Planisphere/sky chart

[allen g]

good day from california. Can anyone provide advice for an accurate, durable and readable planisphere. There are several on the market so how does one discern which to purchase. Your feedback is appreciated.

[todd8137]

go for the phiilips one mines 7 year old and still looks new and i use it a lot,and its got some stuff on the back of it that comes in handy

Philip's Planisphere: Northern 51.5 Degrees - British Isles, Northern Europe Northern USA and Canada Philip's Astronomy: Amazon.co.uk: VARIOUS: Books

[acey]

The Philips is very good, I use it - and I just saw one on Astroboot for £4. But that is the one for UK/ northern US latitude - an observer in California should use one suitable to that latitude, where more southerly objects are visible in the sky.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Planisphere-Latitude-32-North/dp/184907190X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323341079&sr=8-1

Apart from latitude, things to look for are durability (plastic is better than card - it's dewproof), size (too small and it will be hard to read), and magnitude limit (5 is about right, not too high or low). The Philips passes all these tests, though no doubt others do too.

[m.tweedy]

how about making your own and laminating it

Oto?ná mapka

[Nexus 6]

The Philips or any decent planisphere are great for a quick easy conformation on the major stars and constellations of the night sky, in the day of phone apps etc its good to see they are still a handy tool to use.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I searched high and low in Dublin for a Phillips and i finally had to order one in. It is now proudly pinned to my wall because it is the very same planisphere i started out with 30 yrs ago.

It is there as a homage to when and where my interest in astronomy started.

[Telrad]

This one is great! David Chandler's Planisphere:

First Light Optics - David Chandler Night Sky Planisphere

[acey]

I notice that the Chandler planisphere doesn't have hours of right ascension marked, whereas the Philips does (see pic below, from a retailer website). This aspect of the planisphere is in fact the one I use most. By setting it to the correct date and time I can immediately see the hour of right ascension (reading due south), and I can then quickly check which NGC objects will be best placed (since they are ordered by RA). For example, the pic shows 14 hours RA, and that corresponds to NGCs around 5300 to 5600. Not everybody would need this feature but it's something else worth looking for.

[Dellis]

I notice that the Chandler planisphere doesn't have hours of right ascension marked, whereas the Philips does (see pic below, from a retailer website). This aspect of the planisphere is in fact the one I use most. By setting it to the correct date and time I can immediately see the hour of right ascension (reading due south), and I can then quickly check which NGC objects will be best placed (since they are ordered by RA). For example, the pic shows 14 hours RA, and that corresponds to NGCs around 5300 to 5600. Not everybody would need this feature but it's something else worth looking for.

Simple but effective as all the best ideas are. Thanks for inadvertently passing on a very useful tip.

Dave

[allen g]

thanks for all this insightful information. Another issue I have been checking into is the latitude. In Southern California we are 34 degrees N. The Guide to the Stars planisphere indicates 30-60, The Night Sky 30-40 and Philips has one for 32 N. How much of an issue is this factor? The Philips is a tough to find in US as well but a Canadian place has it OutdoorGB.com

[AstroDee]

If you can get the phillips 32 N, that would be ideal for your latitude. I think as long as you are within 10 degrees of 32 N, it is very usable.

Andy.

[acey]

thanks for all this insightful information. Another issue I have been checking into is the latitude. In Southern California we are 34 degrees N. The Guide to the Stars planisphere indicates 30-60, The Night Sky 30-40 and Philips has one for 32 N. How much of an issue is this factor? The Philips is a tough to find in US as well but a Canadian place has it OutdoorGB.com

Ideally you would have a planisphere for your exact latitude, then a star on the southern "horizon" of your planisphere would be on or near your actual horizon. If the planisphere is for a latitude south of yours, then the southern horizon of the planisphere will show stars that never actually rise above your horizon: redundant information. If the planisphere is for a latitude north of yours, then it will miss out some stars that rise low in your sky.

In practice, you are unlikely to be interested in anything that rises no more than 5 or 10 degrees above your horizon, in which case getting a planisphere set for a latitude 5 or 10 degrees north of your actual latitude isn't going to make very much difference. But more than about 15 degrees is quite a difference: at latitude 34 you don't want one designed for 50. It sounds like the Night Sky 30-40 would suit you fine. I haven't seen the Guide To The Stars and wonder how it can claim to be suitable for 30-60; I assume it has horizons marked on the star map itself (i.e. circles of declination), in which case it would work too.

At 34 degrees north you can theoretically see stars down to declination -56 (i.e. 34-90): that's roughly where you want the southern limit of your planisphere to be. If you look at the pic I posted, above 2pm there's a line marked with degrees of declination: it goes down to -30 (though it's too small to be legible), running through Hydra and Centaurus. You want one going down to -50.

[allen g]

I thank you all for your information and analyses - great input.

[Mr Q]

For what it's worth, you can download one from "skymaps.com" and/or print it out. Each month is a new map and each comes with naked eye, binocular and telescopic objects listed. Lots of the more brighter objects are placed on each map. Though not durable unless you laminate each map, this is a cheap and quick way to get one minuets before you go out to observe. And they are free!