The Starry Room

This inspiring and enriching book, a collection of essays that evokes the beauty and wonder of the night sky, explains to beginning skywatchers how to find and where to look for specific celestial objects. Author Fred Schaaf, once described as a naturalist in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau and John Burroughs, reveals an intense love of his subject and a keen knowledge of the optimum ways of viewing astronomical phenomena with the naked eye. Schaaf not only describes such special sights as an eyelash-thin moon, a shooting star, streaking comets, and a lunar eclipse, but he also explains when and where to look for constellations and planetary conjunctions, meteor showers, rainbows, halos, and other celestial occurrences. Most of these observations require no telescopes or other equipment, not even perfect sky conditions or long periods of special training. Technical expressions are explained as they appear in the text, and a glossary at the end defines terms and concepts. Astronomy magazine advises anyone interested in stargazing to "find a place for [this book] on your library shelf"; and Chet Raymo, author of 365 Starry Nights, says "this is a book that will help define amateur astronomy."