A Year in the Dark - OffTheShelf

Review of Phillip’s Stargazing 2024 & Night Sky Almanac 2024

There are several publications that offer a guide to the night sky for the year ahead, and here are two of them. Of course if you are interested in astronomy, you may already have reference books, star charts and on-line aids to navigating the night sky, but these pocket guides offer a handy reference to anyone – young or old – starting out with a general interest in astronomy, or just curious about what they can see on a clear night.

Slim and glossy

Stargazing 2024: month-by-month guide to the night sky by Nigel Henbest (publ. Philip’s, 2023) – Britain & Ireland edition, 96 pages.

This is a colourful glossy production, a slim volume but packed with information and illustrations. After a brief introduction which includes stargazing highlights of the year and some “jargon busters” for newcomers, each month features:

well-annotated sky charts, which are useful “between 40 and 60 degrees North”, so anywhere in the UK or Ireland;
two pages describing a featured constellation, an object of the month a topic (e.g. in January, a star’s life) and a photo;
a calendar for the month and
a page on “planet watch”

After the end of the monthly guide there are features on “solar system 2024” and “top 20 sky sights”. There is also a very interesting article by Robin Scagell called “The Narrowband Revolution” about advances in filter technology.

Neither of these sky guides is expensive, though it’s possible to get a good bargain on the Philip’s Stargazing 2024 if you look in The Works or online.

Howling at the Moon

Night Sky Almanac: a stargazer’s guide to 2024 by Storm Dunlop & Will Tirion (publ. Collin’s in association with the Royal Observatory Greenwich, 2023), 272 pages.

By contrast, the Night Sky Almanac has monochrome illustrations only, but has more charts, tables and background information. In the monthly sections there are the expected calendars and lists of notable astronomical events.

Here’s what you get:

notes on planets (these are brief)
some introductory material related to a sky event, e.g. for January there is a description of the Quadrantids meteor shower and a paragraph about the old constellation Quadrans Muralis
a chart of sunrise and sunset
a chart of the Moon’s phases
an astronomical calendar
diagrams of notable events to look out for (e.g. conjunctions and occultations)
a feature about the Moon, often including some history, linked to an astronomer who has a crater or Moon feature named after them, along with observing notes

There is a lot of interest here for Moon observers, both in introductory articles, charts and monthly photos and history features.

The Almanac is designed to be useful almost anywhere in the world (as long as you are not too near the Poles!), with the consequence that the sky maps are not as immediately intuitive to use, nor are they as sharp because of the use of black-and-white and lower contrast paper.

In summary, both books have their strengths. There is more history and background in the Almanac, but perhaps Philip’s guide is the more practical and accessible for newcomers. I will test run both … just as soon as the cloud clears!

(This review was originally written for Vectis Astronomical Society’s New Zenith newsletter)