Find the Constellations

Just as described and shipped quickly

From the man in the big yellow hat.

This book is much better than any of my most highly acclaimed modern books on astronomy when it comes to the subject of the constellations which are effectively the alphabet and the beginning words of astronomy. The most stunning thing is how the contemporaries deliberately choose to be ignorant of Rey's obviously superior work, and choose to continue nonsensical geometric representations of the contellations and the use of latin names which are nothing but trivial and pretentious. It's a simple thing to translate the names to latin or recognize a constellation even if someone has connected the stars together by lines that form an unrecognizable object once you have learned them in the first place because you will see the stars and the object they form which relates directly to its name. However, if a student is first presented with shapes that in no way represent the name of a constellation and latin names as well, it only serves to obfuscate the knowledge which Rey adeptly argues should be common even among the uneducated. It seems that most of the other writers on the subject would prefer to keep the knowledge obscured by archaic language and esoteric shapes. Rey obviously wants children to understand this most basic knowledge which anyone can learn.A shameful travesty of this book is that modern editors have ripped out Pluto. Foolhearted academics can argue and pronounce their opinions on whether Pluto should be considered a planet or not. I don't care to listen to their rabble. They have no good reason to remove accurate information from Rey's book. They've done it only to satisfy their ego, as though they and their committes can determine the fate of the cosmos. Had they merely amended the information on Pluto it would have been fine, but they removed it. Shame!The only place where Rey's work itself appears inaccurate or out of date is where he refers to the Andromeda nebula. Rey correctly identifies it as a galaxy but his use of the term nebula, which was historically common, is confusing since "nebula" is used to refer to an object of gas and dust within a galaxy (the only ones being visible are those in our own galaxy). In modern terms, we would call what Rey refers to as the Andromeda galaxy and we use 'nebula' to refer to objects in our own galaxy such as the Orion nebula. The editors should have fixed this outdated choice of words and left Pluto alone.I am a huge fan of this book as I believe it can quite easily bring an ignorant person up to a level of knowledge about the cosmos that substantially exceeds that of most university graduates, and it's fun all along.

What a fantastic little book! It's the perfect way for even a grown-up like me to get the constellations down - I think H.A. Rey himself said, "So simple, an adult could understand it". Well put! If you aren't already clear on constellations and want to get there (stargazing was my reason), this is a great first start. It's also naturally perfect for kids down to the youngest ages.The book is very much enhanced by the cute little figures that make comments on the sidelines.Interested sky watchers will ultimately need one or more books, with a lot more detail. This won't tell you a huge amount about the stars themselves, as it's more focused on the patterns that make up constellations and the basics of the sky. His other book The Stars is more detailed, and a good second step, but for a lot of detail, you'll also want to add in something like Nightwatch by Terrence Dickenson, or any of the other excellent, more specific guides out there. Lots of options once you have the basics down.But here's the thing: if you don't know the constellations, most of those more complex resources will be confusing and hard to use. A lot of star guides assume you already know how to find Sagittarius and the Great Bear (Ursus Major). They assume that you can find the Big Dipper and Orion in your sleep, that you got Polaris down pat, and that they can start with pretty much any constellation and you won't be sitting there scratching your head trying to figure out how to get there when it's dark outside. This book helps solve that problem.Also, I know this has been mentioned elsewhere, but it's worth repeating: if you live in a light-polluted area (i.e., at night you see fewer than a hundred stars with just your eyes) then expect some of the stars on his charts to be "missing" or extremely hard to find unless you are using binoculars or a telescope. H.A. Rey wrote his book in 1954, and he would have found it much easier than we do today to find a truly dark sky. Most of this book should be fine even then, but get almost any pair of binoculars (if you buy new, consider 7x50 or 10x50 from Orion or Celestron, but if you already have some start with those) and that should let you find most of the "missing" stars. Or else go find a Dark Site and do your viewing from there.Of course, if you are lucky enough to live someplace with limited light pollution, all of the stars will be there!

Teaching my 5 yr old planets and constellations, she loves it.

I love star gazing but have no clue about identifying constellations. This book shows the way.bought them for my grandkids, too.

Lovely book with great illustrations. Easy to read out loud and we’ll written

This book is truly magical and is just as useful and inspirational for aspiring adult astronomers as it is for young ones. H.A. Rey, the author and illustrator of the Curious George books, brings his simple whimsical style to a scientific topic that was dear to his heart. This is a great place to start if you find yourself looking up into the sky and not recognizing anything besides the Big Dipper. Utilizing two-page spreads that show the sky without constellations next to the same sky with constellations, it is a great way to teach yourself or your kids how to pick them out of the starry night and familiarize yourself with the landmarks of the heavenly city above our heads.That being said, the Kindle version misses the mark greatly. I already owned the paperback and thought it would be a great asset to have a copy along on trips with my young son. So I downloaded the Kindle sample and it looked pretty good. It was in color and the drawings were scaled well. However, once I purchased the full copy, I was surprised to see that the color starts to disappear the further you go into the book. The deep blue color which is so pleasingly used for the night sky in all of the paperback's drawings is replaced with a medium grey that is both illegible and unattractive. I cannot recommend this version. Just get the paperback or hardback. It's worth the space on your shelf.

タイムリーで早くて物もばっちりでした。パーフェクトでした。

This is the best layed out book on the night sky I have ever read, and the myths make it even better. Should be manditory for all children! Fantastic.

私が幼い頃、この翻訳絵本が家にあり親しんでいたのですが、先日ふとしたことでこの本を思い出し、帰国子女の子ども達（小３、小１）のために原作を買いました。使われてる英語は平易で、漢字の多用されている翻訳版よりもむしろとりつきやすい感じです。星座の名前も、「英語ではこんな風に言うんだ」といろんな発見があり、大人も楽しめます。理科と英語の知識の幅を同時に広げることができる、優れた作品だと思います♪

We read Emily Gravatt's "Cave Baby" book and I pointed out the name of the stars in that book (the plough) We then read another book with a random picture of stars and my 3 yr old wanted to know the names...I don't know much about stars so decided to get this book and it really is good. Good for now for young ones and good for older kids and for interested adults too. Well illustrated and very easy. My daughter now knows several star names and shapes. We haven't read this book for a few weeks now but I know we will dip in & out and keep it as a reference forever probably.

The premise is so obvious. Make the stars into shapes matching their constellation names. This book does it perfectly. Suddenly the sky makes sense. Brilliant idea and implementation.