John's a happy bunny (pics)

[johnfosteruk]

After spending a long time weighing up the options for an atlas, I've looked at S&T pocket, Uranomatria etc and decided they weren't for me. I wanted a paper solution as digital solutions involve too much mucking about when observing so after seeing a few posts on SGL I decided to go semi DIY.

So I downloaded Deep Sky Hunter tweaked it for A4 and had it printed and spiral bound by Doxzoo. I also went for an A3 copy for the desk/coffee table for planning and general astronomy porn purposes

It's arrived this morning, I chose Doxzoo because the price was great and it turns out their service is exceptional. I ordered Thursday for next day production and it was printed and dispatched Friday, delivered today. Had I ordered before noon on Thursday I could have had it Friday for £2 more.

They're both on 160gsm, I had a few tabs put in to separate the charts/lists/DSO images on the A4 for ease when observing and acetate covers for a little bit of protection. I didn't bother with lamination - don't see the point at the price - It will be treasured but if needs be.... It was only £32 for the lot inc delivery.

Also for the A3 I inverted B&W because I like it. I just exported the PDF pages to TIFFs and ran a Photoshop action to invert and save, then recombined to a PDF again. I did adjust the white point a little just to make sure for the printing and I'm very happy with the results.

The only downside is I didn't account for the binding and the holes for the spirals are interfering with the edge of the field, but the charts overlap so that's just a cosmetic gripe and it's my own silly fault.

Now to print and laminate some guides to replicate the field of view at the eyepiece. Oh, and find some clear skies and darkness so I can use the blighter!

Pics.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Looks really good!

[LukeSkywatcher]

That looks top notch and uuber detailed.

[johnfosteruk]

Just now, LukeSkywatcher said:

That looks top notch and uuber detailed.

Far too detailed for anything I'm ever going to need with UK skies, even with gear upgrades I suspect but it's nice to know I've got everything I'll ever need. And it's going to provide endless opportunities to learn the sky and just generally drool over what I could be seeing with more time, clearer skies etc

[Tzitzis]

Wow I envy you... I really do. 

Only dream for me now is getting my degree (no, not that part of the dream) and gather some money to get a decent scope and maybe an atlas so I can at least plan and make catalogues and stuff. I really love planning my night and it's such a joy to track down elussive objects, however dim or bright they are.

[MarsG76]

That's very cool...

[spaceboy]

Looks great although I'd get a bit lost looking for something amongst that lot in the Virgo cluster  

[johnfosteruk]

I thought that, but DSH has me covered with some full page area of interest blowups, including:

Plus I'm thinking of making up a book of narrower field charts like this of my own from CDC 

[John]

That looks a really useful deep, deep star atlas !

Most of the time I find that the S&T Pocket one is enough but I wen't a bit crazy a little while back and got a copy of the Uranometria All Sky Edition and Instellarum Deep Sky Guide which go much deeper but yours looks just as good and for less £'s as well

[Putaendo Patrick]

I had something like yours a few years back...

Seriously, congratulations on one of the best star atlases currently available!

[johnfosteruk]

3 minutes ago, Putaendo Patrick said:

I had something like yours a few years back...

Seriously, congratulations on one of the best star atlases currently available!

The kids have got loads, why on earth did I bother with this when I could have just stolen theirs?

[LukeSkywatcher]

9 hours ago, johnfosteruk said:

Far too detailed for anything I'm ever going to need with UK skies, even with gear upgrades I suspect but it's nice to know I've got everything I'll ever need. And it's going to provide endless opportunities to learn the sky and just generally drool over what I could be seeing with more time, clearer skies etc

Likewise. I dont think id even start to be able to understand it.