How to use an astro map?

[Jabba (Keenan)]

Hi,

I am new to all of this and I have been reading a book called "The Southern Sky Guide", it has some real good tips and advice on how to use binos/tele and any other astro tools for beginners...

Ive been reading up about the maps of the sky and what to look for at certain times of the year etc..., and as like any normal map it has North/East/South/West directions...

My question is, because the sky isnt under our feet like Earth, are astro maps read the opposite way? (South facing up, North facing down, East to the left and West to the right)

I admit im pretty confused and its probably a simple thing...
Could someone give me a simple run down on this please :

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

ive always been confused by them but the thing i think you have to have a crack at is to orientate the map and understand which way its pointing. aka, find your bright stars. at the moment you have

Archnar
Deneb
Rigel kenturas
Hadar
Acrux

and prolly a few others (i usually use a planetarium program as i pick obscure stars to align my goto mount)

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Sky maps are usually drawn left-right inverted

N
E W
S

so you hold them overhead and rotated to match the direction you are facing

There should be markings to tell you which side is which. Depending on whether they are intended for northern or southern observers, you might find the writing upside down.

[Jabba (Keenan)]

hmmmmmm... I might just stick to no maps for now

[lacad01 (Adam)]

As Brendan mentions try to find some of the bright stars or even easy to find asterisms like Crux, Scorpius (depending on your location, time, etc) and work it out from there. Or if you have access to a laptop, load up Stellarium configured with your location, time, etc, take it outside and take it from there.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Jabba

hmmmmmm... I might just stick to no maps for now

Nah... easy. Just look at the map as you would normally read a book. If you're facing south, make sure the bottom of your map says south, if you're facing west rotate the map 90 degrees clockwise so the bottom of your map now should say west and the left of your map south coz it's now on your left side. If you start holding anything up above your head I give you 10min before you start getting sore arms, a twisted neck and really pi***d. cool?

[Wavytone]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned using a planisphere.... pick a simple, bright constellation like Crux, find that on the planisphere, and hold it up against the sky if need be.

Once you can find other constellations from the planisphere, graduate to a star atlas.