Now that the warmer weather is on it's way I'm sure many more people are willing to step outside at night time for a view up into the sky. If you do please share with me on twitter @AdirondackAstro, or in the comments, or even e-mail, whether it's just what you looked at, or if you took pictures of the night sky; Moon, stars, planets, nebula, galaxies, sunsets, sunrise. If you do share and you would like me to share the pictures via my blog or twitter please let me know in the e-mail that you send it in, and include a link to something of yours so I can give you proper credit. I don't want to steal anyones credit for their pictures.
I will also add that in this post and posts to follow certain words will contain a dotted line under it. If you hover over these words with your mouse it will pop-up a definition or explanation of what it is. Should be helpful to anyone whether you are a beginner or not, it's always nice to have a refresher like that. Let me know what you think of this little addition to my posts.
Now onto what this post is about. I'm going to share some links to some star maps, and star atlas', and other helpful links to help you find your way around the night sky. Some of these are going to be guides for people with telescopes and some of these will just be guides for people stepping out into their backyard holding the chart and looking up in the correct direction.
Skymaps.com - Have free star maps for download each month, and have star atlas' you can buy ranging from beginner with magnitude 4.5 stars to advanced with magnitude 11. The free to download sky maps on this page are great for just stepping out and looking in a certain direction and looking up. Helpful for learning the constellations in the night sky. These maps for free download also provide some useful information about special events in the sky such as meteor showers, or where the moon will be in the sky on a particular date. One of my favorite places for free maps.
Mag 7 Star Charts – Download a PDF of Mag-7 star atlas. Plotting stars down to a magnitude of 7.25 with double/multiple stars, Deep Sky Objects including all the objects in the Messier list, NGC list and the Herschell 400 list. More than 550 Deep Sky Objects total! You can download as black and white atlas or the color atlas in zip format, unzip to get the .pdf file.
Star Atlas in Galactic Perspective – This is an extract from a 1972 Star Atlas by R.S. Fritzius. These star positions were plotted with the naked eye and the accuracy is +/- 2 degrees.
Messier Catalog - If you have a small telescope and want to try to find some Messier objects then this is great for you. It doesn't have all the clutter of the NGC objects, it's in color and pretty easy to follow. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't display the Right Ascension and the Declination which is helpful if you have and Equatorial Mounted telescope. I can tell you that the upper left corner is 24h and 90Dec, the hours decrease by one hour per line going right, and the DEC decreases by 10 per line going down. I have saved this map and put the numbers in myself but it's a little cluttered that way so it may just be better to just know where it is than to have it marked. If you feel the need to do it on your own map then by all means go ahead.
This should get you off on the right foot to start exploring the night sky and it's wonders. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask in the comments, twitter, or e-mail. I will respond as soon as I possibly can to get you started.
I will also add that in this post and posts to follow certain words will contain a dotted line under it. If you hover over these words with your mouse it will pop-up a definition or explanation of what it is. Should be helpful to anyone whether you are a beginner or not, it's always nice to have a refresher like that. Let me know what you think of this little addition to my posts.
Now onto what this post is about. I'm going to share some links to some star maps, and star atlas', and other helpful links to help you find your way around the night sky. Some of these are going to be guides for people with telescopes and some of these will just be guides for people stepping out into their backyard holding the chart and looking up in the correct direction.
Skymaps.com - Have free star maps for download each month, and have star atlas' you can buy ranging from beginner with magnitude 4.5 stars to advanced with magnitude 11. The free to download sky maps on this page are great for just stepping out and looking in a certain direction and looking up. Helpful for learning the constellations in the night sky. These maps for free download also provide some useful information about special events in the sky such as meteor showers, or where the moon will be in the sky on a particular date. One of my favorite places for free maps.
Mag 7 Star Charts – Download a PDF of Mag-7 star atlas. Plotting stars down to a magnitude of 7.25 with double/multiple stars, Deep Sky Objects including all the objects in the Messier list, NGC list and the Herschell 400 list. More than 550 Deep Sky Objects total! You can download as black and white atlas or the color atlas in zip format, unzip to get the .pdf file.
Star Atlas in Galactic Perspective – This is an extract from a 1972 Star Atlas by R.S. Fritzius. These star positions were plotted with the naked eye and the accuracy is +/- 2 degrees.
Messier Catalog - If you have a small telescope and want to try to find some Messier objects then this is great for you. It doesn't have all the clutter of the NGC objects, it's in color and pretty easy to follow. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't display the Right Ascension and the Declination which is helpful if you have and Equatorial Mounted telescope. I can tell you that the upper left corner is 24h and 90Dec, the hours decrease by one hour per line going right, and the DEC decreases by 10 per line going down. I have saved this map and put the numbers in myself but it's a little cluttered that way so it may just be better to just know where it is than to have it marked. If you feel the need to do it on your own map then by all means go ahead.
This should get you off on the right foot to start exploring the night sky and it's wonders. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask in the comments, twitter, or e-mail. I will respond as soon as I possibly can to get you started.
Comments