Star Map on acrylic sheet ? .....Just a thought !

[gazza63]

I was thinking of drawing a star map onto clear acrylic sheet (silly as it may sound). That way all I need to do, is hold it up against the sky for reference.

What are you're thoughts? (I hesitate to think).

[rowan46]

just a thought but would you not need a light to see it. If you shone a light on it would that not reflect off the acrylic completely blocking out the view of the stars behind it hence making the need for acrylic redundant? To be fair it would at least be waterproof and lighter than laminated paper

[gazza63]

What if a red luminous ink was used?

[rowan46]

is there such a thing? sorry I assumed you were printing them off a computer. But if you are hand drawing at least it gives you something to do whilst waiting for the nights to draw in

[acey]

Try it and see how you get on. Bear in mind that for it to accurately reproduce the whole sky you're seeing it will need to be a hemisphere with your eye at the centre, or an appropriate projection (which you'll have to hold at exactly the right position and orientation). And as has been said, it will need illumination. Certainly possible, but it would be lot easier to just use a regular map.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Easy thing is to buy a planisphere.

[acey]

Or make an astrolabe.

http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/way-stars-build-your-own-astrolabe

[mallorcasaint]

Or get an app for your phone/tablet.

[bingevader]

What if a red luminous ink was used?

Luminous paint?!

Cheers

[Baselessum]

I ve had a thought why couldn't someone (think I might patent it) make a finder scope with a projected planisphere able to be aligned to the polar star and follow the alignment with some GPS set up.?? Maybe just maybe LOL

[Stu]

You mean one of these? ;-)

http://www.celestron.com/astronomy/celestron-skyscout-personal-planetarium.html

Don't think they really took off very well, but an interesting idea.

Stu

[Baselessum]

Yeah I wondered where I had seen one of those before LOL

[ollypenrice]

You need to think about the scale. This will depend on the distance from your eye as you hold the sheet. Hold it close to your eye and you'll get a reasonable amount of sky on the sheet but you won't be able to focus on both sheet and sky. Hold it further away and all you will be able to fit on is a small patch of sky, so you'd need an enormous sheet or lots of small ones, lots as in dozens! I don't think the idea is a goer for other reasons as well but scale is the killer, I'd say.

Then I'd say 'Planisphere,' as above...

Olly