101 Things to See in the Sky Before you Die!
I’ve had this idea for a book for a while now – a bucket list of objects in the sky that I think everyone should try to spot before you shuffle off and your energy rejoins the universe. I’ve never been immodest enough to think that a) I could write a book and b) people would want to read it, and of course there are already many, many really good books for astronomical object spotting. Some of our favourites are:
- Turn left at Orion – Consolmagno and Davis
- The Stars – Many authors
- Legends of the Stars – Sir Patrick Moore
- Binocular Astronomy – Steve Tonkin
These are all fab books, written by great people but in my experiences as a public astronomer there’s a gap. At Battlesteads Observatory, as with anywhere we deliver public astronomy, we find that most people are absolute beginners, and need somewhere to start – perhaps in their own light polluted back gardens.
So I thought I’d write something that can be useful for those people, written in a simple format. I also want it to be uncomplicated, easy to navigate and in plain English so I’m going to look to Ian Buxton for inspiration. Ian has written a couple of really good guides for Whisky (drink responsibly) and one of them “101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die” is my inspiration.
When I say “I’ve had this idea for a book” – what I really mean is that I’m going to just write it here as blog posts. 🙂 Keep an eye out for the “101 things” category and “watch this space”
