1.1. From the Preface.

The laboratory method of instruction is growing in favour so rapidly with astronomical teachers that there is little occasion for any plea in its behalf. It is a recognised fact that the direct investigation of celestial phenomena gives a vividness and reality to the subject and arouses interest and enthusiasm difficult to obtain by any other means. Indeed, to require the study of the heavenly bodies and provide no means for observing them is somewhat like restricting the student of botany to textbooks and to pictures of plants.

It cannot be urged as a valid objection to this method that large mathematical attainments and expensive equipment are prerequisites. Laborious investigations necessitating telescopes and observatories are not the ones which should engage the attention of our students at the beginning; but rather the simple observations which teach them how to see and enable them to gather at first hand a store of pleasant astronomical information.

Whether the study of astronomy is taken up first in secondary schools or colleges, years of experience have convinced me that it is best to devote at least one term to general astronomy and naked-eye observation. An unobstructed place for watching the heavens, a few home-made instruments, and evening hours of laboratory instruction will, I believe, do more to foster a genuine interest in astronomy or prepare for the use of instruments of precision than any amount of textbook study which is supplemented only by desultory star-gazing.

The present laboratory manual has grown out of the needs of my own students during the past fifteen years. It is based upon a primer called "Questions on the Sky" which was printed in 1898, especially for the use of students at Smith College. Teachers who have expressed their approval of the primer may be interested to know that the questions given there are republished here with some modifications and additions. After the introductory chapters on almanacs, maps, and globes, all the questions proposed are designed to be answered directly from observation or by data obtained from observation. The one aim and object of the book is to lead to direct study of the heavens.

For the convenience of teachers and students the number of observations suggested is large. Few of them, comparatively, should be undertaken by any one student. But it needs only a modicum of experience to show that astronomy more than other sciences demands large room for choice and adaptation. The factors which condition the work of young observers are so many and varied that teachers within a few miles of each other may require different sets of topics, and students in the same class often work to the best advantage along different lines.

The manual is designed to be used in connection with one of the standard works on general astronomy, like those of Young and Newcomb; and while it has seemed necessary to include a few definitions and explanations, no inroad has been made into the province of the regular textbook, and it has invariably been left to the teacher to call attention to inferences and conclusions which depend jointly upon reading and observing.

1.2. Review by: O Callandreau.
Bulletin Astronomique (1) 16 (1899), 206-207.

For us, we completely share the way of Mary E Byrd sees things. For example, the teaching of astronomy, which it is agreed to call spherical, would gain much in France from being done more on the sky; the Author's comparison with the study of Botany is very just: to confine the pupils to books or images is pernicious, if it is a question of one of the sciences of Nature. The difficulty lies above all in the number of pupils, the experimental form of teaching not being suitable for a large audience. In any case, too much importance cannot be attached to the orientation of studies in the beginning, and we must thank Mary E Byrd for having contributed, with the authority that a long personal experience gives her, to restore the naked eye observations.

1.3. Review by: R G A.
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 11 67 (1899), 90-91.

The title of this little book indicates very accurately its aim and scope. It lays no claim to the name of a textbook in astronomy, and gives practically no definitions of astronomical terms nor descriptions of the usual appliances of a working observatory. It is designed to be used in connection with a standard textbook (like Young's or Newcomb's), in precisely the same manner as a laboratory manual in chemistry or in physics would be used - to suggest, outline, and illustrate experiments to be performed by the student himself.

In her preface the author says: "Whether the study of astronomy is taken up first in secondary schools or colleges, years of experience have convinced me that it is best to devote at least one term to general astronomy and naked-eye observation. An unobstructed place for watching the heavens, a few home-made instruments, and evening hours of laboratory instruction will, I believe, do more to foster a genuine interest in astronomy or prepare for the use of instruments of precision than any amount of textbook study which is supplemented only by desultory star-gazing."

The book has thus grown out of the author's own experience and the needs of her students, and will commend itself to any one who has attempted to teach astronomy to beginners as eminently practical.

The suggestions for beginners in the introductory chapter, respecting the working-list, personal bias, errors, weights, rules for recording, etc., are admirably stated, and may be read and heeded with profit by some who are not beginners. The second chapter describes some simple home-made instruments, and gives directions for their adjustment and use. Then follow chapters on almanacs and maps, celestial globe, and heliotellus, the Sun, the Moon, planets, comets, and shooting stars, stars and Milky Way, and finally a chapter on observations for an inch-and-a-half telescope, and several useful appendixes. In all these chapters a list of suggestive exercises or questions comes first, the answers to which are to be worked out by the students themselves from direct observations or the data furnished by observation.

These exercises have evidently been selected very judiciously, and the suggestions and illustrations that occupy the remaining part of each chapter contain sufficient information to make the book a useful one to an intelligent student, even without the aid of a teacher. One who has worked through it carefully will have a practical grasp of the objects and methods of astronomical work that can be gained so easily in no other way, and will be well prepared to begin work with the ordinary instruments of precision of the observatory.

1.4. Review by: Anon.
The Journal of Education 50 (10) (1244) (1899), 179.

The laboratory method has won its way in every branch. Astronomy is one of the latest to yield to its demands, whereas it should have been one of the first. This does not require an expensive equipment, for the habit and training which are most needed can be acquired by any well-directed study of the heavens. I taught astronomy in the normal school at one time and no subject ever yielded better discipline at my hands. Not even Greek, with all its intellectual opportunities, or mathematics, with its exactness, can get a closer grip upon the thinking of a student than the visualising of the conditions of the circles of the earth and of the heavens, and their relations, of the phases of the moon and her influence upon tides, of the sun and the seasons, of the various movements of suns and satellites, of eclipses, comets, and shooting stars.

Miss Byrd of Smith College has succeeded as a teacher in getting desired results in discipline, and through this admirable book others may attain satisfactory results.

1.5. Review by: Anon.
The Dial (16 March 1899), 210-211.

"A Laboratory Manual in Astronomy" (Ginn), by Miss Mary E Byrd, emphasises the growing appreciation of observational and experimental methods in all departments of teaching. At first thought, it seems as if these methods were beyond the reach of most schools and colleges, as far as astronomy is concerned, on account of the expensiveness of the equipment necessary, to say nothing of the advanced mathematical knowledge presupposed. But the author of this volume shows that a great deal may be done with simple means, and her book fairly justifies its title. We are a little suspicious of "home-made telescopes," but there is no doubt that many observations and simple calculations are within the reach of young students, and afford an admirable sort of discipline in scientific thought and method.

2.1. From the Preface

Real knowledge in science depends upon direct study of objects and phenomena. Astronomy is no exception. Literally to look up, to see with our own eyes and to find out by seeing, - these things are the beginning of astronomy.

As a guide to first observations, this handbook has been written. With few exceptions, the mechanical appliances required can be made by a carpenter or by the students themselves. Simple tools are best at first. It needs but slight experience with protractors, plumb lines, gnomon, and sundials to realise how aptly they can be used in scientific training, and how much meaning they put into different subjects. Not a little light will reach some of the dark places of geography and arithmetic, when teachers are accustomed to make simple observations, and know how to interest boys and girls in finding the latitude of the school building with the window gnomon, and the error of the clock from the horizontal sundial. At present, we sometimes have so-called courses of nature study with the sun in heaven left out!

A few topics of advanced character, dealing mainly with time and longitude, have been included in the final chapter; but, as a rule, simplicity of treatment has been carefully guarded, and mathematical knowledge beyond elementary branches is not required.

No effort has been made to deal even in a cursory manner with descriptive astronomy. It must, of course, receive its due meed of attention, and when the sky is cloudy, or the weather very cold. emphasis is naturally placed on that part of the subject.

To add vividness to the illustrations, many observations have been prepared, under the writer's direction, in different parts of the country, by different students, and are marked with their initials.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to those who have read the book wholly or partly in manuscript and given help in other ways ...

2.2. Review by: Anon.
The Journal of Education 79 (26) (1986) (1914), 737.

Whoever makes it easy and attractive to study the stars, makes an important contribution to education that uplifts human thought and ennobles students. Miss Byrd here makes such a contribution. The book is small and handy, but the directions are adequate, clear, and interesting. No one need have the slightest difficulty in learning everything here suggested or in teaching it in every detail and with interest closely akin to inspiration, and whoever has mastered the heavens with this book as a guide will be intelligent about the stars and other heavenly bodies and will find lifelong comfort and joy in looking into the heaven.