Advanced Chart Reading

Advanced Chart Reading

Good Charts are a Must!

To work most efficiently you need two finders

Charts you will need

Paper charts use the convention of north up

Objects located with a lat/long type system

This is a sample of a typical star chart. This sample is extracted from the Pocket Sky Atlas published by Sky and Telescope

Uranometria uses a 3 chart system

Field of View Circles will make your life easier

Visual Mapping from Charts to the Sky

What it looks like in a Newtonian

Schmitt Cassegrain/ Refractor

Finding stuff without introduced rotation

Visual Summer Sky

Chart of General Area

Sky Likely Rotated From Chart

Rotate Chart to Match Sky

Roughly Locate in Sky

More Detailed View

Star Hop Example

Locate Auriga in the Sky

Locate Area Visually

Verify Location with Finder

Verify Location and Rotation

M37 View in Eyepiece

Hop to M36 & M38

If you are in a non-tracking scope finding west is easy

How to see stuff

Opportunity to practice what you learned

Example Visual Chart

Example Finder Chart

Example Eyepiece Chart

http://www.robhawley.net/mm/

Planetarium Programs

Paper Charts

More References