Conventional star atlases are great for locating constellations and individual stars but The Star Atlas Companion goes one step further and describes the physical properties of more than 1,100 stars. With the aid of scale diagrams, the reader can get a real sense of the sizes, shapes, distances, and surface features of many of the stars visible to the naked eye in both the Nothern and Southern Hemispheres. Information on their rotational velocities and periods is given together with their spectral type and luminosity. Binary and multiple star systems are explained in detail. Special mention is made of Barnard's, Kapteyn's, Kepler's, and Van Maanen's Stars and the properties of many open clusters are given. With its emphasis on helping the amateur astronomer gain a better understanding of what they are looking at. The Star Atlas Companion will provide a new dimension to observing the star and is an invaluable supplement to any star atlas. From the reviews: “The Star Atlas Companion is a necessary addition to every amateur astronomer who is interested in how the stars and star clusters one might observe with a small to medium telescope would actually appear. … this book is helpful for planning your observations and finding out more about the stars and constellations … . It contains a lot of information, possibly more than some of the smart computerized guidance systems that some telescopes have.” (Kadri Tinn, AstroMadness.com, April, 2014) “The Star Atlas Companion fills an important niche. Targeted for the amateur astronomer, the book provides detailed information on the thousands of stars that make up the constellations; many star atlases do not feature this level of granularity. … The writing is detailed, straightforward, and well suited to an amateur audience; useful black-and-white illustrations on each constellation support the text. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates andgeneral audiences.” (P. J. West, Choice, Vol. 50 (4), December, 2012) The Star Atlas Companion is the ideal companion to any star atlas, as it is the first book to provide a true perspective on the characteristics and distances of over 1,100 stars and their movement through space. With the aid of scale diagrams, the reader can grasp difficult-to-understand concepts such as how far apart stars really are, their relative sizes, how fast they spin and their shapes, and how the constellation patterns change over time. This book: - describes many stars visible to the naked eye in both the northern and southern hemispheres; - explains binary and multiple star systems in detail; - gives the properties of many open clusters; - enables a true appreciation of the scale of our galactic neighborhood Philip Bagnall, an amateur astronomer, has previously been published in The Meteorite & Tektite Collector's Handbook (William-Bell, 1991), and in the 1980s and 1990s he was a regular contributor to Astronomy magazine on meteors. but he has also written on a freelance basis for various other science magazines including New Scientist, Focus, Earth, and Science PROBE! He is a former Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, former member of the British Astronomical Association, the Meteoritical Society, and the British Association of Science Writers.