These sky maps were made using the freeware UNIX program "starchart", from Alan Paeth and Craig Counterman, with some postprocessing by Stuart Levy. You’re free to use them however you wish.
There are five equatorial maps: three covering the equatorial strip from declination −60 to +60 degrees, corresponding roughly to the evening sky in northern winter (eq1), spring (eq2), and summer/autumn (eq3), plus maps covering the north and south polar areas to declination about +/− 25 degrees.
Grid lines are drawn at every 15 degrees of declination, and every hour (= 15 degrees at the equator) of right ascension.
The equatorial−strip maps use a simple rectangular projection; this shows constellations near the equator with their true shape, but those at declination +/− 30 degrees are stretched horizontally by about 15%, and those at the extreme 60−degree edge are plotted twice as wide as you’ll see them on the sky. The sinusoidal curve spanning the equatorial strip is, of course, the Ecliptic −− the path of the Sun (and approximately that of the planets) through the sky.
The polar maps are plotted with stereographic projection. This preserves shapes of small constellations, but enlarges them as they get farther from the pole; at declination 45 degrees they’re about 17% oversized, and at the extreme 25−degree edge about 40% too large.
These charts plot stars down to magnitude 5, along with a few of the brighter deep−sky objects −− mostly star clusters and nebulae. Many stars are labelled with their Bayer Greek−letter names.
Also here are similarly−plotted maps, based on galactic coordinates. The midline of the strip maps is the plane of our Milky Way galaxy.
Unlike the ecliptic, which matters only within our solar system, the Milky Way plane would be important to observers on any of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. It’s also important to Earth−based observers, as the Milky Way’s structure determines where in the sky we can find various types of deep−sky objects: for example, open star clusters, and "planetary" and gaseous nebulae are concentrated toward the galactic plane; globular star clusters appear all over the sky, with more of them toward the galactic center; and Milky Way dust, concentrated in the galactic plane, obscures distant objects in and beyond the plane, so most external galaxies appear well above or below the Milky Way plane.
If you have any questions about the maps, or would like the tools I used so you can make others of your own, contact me: Stuart Levy, [email protected] January, 2002 Pollux
LYNX M44
M67CANCER
URSA MAJOR M81/82
RegulusLEO LEO MINOR
SEXTANS URSA MINOR M66/65 M94 M101 M51
CANES VENATICI M64 M87
Arcturus M104 CORVUS M92 CORONA BOREALIS HERCULES BOOTES M13 Spica
VIRGO M5 M83
SERPENS CAPUT
LIBRA OPHIUCHUS
Galactic North ( 0h,+90d lim: 5.0)
0 1 2 3 4 5
double variable Planet Asteroid Comet Cluster Globular Open Nebula Planetary Diffuse Galaxy Elliptical Spiral Unknown Other Quasar +60d
+55d
Spica M104 CORONA BOREALIS +50d M5 CORVUS +45d VIRGO M13 +40d HERCULES M92 SERPENS CAPUT CRATER +35d DRACO M83 +30d
+25d LIBRA OPHIUCHUS Vega +20d
Antares +15d M57 +10d CENTAURUS LYRA LUPUS VELA SERPENS CAUDA +05d Deneb Becrux Agena M20 CRUX 00d M17 M8 M6 Rigel Kentaurus SAGITTA M11 CYGNUS M27 M7 NORMA -05d SCUTUM M22 Altair VULPECULA SCORPIUS CIRCINUS -10d MUSCA TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE CARINA -15d AQUILA ARA CHAMAELEON -20d DELPHINUS VOLANS CORONA AUSTRALISTELESCOPIUM APUS OCTANS -25d M15 SAGITTARIUS EQUULEUS MENSA -30d
M2 PAVO -35d HYDRUS PEGASUS -40d MICROSCOPIUM RETICULUM CAPRICORNUS INDUS -45d
TUCANA HOROLOGIUM-50d -55d GRUS ERIDANUS Achernar -60d 75 60 45 30 15 0 345 330 315 300 285
Summer - Galactic Center: 0h, 00d lim: 5.0 M101 +60d
+55d
CORONA BOREALIS +50d URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR +45d
M81/82 M13 +40d HERCULES LYNX M92 +35d M44 DRACO +30d
+25d Pollux
Vega +20d +15d M57 +10d GEMINI LYRA Capella +05d M37 CAMELOPARDALIS M35AURIGA CEPHEUS Deneb M36M38 M52 00d DblClust SAGITTA CYGNUS M27 -05d
Betelgeuse VULPECULA Altair -10d
CASSIOPEIA M34 -15d
LACERTA Aldebaran PERSEUS ANDROMEDA -20d M31 DELPHINUS Pleiades -25d M15 -30d TRIANGULUM M33 EQUULEUS TAURUS M2 -35d PEGASUS -40d ARIES -45d
-50d M77 -55d
PISCES -60d 195 180 165 150 135 120 105 90 75 60 45
Autumn - Cassiopeia, ...: 8h, 00d lim: 5.0 +60d
+55d
Spica M104 +50d Regulus CORVUS URSA MAJOR LEO +45d VIRGO +40d SEXTANS LYNX CRATER +35d M83 M67 M44 CANCER +30d +25d Pollux
HYDRA +20d
ANTLIA CANIS MINOR +15d Procyon +10d CENTAURUS PYXIS GEMINI LUPUS VELA Capella +05d Becrux M47 M37 M35AURIGA Agena M36M38 Rigel KentaurusCRUX 00d MONOCEROS -05d
CIRCINUS Sirius Betelgeuse M41 -10d MUSCA Adara CANIS MAJOR TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE CARINA -15d
CHAMAELEON PUPPIS M42 ORION Aldebaran PERSEUS-20d VOLANS APUS OCTANS Pleiades Rigel -25d Canopus LEPUS COLUMBA PICTOR MENSA -30d
DORADO PAVO TAURUS -35d HYDRUS CAELUM -40d RETICULUM ARIES -45d
TUCANA HOROLOGIUM -50d M77 -55d ERIDANUS Achernar -60d 315 300 285 270 255 240 225 210 195 180 165
Winter - Southern Hemisphere: 16h, 00d lim: 5.0 CORONA AUSTRALIS TELESCOPIUM SAGITTARIUS
MICROSCOPIUM APUS
CAPRICORNUS INDUS PAVO DELPHINUS
EQUULEUS OCTANS M2 GRUS M15 HYDRUS TUCANA Fomalhaut MENSA AQUARIUSPISCIS AUSTRINUS VOLANS
PHOENIX Achernar PEGASUS RETICULUM ERIDANUSHOROLOGIUM SCULPTOR DORADO
PICTOR Canopus FORNAX PISCES CETUS CAELUM
COLUMBA
ANDROMEDA M77 M31 M33 LEPUS ARIES
TRIANGULUM
TAURUS Rigel ORION
Pleiades PERSEUS
Aldebaran
Galactic South ( 0h,-90d lim: 5.0)
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5
double variable Planet Asteroid Comet Cluster Globular Open Nebula Planetary Diffuse Galaxy Elliptical Spiral Unknown Other Quasar