Mark R. Chartrand

In the Golden Guide, Planets, by Mark R. Chartrand, the reader is sent on a journey across the solar system, learning of nine planets (now eight and one “classical planet”) and several minor planets (those things between Jupiter and Mars).

While the content is dated by its 1990 publication year, a lot of the information is definitely worth reading, including the discoveries of the different planets as well as their moons and supposed makeup and possible geologic activity.

This book does show more provide the same sort of “field guide” aspects as other Golden Guides, but is more for the armchair astronomer, providing facts on the planets more than how to actually find them in sky (which it does provide, but only up until the year 2000).

Ultimately, I found Chartrand’s writing voice to be much more condescending than the usual tone of the Golden Guides, saying things like “astrology is the false belief that...” and other things that completely discount anything remotely “supernatural” in origin; though he’s not afraid to use the zodiac as a reference point for the bodies in the sky.

While it’s my belief that a study of our neighboring planets and planettes is probably left to larger books, and possible standalone books on each body, this book can provide a quaint overview of Sol to Charon. Granted, I would strongly recommend refreshing on something more recent once complete, so you don’t still believe something that was disproven by Voyager half a decade ago. show less

this book is fantastic for anyone who likes to star-gaze. it's compact enough to take anywhere, and tells you exactly what you're looking at based on where in the world you are, and what time of year it is. maybe not the book for the professional astronomer, but for campers, backpackers, and those who just like to look upwards now and then, there couldn't be a better guide to the stars.

There's more than enough info on stargazing here for the hobbyist to get started. It's astronomy 101 crammed into a field guide.

The middle portion has detailed diagrams of each region of the sky, followed by a number of stunning color photographs—many from the Hubble telescope.

Youth, nighttime reference, stars, constellations, sky