Michael A. Covington wrote:

"JBortle" wrote in message
...

Finally, I really do hope that someone, preferably an author committed
to preserving Burnham's sensibilities, undertook the doubtless mammoth
task of bringing his Celestial Handbook up-to-date. What a wonderful
project that would be - and what a tribute to Robert Burnham's memory!

I think that's more work than one ordinary author could do. But I would
very much like to see an edition with the coordinates precessed to epoch
2000.0 and perhaps some minor updates and comments added by another

author.

The best way to ruin a "classic" is to have another author attempt to

update,

add to, or correct it.


Maybe someone could do something analogous to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes.
Reproduce Burnham's pages intact (with errors -- he even misspells one
constellation name consistently, I think it's Piscis Austrinus), and in the
wide margin, give the updated coordinates and occasional remarks about the
objects.

I'd be happy with just a new typeset - my edition uses a gawdawful
non-proportional typeface (it looks like it was photocopied from
original typewriter pages (maybe that's all that's available? I've never
seen another addition.) It's a chore to read; a shame, since it's
wonderful when you do make the effort.