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J. Brit. Astron. Assoc., 109, 3, 1999, p.165
Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-55332-6. £22.50 (hbk).
Sky Publishing Corp., 1999. ISBN 9-933346-80-8 (pbk).
reviewed by Owen Brazell
After a hiatus of a number of years there has been a flurry of recent books on the Messier objects. First came The Year Round Messier Marathon by Pennington and now The Messier Objects by O'Meara. The Messier Objects is an upgrade to the classic book, the Messier Album by Mallas & Kreimer, which was one of the first books most beginners used in trying to find those elusive patches of light catalogued by Charles Messier. It is perhaps no coincidence that O'Meara has also used a 4" refractor to make his observations, so that they may be compared with those by Mallas.
So how does this book stand up to its predecessor? First impressions were very favourable. The book is well printed on heavy paper and both the drawings and most of the photographs appear to have reproduced well. It would have been nice to have known what instruments the photographs had been taken with, so that one could get a better feel for how they might compare to eyepiece views.
After some brief chapters on the origin of the Messier catalogue and observational techniques, the heart of the book is a set of vignettes on each of the Messier objects. For each object a drawing, photograph and finder chart are given along with a new translation of Messier's original catalogue entry, the NGC description and O'Meara's notes. In general the information given was accurate and I only found the odd error such as assigning 40" refractors to both Lick and Nice. (They must have grown since I was last there). The descriptions include not only O'Meara's observations but also historical material, and some of the latest information on the objects gleaned from HST images. I did find some of O'Meara's drawings rather fanciful and his observations made half-way up Mauna Kea in Hawaii are not going to relate terribly well to what can be seen from the murky skies of the United Kingdom. They do however provide an example of what a top class observer with a good small telescope can see from a dark site.
All in all I think this is an excellent book and a worthy replacement for the Messier Album. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of both the novice and experienced amateur astronomer. This book together with the more historical tome by Glyn-Jones on Messier's Nebulae and Star Clusters would make an ideal pairing for those observers wishing to find out more on Messier's famous objects.
Philip Harrington is known to most deep-sky observers from both his articles in astronomical magazines and his books on observing with binoculars. This book is intended as an introduction to observing deep-sky objects and provides a list of suggested targets. The first five chapters briefly cover deep-sky catalogues and equipment used for observing, along with a plea to record your observations. This material is perhaps better found elsewhere, and much indeed comes from Harrington's own StarWare. The meat of the book is in the four chapters ordered to suggest objects for each of the four seasons.
Harrington says in his introduction that these were taken from a series of articles he made for Sky and Telescope which I have often hoped would have been collected into a book similar to MacRobert's. This book does not do this. Within each chapter the material is broken up into what can be seen in the principal constellations. A nice touch here is the reproduction of the photographs and eyepiece impressions. My impression is that most of the popular objects are covered and the descriptions are good. The book ends with a useful set of appendices, although they are very North American-centric for the listings of magazines etc., and a set of star charts covering the objects described in the book. The charts should lie flat for photocopying as I do not think I would want to take this book into the field, particularly with a softcover. Does it do its job? For those observers wanting something else to look for after finding the Messier objects I think it does and would be a worthwhile addition to a beginner's library. For the more experienced observer most of these objects would already be on their lists and there are better books for their purposes.
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