Star Atlases

[keora]

I've got Sky Safari on a large iPad, which is very good, but awkward to hold when using a telescope. I'm considering buying a small spiral bound star atlas (aimed more at beginners) to help navigate the sky when looking through a telescope. Could members make any suggestions please?

 

(equipment - 10 x 32 Canon image stabilising binocs, Celestron Explorascope 114 AZ Newtonian)

[Stu]

I was going to suggest Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas which is very good, but it looks like it might be out of print. It seems to be going for crazy prices on Amazon, it’s certainly not worth £104!!

Turn Left at Orion is a good beginners book but not small.

Hopefully others will make some alternative suggestions.

[callisto]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

I was going to suggest Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas which is very good, but it looks like it might be out of print. It seems to be going for crazy prices on Amazon, it’s certainly not worth £104!!

Turn Left at Orion is a good beginners book but not small.

Hopefully others will make some alternative suggestions.

What! 😲

[Orange Smartie]

My "go to" is the Cambridge Star Atlas, which although not really that small, at about 24cm x 30cm, is spiral bound and gives a good overview of the constellation you're looking at. Stars down to mag 6 are included - sometimes I need a bit more detail than is available and defer to the Interstellarium Deep Sky Atlas, which is definitely NOT small (or cheap).

The Cambridge atlas lists the major astronomical features on the page with the RA and Dec, so if you're trying to find an interesting target within a constellation, it gives you the best (or easiest) things you might want to look at. I've used it loads now.

Pete

[Andy ES]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Turn Left at Orion is a good beginners book but not small.

Agreed it’s a wonderful book but I find it pretty unwieldy to use, shouldn’t moan really though. 😁

[pjsmith_6198]

The  Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas is $24.95 at shopatsky.com here https://shopatsky.com/products/pocket-sky-atlas-second-edition     I searched amazon and a 30-Mar-2006 version of  the  PSA popped up for only $136.94.   Pretty amazing

 

Phil

 

[pjsmith_6198]

I would recommend the PSA.   It's small , inexpensive and convenient.  The stars go down to mag 7 and pretty much matches what I see through my finder scope.    I use a piece of clear plastic with a circle the size  of my finder field of view.   Makes star hopping easy.

 

Phil

[Stu]

1 hour ago, pjsmith_6198 said:

The  Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas is $24.95 at shopatsky.com here https://shopatsky.com/products/pocket-sky-atlas-second-edition     I searched amazon and a 30-Mar-2006 version of  the  PSA popped up for only $136.94.   Pretty amazing

 

Phil

 

Thanks very much. I looked for it there but ended up in a dead link.

Shame it’s apparently not available in Europe.

[Franklin]

About time Sky and Telescope reprinted The Pocket Sky Atlas and the jumbo version and offered it at a reasonable price. It's a great publication and there's nothing else like it on the market. I think I paid £15 for mine. The reason it's being touted at silly prices is because it's out of print and maybe S&T are reluctant to reprint because of fears that it will not sell. Those fears being escalated by the popularity of planetarium software on handheld devices. I appreciate and use software but I also appreciate and use paper atlases and PSA is the best for use in the field. I think a new edition would sell like hotcakes, especially if they added a nice map of the Moon at the back.

The Peterson Field Guide to Stars and Planets by J M Pasachoff is another great field book which contains an atlas by Wil Tirion and it is a very detailed atlas as well, although quite small, as it's a pocket sized book. Still, if you've got decent eyesight it's a fantastic field guide and can be had from the usual auction site for little more than the cost of postage. Some of the book is time sensitive and out of date but there is a basic lunar map and loads of other valuable information, lists of interesting objects etc.

[Nyctimene]

5 hours ago, Stu said:

Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas which is very good, but it looks like it might be out of print

You'll just need some patience - delivery (according to manufacturer) will be June 1st, 2022, as stated by Teleskop-Express, a renowned German retailer; have a look:

teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p193_Kompakte-Version-des-Sky-Atlas-2000---bis-7-6mag.html

Stephan

Edited January 6, 2022 by Nyctimene

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, Nyctimene said:

You'll just need some patience - delivery (according to manufacturer) will be June 1st, 2022, as stated by Teleskop-Express, a renowned German retailer; have a look:

teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p193_Kompakte-Version-des-Sky-Atlas-2000---bis-7-6mag.html

Stephan

Thanks Stephan. Good that it is still available, it’s a very good atlas and a good size/format.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Maybe a bit late to the party, however I keep this in my 10x50 binocular bag:

 

Not bad for a fiver.

[Xgaze]

'Phillips Pocket Star Atlas' second hand from around £2 £7 !!

Never had any trouble with used books on Ebay, saves them going to landfill and saves you money!

Philip's Pocket Star Atlas by Maps, Philip's Book The Cheap Fast Free Post 9781849072397 | eBay

I don't own one but am tempted by this!

 

 

[Franklin]

39 minutes ago, Xgaze said:

'Phillips Pocket Star Atlas

I had a look at that and I would say it's ok for naked eye/binocular stargazing, but a bit too basic for telescopic viewing IMO. Small and handy though.

[Franklin]

Stars and Planets is about 7"x 5" and is loaded with info, Tirion's charts are superb down to Mag7, I paid £3.50 for my copy.

 

[Gfamily]

If you can't get the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas, you might want to consider the Cambridge Atlas of Herschel Objects, which seems to be available second hand for more reasonable prices.

 

[keora]

Thanks to all of you for the advice, I'll get searching on the net for the books.

Turn Left at Orion was one of the books recommended. I bought a copy a year ago and was very disappointed with it. I found only a few of the objects in the book, even though I ignored the ones which were categorised as faint. I posted a question about this on the site, and I got some useful comments. I think my problem was viewing from a Bortle eight site, no experience of star hopping, and a basic beginners telescope. But I have improved since then.

[Nicola Fletcher]

15 hours ago, Stu said:

I was going to suggest Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas which is very good, but it looks like it might be out of print.

I got a copy of the Pocket Sky Atlas directly from Sky and Telescope (https://shopatsky.com/products/pocket-sky-atlas-second-edition). It arrived about a week ago - delivery was reasonably fast. Including postage and customs it cost about €45 which I think is worth it for such a great little atlas!

[Tangoringo]

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31069790512&searchurl=kn%3Dsky%2B%26%2Btelescope%2Bpocket%2Bsky%2Batlas%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title9

There ya go £294.... baragin.

Apparently they do a jumbo edition which is a bit bizarre for a pocket atlas but hey ho. :-))

[Davesellars]

I'd suggest instead using a music stand to pop your iPad on so you can still use Sky Safari.  I have both paper atlases and Sky Safari however outside at the scope I only use Sky Safari which functionally imho is streets ahead for finding objects.

Edited January 7, 2022 by Davesellars

[rwilkey]

Like Pete above, in the absence of S & T pocket atlas, my go-to is also the Cambridge Star Atlas, thoroughly recommended!

[westmarch]

Like @Davesellars I use Sky Safari Pro on an ipad mounted on a music stand.  Up to date, easy to invert and/or mirror the map and no worse for your dark adapted vision than shining a red torch on a white page.

I have a copy of the Pocket Sky Atlas from Sky and Telescope that I don’t use.  If you pm me, you can have it.  I probably don’t live all that far from you.

John

[keora]

Thank you everyone for the advice and suggestions. I think the sky & telescope charts may be too advanced for me. I like the suggestions for using a music stand to hold an iPad with Sky Safari. I’ve got a lightweight artist’s easel which I can use to hold the iPad. I’d never thought of doing that.

Edited January 7, 2022 by keora

[chaxastro]

On 06/01/2022 at 15:58, keora said:

"I'm considering buying a small spiral bound star atlas (aimed more at beginners) to help navigate the sky when looking through a telescope. Could members make any suggestions please?"

Amazing what you can find online if you poke around!

Take a look at these websites. You can download them for free:

Taki's Maps
http://takitoshimi.starfree.jp/

The Night Sky Maps - Freely Downloadable & Printable
https://www.olle-eriksson.com/night-sky-maps/index.html

The TriAtlas Project - Free Star Charts
https://allans-stuff.com/triatlas/

The first two are very easy on the eye, contain a lot of information, probably best to start with those two.

The third is a little more 'heavy going' but still useful.

Worth a look before buying anything!

Regards,

Chaxastro

"Humour is reason gone mad" Grouch Marx

[Spile]

21 hours ago, chaxastro said:

Amazing what you can find online if you poke around!

Take a look at these websites. You can download them for free:

Taki's Maps
http://takitoshimi.starfree.jp/

The Night Sky Maps - Freely Downloadable & Printable
https://www.olle-eriksson.com/night-sky-maps/index.html

The TriAtlas Project - Free Star Charts
https://allans-stuff.com/triatlas/

The first two are very easy on the eye, contain a lot of information, probably best to start with those two.

The third is a little more 'heavy going' but still useful.

Worth a look before buying anything!

Regards,

Chaxastro

"Humour is reason gone mad" Grouch Marx

Here is another http://www.deepskywatch.com/deepsky-atlas.html