mapping software

[Jai]

Hi, i am looking for 

1. software that can be used to map stars onto land. i have seen book where the author was able to map the Orion stars onto physical places in four corners area. i want to be able to do a thing like that. thanks.

2. software that can show me the night sky about 30,000 years back with accuracy. thanks.

[Kabi]

Hello Jai

Not sure about number 2, but your first question is easily answered. 

You can think of the stars as being on a sphere around our planet. Every star has a position in degrees: Declination (~Latitude) and right ascension (~Longitude). So, it is exactly the same problem as you would have mapping two houses/countries onto a flat map. 

One free software that can deal with geographic information is called QGIS It might be overkill for what you want to achieve though.  

[Cornelius Varley]

Most planetarium programmes will allow you set a particular date in time https://www.ap-i.net/skychart/en/start

[michael8554]

Hello Jai

I don't know of a bespoke package that will do this.

You could do it with any photo software that has Layers.

Load your map image as the top layer, with transparency at 50%.

As Peter says to get your 30,000 year old Orion, then screen grab or save image.

Put your Orion image on a lower layer, and adjust rotation and image size until it fits your landmarks, maybe making negative will make it clearer.

Michael