CSOG Comparison
You people baffle me. You spend all your money on these fancy books. You surround yourselves with them. They're the wrong books.
- Will Hunting
portrayed by Matt Damon in "Good Will Hunting"
It is up to everyone, individually, to compare the Clear Skies Observing Guides to other astronomy publications.
Here are a few pointers:
| CSOG | Every Other Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 105 Unique editions | ✅ | ❌ |
| Designed for use at the eyepiece | ✅ | ❌ |
| Complete catalogs for galaxies, star clusters and nebulae | ✅ | ❌ |
| Editions for multiple telescope aperture classes | ✅ | ❌ |
| Observing guides by constellations | ✅ | ❌ |
| Double star editions | ✅ | ❌ |
| Carbon stars | ✅ | ❌ |
| Observing programs | ✅ | ❌ |
| Star party observing programs | ✅ | ❌ |
| Observing aids | ✅ | ❌ |
| > 17,000 objects | ✅ | ❌ |
| Unique content | ✅ | ❌ |
| Up-to-date information | ✅ | ❌ |
| Image(s) for every object | ✅ | ❌ |
| 4 Different image orientation options | ✅ | ❌ |
| Only images with known dimensions | ✅ | ❌ |
| Only images with known orientations | ✅ | ❌ |
| Historically correct designations | ✅ | ❌ |
| Synonym designations | ✅ | ❌ |
| Field descriptions | ✅ | ❌ |
| Index file(s) for every edition | ✅ | ❌ |
| Frequent updates | ✅ | ❌ |
| Weekly new content | ✅ | ❌ |
| Frequent new editions | ✅ | ❌ |
| Matching AstroPlanner planfiles for every edition | ✅ | ❌ |
| Matching Autostar Tours for use with Meade's Autostar controllers | ✅ | ❌ |
| Matching NexTours for use with Celestron's NexRemote | ✅ | ❌ |
| Matching EQTours for use with EQMOD | ✅ | ❌ |
| Matching Argo Navis User Catalogs | ✅ | ❌ |
| Suitable for modern day night astronomy | ✅ | ❌ |
| Not a book, but a concept | ✅ | ❌ |
| Truly a celestial encyclopedia | ✅ | ❌ |
| Future proof | ✅ | ❌ |
| Donation based | ✅ | ❌ |
| Non-profit | ✅ | ❌ |
| The ultimate observing tool | ✅ | ❌ |
| The ultimate planning tool | ✅ | ❌ |
| Accompanied by a dedicated website | ✅ | ❌ |
| Weekly Newsletter | ✅ | ❌ |
| Thousands of observations shared | ✅ | ❌ |
| Larger than all existing publications combined | ✅ | ❌ |
| In a league of its own | ✅ | ❌ |
| Endless tables with only text for objects | ❌ | ✅ |
| The beaten path | ❌ | ✅ |
| Endless repetition of objects | ❌ | ✅ |
| Raising more questions than answering | ❌ | ✅ |
| Very incomplete | ❌ | ✅ |
| Plenty of errors and inconsistencies | ❌ | ✅ |
| Not using original data | ❌ | ✅ |
| Reproducing errors in other publications | ❌ | ✅ |
| Ignoring correct data | ❌ | ✅ |
| Coffee table book | ❌ | ✅ |
| Expensive | ❌ | ✅ |
| Obsolete at time of publication | ❌ | ✅ |