Robert K. Buchheim

The book for scientifically-inclined amateur astronomers

Have you ever wondered whether an amateur astronomer can provide scientifically-useful observations?  The answer is "yes, indeed -- you can!"  This book explains the purpose, value, and procedures for the most useful small-telescope research activites for amateur and student astronomers.

What the reviewers have said:

   Dec 2007 Sky & Telescope magazine

   Nov 2007 BBC Sky at Night magazine

   Apr 2008 The Observatory (a British journal associated with Greenwich Observatory)

   All the way from Russia, a review posted on Cloudy Nights

Here's a description of an undergraduate seminar that is using The Sky is Your Laboratory as a textbook.

A "Hands-On" guide to experiencing the history of Astronomy

Our modern understanding of the universe is built on a series of seminal observations:  Ancient observers recognized the Sun's seasonal shift relative to the stars, Hipparcus discovered the precession ofthe equinox, Kepler developed the properties of planetary orbits, Hubble recognized the expansion of the universe, etc.

How did they accomplish those things -- what did they actually see, and how did they translate "observations" into "conclusions"?

Remarkably, you can replicate all of those seminal observations in your backyard ... most of them with surprisingly simple equipment.

Here is a new sort of manual of astronomy, and a new way of seeing the heavens!