The Cambridge Double Star Atlas

Bruce MacEvoy is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and member of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. A lifelong astronomer and member of the Sonoma County Astronomical Society, he has studied double stars intensively since 2006. He has lectured on double star astronomy in California and Hawaii, developed database software to edit the Washington Double Star Catalog, and has observed over 5,300 double star systems from his observatory near Sebastopol, California. He was formerly a senior research psychologist with SRI International and Director of Research for Yahoo! He also curates one of the largest websites devoted to astronomical topics, www.handprint.com/ASTRO/. Wil Tirion is a full-time uranographer. He is famous among the amateur astronomy community for the numerous atlases and star charts he has created. Among his other successful books for Cambridge University Press are Sky Atlas 2000.0 (co-published with Sky Publishing), The Cambridge Star Atlas, The Monthly Sky Guide, and A Walk Through the Heavens. A full list of Wil Tirion's publications are available on his website: www.wil-tirion.com.

• Preface; What are double stars?; The binary orbit; Double star dynamics; Stellar mass and the binary life cycle; The double star population; Detecting double stars; Double star catalogs; Telescope optics; Preparing to observe; Helpful accessories; Viewing challenges; Next steps; Appendices: target list; Useful formulas; Double star orbits; Double star catalogs; The Greek alphabet.

'This comprehensive update of a popular star atlas amongst the double star community is to be welcomed. The catalogue has also been extensively and logically revised with more accessibility for the amateur telescope as the guiding theme.' R. W. Argyle, Director, Webb Society Double Star Section, and author of Observing and Measuring Visual Double Stars