Exploring the Solar System with Binoculars A Beginner's Guide to the Sun, Moon, and Planets

In this journey of discovery, Stephen James O'Meara shows you how to observe our Solar System's wonders with ease, using nothing more than the unaided eye and inexpensive handheld binoculars. The guide presents a new way to identify and appreciate the wonders of the Solar System in detail, such as lunar and solar eclipses, sunspots, the Moon's craters, the planets, meteors, and comets. It is a unique observing guide for all amateur astronomers, proving you don't need big and expensive equipment to enjoy astronomy from your own backyard. You will learn a variety of skills, including how to find Venus in the daytime, how to identify faint features in bright comets, how to increase your chances of seeing an abundant meteor shower, and how to track the changing aspects of the planets and their moons. A must for Solar System explorers everywhere!

Preface; 1. The Sun: the angel of light; 2. The Moon: the lovely dead; 3. Solar eclipses; 4. The planets: worlds of wonder; 5. Comets: divine elegance; 6. Meteors: when the heavens weep; Appendices; Index.

Stephen James O'Meara has spent much of his career on the editorial staff of Sky & Telescope, and is a columnist and contributing editor for Astronomy magazine. He is an award-winning visual observer. His remarkable skills continually reset the standard of quality for other visual observers, and he was the first to sight Halley's Comet on its return in 1985. The International Astronomical Union named asteroid 3637 O'Meara in his honor. Steve is the recipient of the prestigious Lone Stargazer Award (2001) and the Omega Centauri Award (1994) for 'his efforts in advancing astronomy through observation, writing, and promotion, and for sharing his love of the sky'. He has also been awarded the Caroline Herschel Award for his pre-Voyager visual discovery of the spokes in Saturn's B-ring and for being the first to determine visually the rotation period of Uranus. Steve is also a contract videographer for National Geographic Digital Motion, and a contract photographer for National Geographic Image Collection.