Printable star maps for outreach?

[DaveS]

Embeddable too.

I normally use Stellarium for star maps, but I'm trying to put together activities for our villages so that people can see / gauge the darkness of our sky.

The CPRE has a regular star-count (Not running this year due to the possible election) but I was thinking of others that could run almost as an informal competition depending on time of year. They have to be easy for non-astronomers to understand / take part in.

The ones that come to mind are:

How many stars can you see in the Square of Pegasus? The square should be easily found when people know what to look for.

How many of the stars in and around Ursa Minor (I will call it the Little Bear in the flyers) can you see?

Can you see the Great Globular in Hercules? A real test but I think doable for young eyes on a dark transparent night.

Can you see the Triangulum Galaxy? Another real test, but I have seen it with my rubbish vision.

Others like seeing the Andromeda Galaxy or Praesepe are too easy from here. Any night when you can't see these is too poor for astronomy.

So....any other ideas? Are my suggestions too difficult? And to the crux (No, that's a southern asterism lol) of the post...

Ideas for maps that I can download / print / embed? I know about screen grabs from Stellarium but not sure how well they will print or embed.

Sorry for the long-winded post, and thanks in advance.

[Cornelius Varley]

Cartes du ciel can produce printable star charts. 

https://www.ap-i.net/skychart/en/download

[DaveS]

Ah, thanks Peter. I have Cartes du Ciel on my outboard computers but not the office one.

[Cornelius Varley]

Typical map output from CdC

CdC.pdf

[DaveS]

OK, so that's the star charts taken care of, does anyone have thoughts about the outreach activities?

[Xilman]

Counting Pleiades? Test of acuity as well as sensitivity.

[DaveS]

Yep, forgotten about that one, should separate the men from the boys (Women and girls too!!) lol, the boys and girls will be able to see more haha.

Back in the day when Acton had Bortle 5 skies I could count maybe 10-12 stars, now I have Bortle 3 skies I barely make it to 7, on a good night.

Edited February 19 by DaveS