We just recently posted a story from our January issue, in which we explore our readers’ top choices for beginning astronomy books. Check it out at the link below; we welcome additional comments, discussion, and recommendations here!
Night Watch and the Backyard Astronomers Guide by Terrence Dickinson are the best beginners books for sure and great reference books for the seasoned hobbiest too . I’ve still got Night Watch sitting on my coffee table .
For readers who want a free nontechnical introduction to one or more topics in astronomy, I might suggest our free, online textbook “Astronomy” (published by the nonprofit OpenStax project, which produces free textbooks in many subject to help with the cost of college.) It’s available to anyone at: OpenStax. (The authors are Andrew Fraknoi, David Morrison, and Sidney Wolff, all of us veteran explainers of astronomical ideas.)
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