The Sky Observer's Guide: A handbook for amateur astronomers

This book covers the basics of optics, teaching you how to calculate magnification with your objective's focal length, and the eyepiece focal length; it covers the basics of planetary, and interstellar objects; it covers safe, solar observation techniques; it gives a basic overview of astro photography (film based, but film offers advantages over CCD's -- many techniques apply to both approaches anyway); it even includes some star charts to get the amateur started.