Ian's book arrived today and I'm delighted with it. I've several DS books, and this is going to easily become the most useful and used one.

The most useful thing for me is the SAO designation for each star, so they will be easily found using my 10 inch Celestron Starsense Dob. This will also be true for many goto scopes/mounts as well I presume.

As with other DS books it has the usual data for each pair of stars, but in addition it has some additional information which, in my view, makes it exceptional for the practical observer. These include -

The aperture of scope used
The magnification used
Perceived difficulty on a scale of 1-5
General description of pair and field of view

The first three are self explanatory, but the General Descriptions are superb. They make really delightful reading and they will be gratefully received by observers. Any observer will be able to visualse the stars appearance from Ian's descriptions, I found myself observing what I might see when I look at them through the telescope. and make the book excellent for planning observing sessions.

To me, these features take the book out of the realm of many rather unispiring catalogues into a book which can only encourage readers to get out there and look for themselves.

It has clearly been written by an accomplished observer for the benefit of the rest of us. Thank you Ian.

Highly recommended.