🚀 go-pugleaf

A couple months ago I found a copy of Peter Taylor's OBSERVING
THE SUN (Cambridge University Press, 1991) in a local bookstore
(Booksellers).  It was marked 20% off (a $30 list price) so I had
to buy it.  While I am somewhat disappointed in the book, I not
sure it's as bad as the Sky and Telescope review indicated it
was.

The book is part of the Practical Astronomy Handbooks series.  It
runs about 150 pages.  I wish it were two to three times longer.
It covers most topics extremely superficially, and only a few in
depth.  However, in most cases (not all) it provides references
to source materials.

OBSERVING THE SUN is written for amateur observers with little or
no physics background.  It only covers sunspot observations in
great detail.  It covers the Mount Wilson sunspot group
classification system, discusses telescopes and filters.  It also
provides some techniques for determining sunspot location on
sun's disk.  the book is helpful for developing techniques for
observing and recording observations of the sun.

Instructions are provided for building two instruments for
detecting ionosphere/magnetosphere responses to solar activity.
A low frequency radio detector is described for documenting
ionosphere responses.  Also a magnetometer is described to
document fluctuations in the local magnetic field.  (It would be
interesting to develop a computer interface for this one.)
Unfortunately not much effort is spend in describing how to
understand the data from these instruments.  Are the specific
responses very dependent on the specific location?

The book seems to be incomplete.  I would like to have seen more
discussion of solar physics.  It dismisses magnetic observation
of the sun as for professionals only, but I think this is a
serious omission: a) even if amateurs cannot presently make these
observations, information on how they are done would still be
interesting, and b) how long will it be before amateurs can make
these observations?  Almost nothing substantive is said
concerning solar influences on Earth, even though both detectors
measure these effects.

In summary, while I am glad that I have a copy of the book and
expect to use it, I would recommend looking over a copy from a
library first to determine if it will suit your needs.
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david b. snyder                   |  The Persistant Planetology Speculation:
email: snyder@ronin.lerc.nasa.gov |  Where there's a rill there's a ray.