Thursday, January 26, 2012

Where can I find good star charts online?

I'm going to my first star party this weekend, and the star chart I have, for some reason, is very inaccurate. It even lists Albireo as a constellation! What a joke! Anyway, I don't have time to order one for this weekend, so does anyone know where I can find one online to print out and use at the star party? Thanks!Where can I find good star charts online?3 other good answers so far; here's another great free planetarium program -- Stellarium (1). You could use it to get a portion of the sky you want a map of, set the scale where you like, and print.

Pay special attention to the controls that allow you to turn on/off the atmosphere and ground; turn on/off (separately) the constellation labels, lines, and art; turn on/off (separately) the equatorial and altazimuth grids.

Also worth checking, in case you don't already know about it, is the website for Sky %26amp; Telescope (2). Over on the left there are some useful links under "Observing" -- especially, "Interactive Sky Chart" (3).

Good luck, and dark skies!Where can I find good star charts online?
Make that 4 other good answers now. Mike, GeoffG, Nyx, and William Donovan have collectively supplied a marvelous list of online resources. I hope you have benefited from all the good info, GG, because I know I have!

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Where can I find good star charts online?Surprisingly enough (especially given the less-than-scholarly name)

Uncle Al's Sky Wheels are approximately as good as a couple of semi-expensive planespheres that I've acquired over the last few years.

For more detailed star charts, you may want to pick up something like the Peterson's Field Guide - very nice indeed - very useful in the field as well.



http://lawrencehallofscience.org/starclo鈥?/a>Where can I find good star charts online?
There is a very nice monthly star chart published every month here:

http://www.skymaps.com/



If you need a more detailed star atlas, there are two nice Japanese ones online with different limiting magnitudes:

http://www.geocities.jp/toshimi_taki/atl鈥?/a>

http://www.geocities.jp/toshimi_taki/atl鈥?/a>



I still prefer a bound paper atlas, and the best one I've found is:

Roger Sinnott: Sky %26amp; Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas (Sky)



List price is only 20 bucks, and it's often discounted.Where can I find good star charts online?Depending on the level of detail you want -

http://skymaps.com/skymaps/tesmn1103.pdf

http://calsky.com/

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/s?action=鈥?/a>



Then there are several free downloadable planetarium programs that you can configure for your particular scope -

http://astro.nineplanets.org/astrosoftwa鈥?/a>

(my personal favorite - http://astro.nineplanets.org/astrosoftwa鈥?/a>Where can I find good star charts online?
Here is one: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subject鈥?/a>

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