Cambridge Star Atlas
Will Tirion, shows maps for the sky for each month of the year, also shows high detail maps with a page opposite detailing the objects in the map, great atlas.

Nortons Star Atlas
Ian Ridpath, big double page sized maps for the entire sky with details on the next page explaining the objects. It also contains a mini encyclopedia spanning telescopes, moon maps, the planets and cosmology.

The Monthly Sky Guide
Ridpath & Tirion, A 64 page A4 paperback with basic monthly sky maps. A bit thin, but the text is excellent, really pointing out the deep sky highlights for each month. Each month has a more detailed section of perhaps a single constellation.

Sky Atlas 2000.0
 Tirion & Sinnott. 2nd edition. Deluxe version. There are field editions, and laminated editions of this very popular atlas. This 2nd edition goes down to magnitude 8.5 but it is altogether too nice to take outside. It's a "black on white" desk atlas, unless you get the expensive laminated field edition ( which would give you white stars on a black background). This is half way between a beginners' atlas and something like Uranometria or the Millennium Atlas, ( which also cost much more ! ). is out of print while the latest edition is prepared for early 2001.

The Photographic Atlas of the Stars
 Foreword by Wolfendale. You get black on white negatives with labels and constellation lines on one side, and excellent star photographs on the other. The photographs are very well done, and it certainly gives a novel and more true to life representation of the heavens.

The Ever Changing Sky
 by James. B. Kaler. Cambridge University Press. 500 pages hardback. Quite expensive, this book is not an atlas, rather, it explains the celestial sphere and celestial mechanics. This subject is only dealt with in a chapter or two in most astronomy books, so it is very useful to have an uncomplicated explanation of the 3d geometry of our world and how its sky "works".

Uranometria
A highly detailed star atlas spead across 3 hardback volumes, the first is for the northern hemisphere, the 2nd is for the southern hemisphere and the third is a referance book for the first 2. Not a book for the casual observer, more attuned  for an observatory setup or someone without a computer who cannot use a planetarium program. 

Observing the constellations
John Sanford, Goes through each constellation alphabetically, shows a diagram of the constellation next to a photographic image of the constellation, useful for someone starting off in astronomy so you can get a real look at the over all constellation. Goes though the main objects in each constellation. 

Burnhams, Celestial Handbook
This is no "handbook". It's spread across 3 thick volumes but these book are quiet old by now as they were compilled back in the 1970s, but if you have them, they're worth keeping onto. They go through each constellation in considerable detail, alot of which is still relevant today.

Philip's Colour Star Atlas, epoch 2000
Cox & Monkhouse, a unique very large format atlas showing the colour/spectral classification of every star in the night sky, also shows galaxies, clusters and nebulae.