Perhaps a bit late in the year to bring your attention to an annual publication, but the fact that we can stare at the sky – and often see it’s elements so clearly – is one of the great privileges of living in the rural areas of South Africa.

This is the guidebook that’ll make that privilege so much more enjoyable.

It contains a monthly sky diary that includes “easy-to-use sky maps showing interesting naked-eye sights typically at dusk or at dawn, involving the Moon, planets, and bright stars,” as well as lists of celestial events, notes on the visibility of the planets and the constellations, and the rising and setting times of the Sun and the Moon.

But that fills only about half of the pages in this fascinating little softcover: for the rest you’ll find articles about the Sun, the Moon, and the planets – and asteroids, comets, meteors, stars and constellations; and about observing skills and equipment; and about astronomy in South Africa. There’s also a comprehensive glossary, and a beautiful (but too small) picture gallery.

You need this one in your guest library if you’ve an accommodation place anywhere near where people might spend time contemplating our Southern Sky.

Sky Guide Africa South 2013: The Astronomical Handbook for Southern Africa is published jointly by the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa and Struik Nature.

Buy it in softcover here