Description
- The famous atlas-sized book, used in more than 100 countries, was published for 43 years, and 2016 was the last. It is revived, as an online book! Only $12, instead of $29.95 as for the printed book.
Read more about the book here and see a selection of the new, detailed charts for 2022.
Please note: after payment is complete, you will be redirected from Paypal to the “Thank you” page. This “Thank you” page will have a link that you can use 6 times to download the PDF and save to your computer. You will also get an email with the same download link – please check spam folders.
If you are purchasing on a phone, you may want to wait for the email and click from your desktop or laptop machine. Phones can consume the downloads without giving you an option to “store” the file somewhere.
George McCoy (verified owner) –
Having been a frequent purchaser of Guy’s Ottewell’s printed Astronomical Calendar since the 1970’s, I was excited to learn that the series is still being continued in electronic form. I found the purchase and download process to be quite easy from my desktop. The quality of the PDF version is excellent and displays nicely on my computer screen. The 8.5 x 11-inch format of the PDF makes printing easy. It also displays nicely on my phone although in much smaller format as expected.
The content of the electronic version of the Astronomical Calendar 2022 is much like my last printed purchase of the sprawling 2010 calendar with a few exceptions. The monthly Sky Map view contain fewer constellations; only the bright ones are depicted. Also, planets are not on the monthly Sky Map. That’s not much of a problem because there are many more daily sunrise & sunset diagrams showing planets and bright stars. As I’ve grown older since first picking up Guy’s Calendar, my eyes have gotten weaker and I spend more time away from the telescope, and more time naked eye viewing, so the new book style is better suited for my needs.
The rest of the 137-page book is Guy’s familiar drawing style which is a combination of casual, yet precise artwork. There is plenty of detailed coverage of the Moon, planets, occultations, asteroids, meteor showers with plenty of charts and diagrams.
Julie (verified owner) –
I purchased an astronomical calendar and opened the email on my phone. I was advised to open it on my desktop. I ended up finding it on my desktop a month later not realizing that the down load expired after 12 days from purchasing it. So I basically paid $12 for nothing. It would be nice to make that clear when you are buying the calendar that it has a time sensitive download link.
Guy (verified owner) –
Julie, I think we do make that clear. But in any case you have several chances to download and can download several copies, onto different devices, and the important thing then is to remember to save the PDF to a place on your device where you can remember to find it when you want to look at it.
It’s not clear to me whether you now have it (you say you “ended up finding it on my desktop”), but, in case not, I shall try to convey your message to Daniel Cummings, who will be able to give you yet another chance to download.
Ken Ault (verified owner) –
Thank you, for responding to my issue, my first review solved. I’m a long customer of Guy’s calendars, other astronomical products.
These products, and the Calendar are produce with the excellent attention to detail. Thank you Guy, Staff for your excellent attention to detail.
Guy (verified owner) –
Staff, I wish I had some! But tank you, Ken.
Jim Cummings (verified owner) –
Check to see if your PDF reader supports Bookmarks (to TOC for starters, but also other pages of special interest) and Comments (which you could use to simply name what’s on that page). If so, then usually you can display these on a sidebar of your PDF reader, and that can serve as a clickable personal TOC.
Guy (verified owner) –
Thanks. I’m working on learnin g how to put hyperlinks in. I expect I’ll progress to bookmarks eventually…
Viola Goodwin (verified owner) –
This is and always has been the best astronomical calendar on the market. I won’t deny missing the original, but I love having this one on my desktop and look forward to the improvements mentioned in the other review. I also recommend Guy’s other publications.
K.Ault (verified owner) –
Purchase and downloaded the calendar. About a month or so later, could not find the calendar on my IPad.
Lee Olson (verified owner) –
I am a long time admirer and friend of Guy Ottewell when he was in South Carolina. He spoke several times at the Midlands Astronomy Club and was always a hit with his thoughtful and detailed presentations. The 2022 Astronomical Calendar is basically an electronic version of the excellent printed version which many amateur astronomers used as their bible to plan their overall observing for the next year. I used to purchase these in bulk and pass the savings to the club.
The only issue I have with the electronic version is that it is nearly impossible to find anything due to the volume and the organization. Adding an electronic table of contents and index would allow the reader to immediately go to the sky for November or to find the excellent section on meteors. The only way to get a grasp on where things are is to read the whole calender and memorize where things are. Then when using the calendar put the pdf reader inthe mode where the individual page icons are shown as a collumn on the left hand side. Scroll down till you find the page which matches your memory of the item you are looking for and then put the calendar back into the viewing mode which is best for your purpose.
Guy (verified owner) –
Lee, thanks indeed for these tips. I had imagined giving clickable links from place to place in the document, hopefully to make it as easy to jump around as in a Wikipedia article. But it was so complex to prepare, and I was having to learn so much about how to make the PDF, that I ran out of time.
My suggestion (in the “Tip” on page 4) is to remember that the list of contents is on page 5, so that when reading in the calendar about some event, such as a meteor shower, you can flip back to the contents list and see that the further detail about meteor showers starts on page 128. You go to a page by using the numbers at the top of a PDF (just tot the left of the arrow tool and the hand tool).
But I know that is laborious. Preparing the same book for 2023 should be a bit easier, putting stuff into a template, and I should be able to add hyoerlinks.