Amateur Books

I totally disagree with Mladen K. Vranjican's review "- Page 127, line3. The book incorrectly relates R. J. Lurie's work with that of J. L. Houghton."
I don't have a copy of Lurie's paper (Journal of the Optical Society of America, March 1975, p. 261), but I have an article named "Gleanings for ATM's--Making an Aplanatic 4-inch Telescope" on Sky & Telescope Nov. 1979 issue. It mentioned Lurie's great thought in his paper:
"In Example IV [of U.S. Patent No.2350,112, May 30, 1944] J.L.Houghton presents a design for an aplanatic system that consists of a two-element afocal corrector at the optical focus of a spherical mirror. The corrector...is shown made of glasses that have different refractive indices. However, such a corrector can be designed using the same glass type for both elements. This aplanat has interesting properties. Like the Wright telescope...its tube length is equal to its focal length. However, its astigmatism is only half that of the Wright telescope, and its surfaces are all spherical. The image surface of best focus has the same curvature as the mirror."

So, Mr. Lurie not only invented the aspheric (conic-section) mirror type as Mladen K. Vranjican said in the review, but also footnoted the telescope with all spherical and same glass, just what we called 'Lurie-Houghton' now a days. Mr. Lurie ofcouse should own the honor for the name together with Houghton. What Houghton invented is using different glass and it is the source of Lurie-Houghton telescope.

There was a time once when amateur astronomers had exposure to only a few different kinds of telescopes--mostly simple achromatic refractors, which comprise just two lenses cemented together (plus an eyepiece), and Newtonian reflectors, which include a mirror plus the eyepiece. Many, possibly most, of these amateurs also made their own optics, and as a result, they knew most of what there was to know about these designs.

Nowadays, it's quite different. Not only are there vastly more types of telescopes, but most amateurs now buy telescopes; telescope building is a diminishing part of amateur astronomy, and people make their own telescopes out of desire, not necessity. It's harder than ever now for amateurs to really know about optical designs in breadth and depth.

Into this breach step Rutten and van Venrooij, two Dutch astronomers who wanted to know more about optics but found that resources were generally unavailable to amateurs. So, they wrote their own. Telescope Optics is a compendium of optical information, geared to the intermediate to advanced amateur. Like Gaul, it can be divided into three parts: Chapters 1 through 4 discuss optical principles; Chapters 5 through 16 apply those principles to various telescope and accessory designs; and Chapters 17 through 22 cover evaluation and design.

The manner of the text is generally scholarly but informal. Although optical principles are explained from the fundamentals, the authors still assume a certain level of comfort with high school mathematics and analytical exposition. In particular, it helps if the reader can easily digest information in two-dimensional graphs. This can make the book somewhat imposing for those readers who really just want to know, at a high level, what makes their own telescope tick.

For those readers capable of making their way through the analysis, however, the authors clearly and comprehensively explain the workings of several telescope and camera designs, and discuss in brief the quirks of at least half a dozen more. The compromises of each design are detailed to the level of so-called "third-order aberrations"; these include coma, astigmatism, field curvature, spherical aberration, and distortion.

The authors also make available their own design software. Being 15 years down the line, the software is somewhat out of date, and it does not come free with the book; it must be purchased separately. The book does explain how to use the software, though.

Overall, the book should find its way onto the shelf of anyone who wants to learn, seriously, about their optics. For those who simply want a taste of how optics work, or who need a gentle introduction to the field, it probably ought to wait until later.

Telescope Optics is a comprehensive, educational and practical manual for beginners and advanced amateur opticians and astronomers. It is probably one of the best overall sources of information on basic optics, optical instruments and their prformance. The book comes with a DOS-based computer program that allows users to design their own systems and evaluate theoretical or existing optical configurations. Telescope Optics fills the gap between simple amateur telescope and optics manuals and professional literature. The book is due for a second edition, as well as an upgraded optical design and analysis program suitable for Windows-driven computer environment. Although Telescope Optics came with some errata sheets, the book has notable omissions and errors, summarized below. - Page 5, line 19. No mention is made of either F. B. Wright (1935) or Y. Väisälä (1936), whose modifications to the original Schmidt camera design resulted in more compact, flat-field instruments suitable for visual as well as photographic work. - Page 88, line 5. Credit is given to K. Slevogt (October, 1942) for developing a modification to the famous Baker camera. His work was preceeded, however, by C. R. Burch (April, 1942) in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (Vol. 102, No. 3, "Design of Approximately Flat-fielded System, with Two Spherical Mirrors and One Plate"). - Page 127, line3. The book incorrectly relates R. J. Lurie's work with that of J. L. Houghton. Houghton (U.S. Patent No 2,350,112, May 30, 1944) proposed a two-element all-spherical corrector used in conjunction with a spherical mirror for a Newtonian-like configuration. The system is aplanatic (free of coma and spherical aberration). Lurie (Journal of the Optical Society of America, March 1975, p. 261) proposes two-element all-spherical correctors in conjunction with aspheric (conic-section) mirrors resulting in a fully systems that are fully anastigmatic - free of coma, spherical aberration and astigmatism. The two systems are not interchangable and only bear superficial resemblence. The value of Lurie's configurations is in superior optical performance, which in all aspects except distortion rival that of a true Schmidt camera, and in the applicability of converting smaller Newtonian configurations into first-class astrographs. - Page 145, Section 14.4, the book omits to mention that Ross-type correctors can be used in conjunction with hyperboloidal primary mirrors, resulting in anastigmatic flat-field astrographs (offered by Takahashi of Japan). Since full-aperture correctors are not practical for large Newtonian-like configurations, vast number of amateurs with telescopes larger than 10-inches in diameter could convert their instruments to high quality astrocameras. Suitable correctors, other than the Ross, have also been investigated and implemented on existing observatory Newtonian systems. Availability of their design and analysis would be of paramount importance to serious amateur observers and astrophotographers. Mladen K. Vranjican

Sadly this seems to be out of print now, but it's the single best resource I've ever seen for anything video. We wanted to use it as a textbook at school, but can't find a source for enough copies at a reasonable price.

I highly recommend picking this up if you've ever wondered "Just what does NTSC stand for" or "How do you use color bars"

When I first got this book I briefly skimmed it and thought I knew alot of what was in it. But the more I read in depth, the more I learned. Everything from using a vectorscope to storyboarding, non-linear editing, audio production techniques, and much more. The book is 700 pages and well worth it if you're just starting out or if you're an established production person. It is written in a friendly manner that is fun and easy to read. Mr. Utz does a great job covering makeup and being interviewed to lighting and switching techniques. This is one of those books that everyone should own because it covers so many different areas. I enjoyed most the sections on digital formats and HDTV. I also liked his tricks on making graphics come alive and altered perspective. Another great thing about this book is by reading it, you can become a tv genius and impress all your other video friends with knowledge of signal definitions and terminology most people don't know about. The color and black & white examples covered throughout the book demonstrate both what to do and what not to do in everything from talk show set-ups to setting your monitor with color bars. Well worth the money -- you won't regret it!

Frank Normoyle, a technical trainer in New Jersey., December 21, 1999,

This book remains essential to our church's effort to produce quality shows as we work toward eliminating system and environmental bugs while steadily improving technical quality. It is our primary reference source. Using Today's Video allows us to intelligently interface with contractors and vendors. Now we can purchase the equipment we need and not just what the vendors will sell (big difference!). I recommed Today's Video to anyone interseted in this field from the curious to the expert.

This is a great resource. I had been searching for a good bok to help me outfit my garage into a race shop. Most of the books out there on this category are more feng shui and organized oriented (not really what I was looking for). This books helps with overall layout, equipment reccomendations, and useful weblinks to help with your project. It even has some cool garage projects as well. Definitely worth buying and keeping!

This book is designed for people who truly appreciate the garage--enthusiasts who love cars, motorcycles, and other cool stuff that resides in garages. If you want to know how to plumb a compressed air system into your garage, this book is for you. If you want to convert your garage into a cute office or scrapbooking nook, look elsewhere.

The author upfront says he believes the primary purpose of the garage is to work on cars, with other things to consider. If you want some very good ideas on how to set up your garage to do car work, mechanic, restoring, then I think you would like this book for you.

For me this was a good reminder of how it's done. I haven't done it in years this helped on a project I had going.

The "Ultimate Guide To Wiring: Complete Home Projects" from Creative Homeowner Press is a compendium of 'how-to' information for do-it-yourself homeowners with respect to household electrical wiring tasks. Step-by-step methodical instructions and diagrams are very nicely illustrated with more than 900 color photographs for a variety of more than 85 specific wiring projects ranging from switches, receptacles and light fixtures, to home automation, outdoor lighting, and networking. Of special value for the novice homeowner are the informative sections on tools, cables, conduits, fixtures, appliances, and code-approved work. Thoroughly 'user friendly', the "Ultimate Guide To Wiring" clearly lives up to the promise of its title and is strongly recommended as a core addition to personal and community library homeowner 'do-it-yourself' instructional reference collections.

I found this book easy to follow. It did not lay the technical jargon on too thick. And all the terminology used was explained thoroughly. I was able to make simple electrical repairs, even though I've never worked with wiring before. I really appreciated how they included all the safety measures you need to take while working with electricity.

1.Though it shows stars to magnitude 9.75 AND 30,000+ non-stellar objects, it is VERY EASY to navigate. I myself found the finder charts(magnitude 5.5, four pages per volume) will do. Both volume 1&2 include a set of 6.5-magnitude star atlas(also serving as finder charts). And the tabs, the pointers(showing the adjacent chart numbers), the indices are great too.
2.26 close-up charts(to magnitude 11) are fantastic!
3.The open book can lay flat and the paper is tough.

So Uranometria 2000.0 or the Millennium Star Atlas?
My answer is you need to buy Uranometria 2000.0 FIRST.
Because it has its volume 3 that tabulates data of all the deep-sky objects plotted in volume 1&2.
And for a decade Uranometria 2000.0 had been the only choice for advanced amateurs AND astronomy writers. When you refer to several most popular guidebooks on the market, you will see the text matches Uranometria 2000.0 VERY WELL.

Btw you need volume 2 too.
Sure you know Orion standing athwart the celestial equator(the volume 1 covers the northern hemisphere to -6), which means even Orion's "feet" are shown in the volume 2.

I bought both Volume I and II when they first came out in the late 1980s and have been using them to find deep sky objects and double stars and to track comets ever since. The only criticism I have is that dozens of errors in the RNGC are reprinted in the original volumes, although some of them may have been cleaned up in later versions. One thing I like is that the bindings are tough and are made to open flat. This, combined with the heavy paper stock, means the books can stand up to quite a bit of field use wear and tear, as mine certainly have over the past nearly two decades.

In 1987 and 1988, the two-volume Uranometria became the first star atlas to go deep--showing about a quarter of a million stars to magnitude 9.5. It included thousands of deep-sky objects for owners of the large scopes that were coming onto the market. The second edition (2001) goes a bit further--to magnitude 9.75, but its real improvement is elsewhere:

Imagine opening a road atlas to a two-page spread of, say, the State of Montana and finding the eastern and western halves reversed. In place of one state, you have two disjointed halves.

Ridiculous, you say?

Of course. But, believe it or not, that's the way the first edition presented its two-page chart spreads. Also, the page to page seqencing was utterly counterintuitive. The problems come from the sequencing of the charts in order of ascending right ascension (for more details, see my review of the previous edition).

When the second edition of Uranometria came out in 2001, the compilers were wise enough to correct the fault and sequence in descending right ascension. Uranometria is, finally, a practical work for advanced astronomers with large telescopes. The first edition? Don't even take it as a gift.

Uranometria vs the Millennium? You would not go wrong with either one. The paperback Millennium shows four times as many stars to magnitude 11, but some reviewers have commented that it shows fewer deep-sky objects. Whether true or not, the added precision of Millennium is definitely attractive, especially considering the small price difference between the two: $116 vs $100. Let's see if Uranometria answers with a softcover edition.

Uranometria, like Millennium, works nicely in combination with Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas. Use the Pocket for quick basic finding and Uranometria for going deep in pursuit of the challenging stuff.

If you haven't tried making jewelry this is the book for you.
Lovely suggestions with simple instructions.

Wow. This book is so beyond wonderful, it's not even funny. I have been looking for a project book like this for a long time and this one is just beautiful. It has wonderful projects and ideas accompanied by great photography, I just can't wait to start making the items! Also a great inspiration book.

Nice pictures and easy to understand beading instructions, but not exactly what I expected. I'm sure the illustrations are of vintage designs, but the end product looks anything, but vintage. It would help tremendously if Amazon would post more pages of books to look at ahead of purchase. This book is fine if all you want is inspiration. Inspiration to keep looking for another book......

This book, a reprint of Edward Heron-Allen's "Violin Making As It Was an Is," of 1884 is a very poor choice if you don't know the fundamentals of violin making and you really want to learn. For that, you should start with Simone Sacconi's `The "Secrets" of Stradivari,' probably the single most influential book of the past 30 years (available in Dipper's English or Adelmann's German translation from specialist online booksellers, but not, alas, from Amazon.com). If you are an amateur who wants to make an instrument, try one or more of Henry Strobel's books.

That said, "Violin Making As It Was an Is" is still quite an interesting book. Edward Heron-Allen was a rather brilliant Victorian polymath who had an intense interest in the violin. Somehow, he convinced the distinguished French violin maker George Chanot, then working in England, to show him how to build an instrument. The next thing Chanot knew, and apparently to his intense dismay, Heron-Allen was publishing what he had learned in a magazine intended for gentleman amateurs. His book is based on those articles.

What we have, then, is information about 19th-century French violin making reported through the filter of a talented English amateur. From this perspective, the most interesting part to me was the chapter on using a French outer form. I was also curious about the descriptions of tools and some odd older building techniques such as gluing linen to the sides before bending.

If you do read the book, you should certainly be aware that most of it is utter bunk. At the same time, I find something interesting on almost every page and quite enjoy the author's energetic style. Despite it's strange take on the craft, "Violin Making As It Was and Is" has also had a lot of influence, especially on earlier generations of English makers, who in a time before the proliferation of violin-making schools, made profitable use of what it had to offer.

Another reviewer mentioned the quip about this being "Violin Making as it Wasn't and Isn't" and that is certainly just. I would merely add Pliny the Elder's remark that there is "no book so bad but that some good might be got out of it."

This volume certainly qualifies as one of those rare gems which holds a special place in your bookcase or shop. Heron-Allen manages to give complete detail to all facets of preparation and construction, in addition to holding the reader's attention through numerous footnotes and sidelines. A detailed technical book written in a very enjoyable fashion, and with a style no longer seen. I've been known to read this book on several occasions for pure joy.

This book covers everything from wood selection to finish. Includes full size plans for molds. The author also gives specifications of select Stradivarius violins. A must for any builders library!

This book has become a collectors item, prices range from $195-$400. It's an excellent book but I would suggest borrowing it from a library, like I did, before making a decision to buy it. There is about 64 pages of technical information on issues associated with viewing DSO. I found the technical information interesting but difficult to follow at times, it took me a number of readings to absorb the material. The rest of the book is a compilation of Dr. Clark's observation logs and several appendices. For the most part he uses a homemade 8-inch f/11.5 Cassegrain. Glancing through the observational logs I noticed that Dr, Clark used either a 38mm (1), 28mm Erfle (9), 20mm Erfle (48), 12.5mm Orthoscopic (5), 12.4mm Erfle (48), 9mm Kellner (5), 7mm Erfle (9) and 6mm Orthoscopic (1), numbers in brackets are the number of times he used the eyepiece. There were about 68 observational drawings with the 20mm and 12.4mm eyepieces being used 48 times each, therefore dominating his observing. If Dr. Clark used more than 1 eyepiece for the observation he would sometimes label the eyepiece that yielded the best view. It is clear to me from Dr. Clark's book that a lot of DSOs and their details can be seen from a dark site by a visual observer with good averted vision skills, a few carefully choosen good eyepieces, such as a 20mm and 12mm for example, and a reasonably sized telescope ~ f/10, 8-inch SCT.

Want to see spiral arms of M33, M51 or M101... in a 10 inch scope? Confused about why certain not-too-dim "faint fuzzies" cannot be seen at all- even at low power under clear, dark conditions? Do you enjoy lots of graphs, charts, equations and technical writing? Then this book is for you.

Roger Nelson Clark's book gives the Serious observer of the deep sky the skills necessary to milk the most information out of every last photon of light when observing visually. He gives an extremely complete recounting of studies of the human visual system, most specifically in terms of its ability to adapt to dark conditions and perceive subtle differences in contrast, and its acuity under low-light conditions.

He asserts that there is, statistically, not a very wide range of light perception ability in the human population (amounsgt those without obvious visual disease) and that techniques he outlines in the book will help any committed student of the sky see more details.

His conclusions? The bottom line is: most of us aren't using enough magnification. Many assume that the "richest field" view of a scope, providing the brightest image per unit area, will also allow the for the greatest amount of observed detail. Clark, however, shows that this is not the case. Indeed, at low light levels, the human visual system is not very acute, (unlike daytime vision) and that many of the details in our favorite "faint fuzzies" simply cannot be seen unless they are magnfied enough for their light to spread out over a larger portion of our retinae.

Also, magnifying has the added effect of dimming the background around an object as well as the object itself. The human eye is excellent, it turns out, in perceiving subtle differences in contrast, and that an overall reduction in light per unit area does not affect this as much as one would think. What's more, when reducing the overall amount of light entering the eye, dark adapation improves. Clark outlines the results of studies that show that in complete darkness, the dark adapted human eye can detect points of light equivilant to an 8.5 mag star! So, in looking trough an eyepiece, one's eye can, in fact, become more dark adapted than it would be under the ambient light of the sky.

He demonstrates how to compute the "optimum detection magnification"- not too high not too low- for a given object, given its brightness per unit area and its size.

An excellent feature of the book are Clark's drawings of a host of astronomical objects through scopes of various sizes. This gives an excellent indication of what one should be able to see under decent atmospheric conditions.

One weakness in the book, I find, is the charts of "recommended optimum detection magnifications". While the concept that such a magification exists is a good one to know, and its exposition in this book complete and useful, the execution of this chart is full of glitches. While the overall gist of the book suggests that many of us aren't "cranking it up enough", many of suggested optimum magnifications are absurdly high. Many are useful, however. You'll just have to find out which is which for yourself. I chalk this up to sloppy editing.

Don't, however, let this dissuade you from getting this book. If you fit the desciption above, then this book will change the way you use your scope.

I found this book a must for anyone wanting to exploit visual limits in skygazing with a telescope. It analyses in depth the average visual acuity and translates the priorly published results ino a guide to get the best possible power to observe anything through a telescope. Then suggest (with lots of examples) a very usseful way of making a observing log. It includes a catalogue with more than 600 deep sky objects, a table wich can be used as a guide to observe them with a telescope an example computer program in Basic and Fortran to be used as a basis to get the best possible conditions to study any object. It helped me to find M1, M81 and M101 in the light poluted place un northwestern Mexico City were I use my 78mm telescope.

This QRP Book by Doug Demaw is a very practical and thorough explanation about Basic and Radio Frequency Electronics for everyone. Doug Demaw has left a Legacy of excellent books for Radio Amateurs and Electronic experimeters. You can learn about Electronics, Build and Test Circuits. Get a Ham license, Learn how from ARRL. I have been a licensed Ham for 62 years. Come join the fun. Steve, KI6CP

This is still an enjoyable and interesting resource book for the builder and experimenter. Full of interesting circuits and ideas.

Although, I would not consider this book indispensible for the QRP building enthusiast( I'd reserve that for- The Electronic Data Book for Homebrewers and QRPers by NA5N. Try KANGA US ); I would nonetheless recomend it.

Price is right, very readable, does generate interest in building- has a place in my liabrary.

An excellent practical book on designing simple low power ham transmitters and receivers. A little short in design theory but a good book nonetheless. Read Chris Bowick's RF Circuit Design book for more theoretical info. If you want to build simple radios and want them to work, this is the book for you.

I am a video production teacher and this book is an outstanding resource to teach kids what a career as an art director can entail. The chapters are clear and have great graphics and pictures to reinforce the information. My students who have used the book so far have enjoyed it.

For the art or architecture student who is into films and is still uncertain of a career direction, this book lays out the procedure and the challenges in becoming a motion picture art director or a production designer. While covering the "nuts and bolts" of the work, the messages are often driven home by war stories from the author's own experiences in the business. Easy Reading.

Es un libro que explica bien el trabajo de los directores artísticos norteamericanos, su utilidad en otros países es más dudosa. Buenas ilustraciones, bien escrito.