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Star Atlas


ZiHao

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10 hours ago, ZiHao said:

Hi all,

I found a website which includes a quite comprehensive star atlas. It is printable, and the link comes with detailed list of objects, images with select DSO as well. Very nice. Gonna print them out :)

http://www.deepskywatch.com/deep-sky-hunter-atlas.html

I was going to mention this one in my reply, but I forgot the name of it at the time. :iamwithstupid: 

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The Cambridge star atlas is a good cheap guide and source of general info has stars down to mag 6. I also have a german atlas with stars down to mag 9 that i got from Teleskop for around £30. Stellarium is obviously very good indoors, but what i would probably recommend now is Sky Safari 5 which is an app for a smart phone. Cost me less than £3 , has a red night vision feature and can help identify stars if your phone has a compass - still very useful even if your phone doesn't have a compass.

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I have this one and it's doing a fine job, the large book, easy to read.

PYtb6aW.jpg

Here is a section of 1 page, it's clear and filled with more DSO's in there then my telescope can handle. Of course many double stars included, some carbon stars are pointed to (with no mention it's a carbon but the star has a Greek identification.) For me this book is easily 9/10, it's accurate, It's my companion.

kl1hm2V.jpg?1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cambridge-Double-Star-Atlas-ebook/dp/B018MFKL1C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1513649172&sr=8-2&keywords=cambridge+double+star+atlas

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Hi all,

About the finder window card mentioned in the PDF file, Locating Objects in the Night Sky. 5 degrees of the FOV, is there a way to calculate the size of the circle in the black card in cm, so that I can cut it out and use it in a star map? Let's say a 6x30 finderscope. Maybe just use 30mm diameter, roughly?

Clear Skies

 

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It will depend on the scale of the star chart you're looking at. Also, your 6x30 may have 7 or 7.5 degrees field of view.

Very roughly, I took the image from the PDF and measured the distance between two nearby lines of declination (I'm assuming that's 10 degrees) - the finder card is roughly half that dimension, ie 5 degrees...

blob.png.0337652c3aae78931559098fbd8c0f5f.png

 

 

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But...according to the image in the PDF, Merak, the star on the line of 11 hour right ascension. So 11 hour to 12 hour, 1 hour right ascension is equal to 15 degrees ( 360 degrees / 24 hours = 15 degrees ) the 'distance' between 11h to 12h is 15 degrees. I think the field of view of the circle should be 7.5 degrees, not 5 degrees, as the circle covered half of the line ( 15 degrees / 2 = 7.5 degrees) IMO. I am completely stumped on this :( . The most accurate way is to use a finderscope with 5 degrees field of view point at the same area of the sky like the one in the PDF. Maybe I am totally wrong. 

Attached a photo of pocket sky atlas, the position of the stars and how close they are in degrees should be the same as the star atlas in the PDF.

25593081_1396848907107565_1992495123_o.jpg

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Hi ZiHao

Note that degrees FOV only makes sense for declination, not RA (except at the equator). If you think about it, you could place your 5 degree circle on the pole star and cover 360 degrees in RA. When plotting an atlas this is taken into account by modifying RA according to the sine of the declination (the actual coordination conversion is more complex than this but you get the picture).

cheers

Martin

 

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1 minute ago, Stu said:

This is why I love SkySafari so much.

Two circles, 5 and 7.5 degrees, plus exact measurement of the distance between the two stars.

 

It was seeing your posts using Sky Safari that prompted me to get it.  I now have it on my phone, iPad and Mac.  It's excellent :thumbright:

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1 hour ago, Martin Meredith said:

Note that degrees FOV only makes sense for declination, not RA (except at the equator)

The celestial equator, of course, not the Malaysian... ;-)

Stephan

...oops - just found out - Malaysia doesn't touch the equator (- had assumed this for Sarawak) - -- my mistake, sorry!

Stephan

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2 hours ago, ZiHao said:

But...according to the image in the PDF, Merak, the star on the line of 11 hour right ascension. So 11 hour to 12 hour, 1 hour right ascension is equal to 15 degrees ( 360 degrees / 24 hours = 15 degrees ) the 'distance' between 11h to 12h is 15 degrees.

No, you can't do the same measurement off RA on the star chart unless, as Martin points out, you're on or near the celestial equator. Use declination, it' should work out. In fact, check that yourself on a page showing the equator.

On 19/12/2017 at 10:35, furrysocks2 said:

... measured the distance between two nearby lines of declination ...

 

See below...just going on pixel scale, I get 195 pixels for 7.5 degrees (ignoring perspective and lens distortions). So measuring Merak to Dubhe at 140 pixels, I get approximately 5.4 degrees, or 5d23m (Stu gets 5d22m24s). Merak to Phecda, approx 8 degrees.

blob.png.0780c27cbc0a0d61318d2ee4d08e0bcb.png

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On ‎13‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 16:45, ZiHao said:

Hi all,

Any suggestion of getting a good star atlas?Thanks :)

Clear skies

 

Welcome from land down under

I plain old fashion planetsphere is alternate option, and purchase from most book shops

Just use a red torch when observing to read the planetsphere in the field

From auto shops can buy a product called lens paint, and was manufactured to restore faded tail lights or indicators on older cars

Just remove glass from torch, and use lens paint one side of the glass, and put torch back together with painted glass to the inside

Have done it and works well, and also  demonstrate planetsphere as part of Level 1 & 2 Scout Space Badge

Kids have to make one as part of their Space Badge

Cheers 

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On 19 December 2017 at 02:14, N3ptune said:

I have this one and it's doing a fine job, the large book, easy to read.

PYtb6aW.jpg

Here is a section of 1 page, it's clear and filled with more DSO's in there then my telescope can handle. Of course many double stars included, some carbon stars are pointed to (with no mention it's a carbon but the star has a Greek identification.) For me this book is easily 9/10, it's accurate, It's my companion.

kl1hm2V.jpg?1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cambridge-Double-Star-Atlas-ebook/dp/B018MFKL1C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1513649172&sr=8-2&keywords=cambridge+double+star+atlas

Have the DSA on order & just received PSA Jumbo Edition today. My astronomy book shelf is full!

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On 15/12/2017 at 05:23, Philip R said:

If you want a comprehensive star atlas, then there is Tri-Atlas (second edition) - https://www.uv.es/jrtorres/triatlas.html - and it is free!

It comes as a .PDF in three volumes and can fill one blank CD-ROM. (also available for Apple iPhone & iPad in the App Store).

Downloading the maps to my iPad as I type. Thanks! :) 

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On 20/12/2017 at 14:48, Stu said:

This is why I love SkySafari so much.

Two circles, 5 and 7.5 degrees, plus exact measurement of the distance between the two stars.

IMG_5327.PNG

Yep, me too Stu. Just downloaded the new Pro Version 6 to my iPad and iPhone a few days back. Love it! :) 

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I got a copy of Interstellarum for Christmas and so far I'm impressed.  It's an atlas of the whole sky so works well from anywhere on earth - anywhere in the solar system really if you're OK with the celestial poles changing.  It's white background like the Cambridge Double Star Atlas.  Shows stars with indication for double stars and variable, open/closed clusters, galaxies, quasars, galaxy groups and clusters, and nebula.  Nebula have different tints for emission, reflection, absorption.  The clusters, galaxies, and nebula are also coded in four stages of visibility for 4", 8", 12", > 12" scopes to give you an idea what you can reasonably try for.  

There have been some posts regarding some users being unsatisfied with the indexing Interstellarum uses, though, so if you are interested, you should probably google first.  

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On 12/30/2017 at 01:45, 25585 said:

6!?  Google Play only goes up to 5 Pro currently. Is there much difference?

According to their web site, 6 has been released to iOS with an OSX version to follow in about 2 months and Android about 2 months after that. They also explain what's new in 6.

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