemisphere, not Earth's. What's the difference, you ask? Well let me tell you....
Basically, the sky atlas covers only the area from Polaris ('North Star') down to about Orion's Belt - everything south of there is contained in the 'Southern' book. Indeed, it doesn't even include the entire Orionus - cutting him off at the knees, in effect. So instead of obtaining sky maps that disclude everything south of Earth's equator (which 'uppers' normally would have little use for), this division discludes half the desired viewable sky!
The opposite is of course true for denizens of the lower-half of our dear blue vehicle.
The 'bottom line' is that to have an EFFECTIVE atlas, you're gonna have to spring for BOTH volumes - so be prepared for the extra expense.
One plus is the scale; larger even than the infamous Sky Atlas 2000.0 with its unwieldy poster-size maps of ~17×22" (add another 12" to the required footprint for an opened book; ergo 17 tall by 34" wide - a factor no one seems to consider) which pretty much relegates it (Sky Atlas) to an indoor reference, unless you have a sizeable reading table available at your viewing site!
But I digress....
The increased scale allows for finer detail, of course, and corresponds to the inclusion of stars down to magnitude 9.5 (Star Atlas limits to 8.5) with a better 'spread' for comparison to telescopic view. This greater scale with smaller pages does translate to more charts (about 260 in this one volume, ~vs~ Sky Chart's 26), but this is no complaint - the detail IS appreciated by the more studious ..of us astro-freaks. Another nicety is the generous overlap of the borders, which minimize somewhat the necessity of having to go to another page when referencing a particular area. Probably one of the 'handiest' features is inclusion in the margins of index-reference numbers to adjoining charts (sorely lacking in the Sky Atlas), which makes up somewhat for that maddening right-left reversal of borders on adjoining opened pages - the necessity of which absolutely escapes me, but for which I've seen hints of correction in the soon-forthcoming new issue.
Another plus is the textual introduction and Uranography sections preceeding the charts. Do yourself a favor and read them first - it might help you avoid the extra expense of the 'Field Guide' to better understand the valuable resource you already hold.
But as said - you need both Northern & Southern volumes to have an effective tool. So heads up!
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Click Here to see more reviews about: Uranometria 2000.0 Volume 1 - The Northern Hemisphere to Minus 6 Degrees
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