I’m one of those people who hoards notebooks, especially small-sized ones. There’s something about beautiful stationery that’s hard for me to resist, and I don’t think I’m alone in that respect. For those who are familiar with the Field Notes Brand notebooks, it will come as no surprise that I’m a longtime avid fan. The regular Field Notes memo books are great, but what I really love are the limited edition variations they come out with quarterly. They started out as simply special colors, but they’ve progressed to variations with wider themes, and it’s one of those things they do really well. Past editions have included the County Fair Edition, the “Expedition” Edition, and the last one I purchased, the genius Dry Transfer ______ Edition, which came complete with dry transfer sheets of letters in 36-point Futura Bold, so you could apply anything you wanted in place of the usual Field Notes logo. (I’ve got one around here somewhere that says “Paper Tiger,” but I couldn’t find it to take a photo.)

I got an email a couple weeks ago about the summer 2013 edition, and I knew right away I’d be buying a 3-pack. The newest edition is the Night Sky Edition.

Beautiful, simple front, but it’s the back of the memo books that’s really the star (no pun intended). Three different sections of the summer sky over the northern hemisphere are depicted, with major constellations outlined and the stars themselves done in silver holographic foil. It’s a beautiful thing to behold. And the paper? A sort of dot grid graph paper, but instead of dots, there are tiny crosshair reticles, like you might see if you were looking through a telescope. I love it.

It looks like the 3-packs are already sold out, but the Night Sky Edition is still available with a new Colors Subscription, which is basically a pre-order of the current edition and the next three to come (in other words, you’ll get every limited edition for a year). You get a couple 3-packs of the regular Field Notes, too. That’s all available here, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page.

I’m planning to use these little notebooks (and the rest in my stash) as garden journals, because I’m planning to start a vegetable garden this summer. They’ll fit nicely in my back pocket so I can bring them outside with me. Using Field Notes for… actual field notes! I can’t wait to get started.