The Stargazing Year: A Backyard Astronomer's Journey Through the Seasons of the Night Sky

A quarter century after giving up his first telescope, Charles Laird Calia lay down one evening on his front lawn with his two young daughters, looked up at the stars, and rediscovered a childhood passion. Part primer on the science and history of astronomical observation, part love poem to the night sky, The Stargazing Year is an amateur astronomer's beautifully written account of a year spent observing the cosmos and building an observatory in his New England backyard.

What has inspired…