For those of you who might have found this information under the Google results for
“Lawrence Garrett Asteroids”,
or “ Asteroids and how to observe them” let me catch you up to date.
On August 10 2008, I was upgrading my personal home web page and noticed a new feature, a site and web search bar was
now possible. So I typed in my own name plus asteroids to see just what might come up. To my surprise, I was directed to Google,
and a book published under my name that I was working for under Springer Verlag.
I ended my work on this project in December of 2007, and no book of this title is forthcoming, under my name. I assume
Springer will hire a new author for this book. I have informed them of this error, and wish Springer the best in getting this
important book to the public.
Rather then offer my text for sale, I plan to offer it here for free in a series of articles and instruction, much shorter
then the above planned book form. In keeping with the theme of the A.L.P.O., personal instruction will be
offered to those who require it.
Current plans include an article “The planets of DAWN”, aimed at getting new observers to established Astronomy
clubs to visually observe the targets of the current DAWN probe, asteroids Ceres and Vesta.
Sending new observers well ahead of the curve to clubs to observe these asteroids is the main theme. No club
in your area, establishing your own “DAWN Observatory” follows.
All the basic information needed from optical requirements (binoculars and small telescopes), star chart
production, nightly tracking of Vesta and Ceres will be covered. This basic asteroid observing project is an excellent
introduction to astronomy, and finding sky objects WITHOUT the aid of expensive computer guided telescopes.
