A Field Journal Of The Night Sky.

The same 47 photographs, each pinned to where it sits along the Milky Way — the band of our own galaxy seen edge-on, mapped from 1.7 billion stars by NASA. Nearly every nebula hugs the band, because that is where the gas and young stars are; the galaxies sit far above and below it, where the view out of our galaxy is clear.

47 deep-sky objects, each photographed from the backyard and plotted where it rides the northern sky — the north celestial pole at the center, declination rings curving outward, the Milky Way glowing through Cygnus and Cassiopeia. On a computer, hover a point for its plate; on any device, tap to open the entry.