This broad title explores every aspect of modern hobby astronomy in detailed but readable prose with a focus on practical information about consumer gear like telescope and photography equipment.
There are other excellent entry-level star gazing apps too, like SkEye, and SkyView, but if you want to move on to more “professional” level app, SkySafari 7 has a huge database, the ability to connect to your telescope, and a ton of other features for a relatively modest price of $26.99.If the stargazer in your life already has a set of binoculars they like, but they don’t have a tripod for them, this is a no-brainer of a holiday gift.It’s not a good gift for someone in the “getting started” level of astronomy, and if the astronomer in your life is ready to make the leap to a telescope, they’ll know what they want.
I don’t usually like the idea of novelty neckties related to a hobby, but this Apollo cockpit tie is rad.You probably couldn’t actually land on the moon with this tie, but it’s pretty cool in that “so hardcore geeky it comes around to cool again” way that goes perfectly with having astronomy as a hobby.
If you want to really impress your space-minded friend, give them an actual rock from the moonNew Jersey’s is missing, and I assume it is in someone’s attic; or you could dig through Ireland’s Dunsink Landfill to find the moon rock that was dumped there in late 1970s
But do not buy a moon rock from a private seller
Scamming people by selling them fake moon rocks is enough of a problem that NASA has used undercover agents to track them down