Burnham's Celestial Handbook, Volume Two An Obs

ChamaeleonThroughOrionWhiletherearemanybooksonstars，thereisonlyoneCelestialHandbook.Nowcompletelyrevisedthrough1977，thisuniqueandnecessaryreferenceisavailableonceagaintoguideamateurandadvancedastronomersintheirknowledgeandenjoymentofthestars.
AfteranextensiveintroductioninVolumeI，whichgivesthebeginnerenoughinformationtofollowabout80percentofthebodyofthematerial，theauthorgivescomprehensivecoveragetothethousandsofcelestialobjectsoutsideoursolarsystemthatarewithintherangeoftelescopesinthetwo-totwelve-inchrange.
Theobjectsaregroupedaccordingtotheconstellationsinwhichtheyappear.Eachconstellationisdividedintofoursubjectsections：listofdoubleandmultiplestars;listofvariablestars;listofstarclusters，nebulae，andgalaxies;anddescriptivenotes.Foreachobjecttheauthorgivesnames，celestialcoordinates，classification，andfullphysicaldescription.These，togetherwithastaratlas，willhelpyoufindandidentifyalmosteveryobjectofinterest.
Butthejoyofthebookisthedescriptivenotesthatfollow.Theycoverhistory，unusualmovementsorappearances，andcurrentlyacceptedexplanationsofsuchvisiblephenomenaaswhitedwarfs，novaeandsupernovae，cepheids，mira-typevariables，darknebulae，gaseousnebulae，eclipsingbinarystars，thelargeMagellaniccloud，theevolutionofastarcluster，andhundredsofothertopics，manyofwhicharedifficulttofindinoneplace.Hundredsofchartsandothervisualaidsareincludedtohelpinidentification.Over300photographscapturetheobjectsand，inthemselves，areworksofbeautythatreflecttheenthusiasmthatstargazershavefortheirsubject.