THE author’s first book, A Field Book of the Stars was simply intended as a guide to the constellations. It was an effort on his part to acquaint the reader with the star groups and the individual star names. In his book, In Starland with a Three-inch telescope he sought to indicate to the amateur astronomer what could be seen of the stellar wonders with a modest telescopic equipment.
It follows naturally that having come to be on friendly terms with the stars, and having seen many of the beautiful sights that the night reveals, the tyro should wish to know more of the history of the stars and how the constellations came to be named, and the purpose of this book therefore is to satisfy that desire.
It is always a pleasure to trace back to their sources the traditions with which time has endowed the enduring, and thus the study of the myths and legends that surround the eternal stars possesses a surpassing charm for those who have learned to know them intimately and through nightly communion with them have come to love them.
The author quotes extensively from R. H. Allen’s Star Names and Their Meanings, an exhaustive and scholarly work and an authority on the subject, and he here pays tribute to the author for the pleasure a close perusal of his book affords, and heartily commends it to all those who desire to make a closer study of the philology of the ancient star names.