Burnham's Celestial Handbook: An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System, Vol. 3
by Robert Burnham Jr.
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert Burnham Jr.Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1979-01-01
ISBN: 0486236730
Number of pages: 800
Publisher: Dover Publications
Book Reviews of Burnham's Celestial Handbook: An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System, Vol. 3
Book Review: let us now praise famous old books
Summary: 2 Stars
readers of the reviews of burnham's "celestial handbook" on amazon.com may notice that much of the commentary focuses on burnham the man, and very little on the specific content and utility of these three volumes. on me therefore falls this cheerless but necessary task.
when viewed against the huge changes in astronomy since the late 1960's (when the "handbook" was actually written), the "self publishing" character of this work cries out at every level, almost from every page -- and i don't just mean in the electric typewriter typeface, neatly pecked out within black line borders ruled around every page. the book is, fundamentally, an antique. the celestial coordinate system used to locate all stars and galaxies (epoch 1950) is not merely "badly outdated", it is obsolete and completely useless. the data for binary stars, particularly for stars with orbital periods of a few centuries or less, is incorrect, and based on the early 20th century struve and aitken catalogs, not (for example) on the current u.s. naval observatory catalog (WDS). all the star position, magnitude, spectral type and proper motion data have been superseded by satellite surveys, and there is no catalog numbering at all for variable stars. the many black and white photographs are grainy and dark, and nearly all date from before 1950. reviewers who praise "the wealth of information" in these books simply do not know what is current and available for astronomers.
the book fails even rudimentary qualifications as a reference because it is so disorganized. topics are scattered and dispersed randomly across three volumes (a list of white dwarfs is put in the chapter on the constellation canis major, the list of stars with large proper motions in ophiuchus, the list of novae in cassiopeia), and in his preface to the *3 page* index (which is only found at the end of the third volume, which for that reason alone you must buy), burnham cheerfully quips "if you can't find it anywhere else, look in here!" none of the sources cited in the bibliography are now accurate or current; vast chunks of modern astronomy (galaxy clustering, high energy physics, cosmology) are omitted or grossly misrepresented (burnham refers to two colliding galaxies as "this oddball object with extending filaments" because the gravitational tides between interacting galaxies were then not understood), and the writing, though efficient, is salted with solecisms (star color can be "illusionary").
a considerable portion of the information is, instead, colorful and quaint, a look back at a lost time. burnham lived and worked during the remarkable post WWII transition period in astronomy, which carried both amateur and professional astronomers on the same tide. manufacturers from edmund scientific up to cave optical and questar were producing high quality instruments within reach of amateur budgets, and professional astronomers had just begun to systematize cosmology through discovery of the galactic red shift, black holes and stellar evolution; "sky & telescope" appealed to amateurs and the palomar sky survey to professionals; the mercury and apollo missions were in the news and "telstar" was a popular song. but weaving through the popular astronomy culture "back in the day" was an inherited vein of folklore, arabic star names, greek mythology, conventional wisdom, and grandfathered anecdote about the sky and its meaning that was garbled together in a popularized and rapidly developing space meme. burnham channeled those jumbled and disparate narratives, and folded them all into a heavy dose of tabulated and photodocumented astral data, most of it from before WWII. the result is both quirky and deflecting. you can imagine grandpa knocking his pipe ashes into the fire, setting aside his text on cepheid variables, and telling them youngins again about how orion hunted the bull, how hindus believed the world was born, or what that strange name "arcturus" really means.
of course, burnham had a larger purpose: to provide what amounts to an undergraduate course in astronomy, inserting factual or conceptual digressions at the point where they become relevant to a specific observable phenomenon or to a constellation where an unobservable object is hidden. and because the going frequently gets technical, he leavens his didactic bread with a salty bit of mythology or communal anecdote: we start a discussion of the brightest star in taurus the bull, and quickly digress into minoan archaeology, indian mythology, pictures of coins, some poetry. the result is a jumble-- hard to negotiate, difficult to consult, and unpredictable in its coverage. you get a list of white dwarf stars, but no list of giant stars; a list of novae, but none for globular clusters; a list of nearby stars, but not of nearby galaxies. it's all hit or miss. (be it noted as well, there is no information whatsoever about the planets of our solar system or the origin of planetary systems in general.)
i am not concerned that dover books garners royalties from burnham's ghost, or that no one has aggressively revised and updated what in concept could be a useful set of volumes; nor even that the books might be recommended in place of many well written and up to date volumes by living astronomers (starting with the evergreen "norton's star atlas and observer's handbook" and the extremely useful and thorough "night sky observer's guide"). my concern is that if you put burnham in the hands of any youngster, teenager or novice adult who might be interested in astronomy, you will convince them that this is a pastime for old men and their love of stories and mementos of times past. time to turn the page.
Summary of Burnham's Celestial Handbook: An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System, Vol. 3
Volume III of this three-part comprehensive guide to the thousands of celestial objects outside our solar system concludes with listings from Pavo through Vulpecula. Objects are grouped according to constellation, and their definitions feature names, coordinates, classifications, and physical descriptions. Additional notes offer fascinating historical information. Hundreds of visual aids. 1977 edition.
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