A softcover book of 178 pages - $29 U.S.
by
Roger T. Ducharme
A warm, friendly guide to the splendors of the modern sky.
On the idea of Harvey Pennock's "Little Red Book of Golf"
For those who want to know more about that they are looking at.
A unique desktop reference for the stargazer.
Why didn't someone write this book before?
A copy of Up There (and maybe a pair of
binoculars
draped around your neck) is all you need to begin seriously observing
the
night sky -- stars, clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and much more.
As a matter of fact, Up There gives you all the entertaining stuff about more than 300 celestial objects -- and all in plain English too. No dry facts, no boring tables, no stuffy jargon, no obtuse charts. Just things like interesting stories, pertinent anecdotes, historical nuggets, and vital observing tips on the most important objects currently up there; all presented in a fashion to help you understand just what it is you happen to be looking at. And all of this couched in a narrative of what you will see up there as you look south, west, north and east during any given month. It simply can't get any easier.
Sooner or later, when your neighborhood becomes aware that you've become a full-fledged telescope user, I guarantee that Up There will serve you well as a most valued desktop reference for looking at your old celestial friends with your new instrument. And every time you buy a new instrument (and you will) you will find yourself returning again and again to the pages of Up There because the most prominent objects remain the most prominent objects regardless of what you are using to look at them. The good stuff remains the good stuff and bigger telescopes merely add to your repertoire.
You can of course just follow along with the day-by-day log entries posted herein but the entries are abbreviated entries meant to serve as reminders and they cannot convey the background material the good observer needs in order to gain a richer experience. You've got to have some place to hang the memories, so to speak, which is why I often give a page reference to Up There in the log entries.
So do yourself a favor and buy a copy of Up
There.
You won't regret it.
To obtain a copy, send $29 (in US funds, please)
to Roger Ducharme, 10 Foxtail Lane, Unit 1, Goffstown, NH, 03045,
USA.
Please be sure to include your shipping address.
About The Author
With the assurance that the institution would soon develop a curriculum in Astronomy (which has yet to occur), New Hampshire born and bred Roger Ducharme applied for entry to the University of New Hampshire in 1955.
Since then has come graduation with a degree in Geology (1959), a tour of duty with the US Air Force as a Cartographic Intelligence Officer, followed by a long and multi-faceted career with the New Hampshire Highway Department as highway planner, photointerpreter, photogrammetrist, airphoto geomorphologist, and computer programmer. After which he became a private consultant providing database programming services to the small business.
Now semi-retired, Mr. Ducharme devotes much of his time (as a labor of love) to the maintenance of a personal computer system relating to observational astronomy. His system is comprised of some 88 databases massaged by 12 programs to provide a wealth of information on any star or non-stellar object within reach of the amateur astronomer.
"The idea," he says, "is to press a button and instantly get all the data available on anything up there." The upshot of all this is his new book entitled (appropriately enough) "Up There," which has just been released.
Mr. Ducharme can be reached at: rduch@fcgnetworks.net