Learning the Southern Sky

[mburkhar]

I will be moving from Pennsylvania in the Northern Hemisphere to Carletonville, South Africa in the Southern Hemisphere. I am looking for Free Guides to learning the Southern Hemisphere Night Sky and Constellations. Computerized Software, Videos, Hands-on, or E-books / PDF.

Mark Burkhardt

[jjjnettie]

Welcome to IIS Mark.
I'm really glad you've joined. You'll find a wealth of information and advice here.
How much experience do you have? Do you have a scope?

[mburkhar]

I have been studying Astronomy since I was 5 yrs old, 42 years. I used to have an old C8. I will be buying either 20 x 90 or 25 x 100 binoculars that are threaded for filters. I will living at ~8000' above sea level with Pitch black skies 10 minutes out of town.

[mithrandir]

A few candidates.

Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/

Carte du Ciel http://sourceforge.net/projects/skychart/files/

C2A http://www.astrosurf.com/c2a/english/index.htm

Hallo Northern Sky http://www.hnsky.org/software.htm

Taki's mag 6.5 and 8.5 maps http://www.geocities.jp/toshimi_taki/index.htm

The Mag-7 Star Atlas Project http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1052

Deep Sky Explorer's Atlas http://www.psychohistorian.org/astronomy/deep_sky_observing/deep_sky_explorer_atlas.php

[mburkhar]

I have The SkyX Pro, The Sky6 Pro, Starry Nights Pro Plus. All my Coordinates are set for Carletonville.

[[1ponders]]

:welcome: Mark.

I'm sure we have a few other SA members here. Hopefully they will see your thread and connect with you.

I use The Sky 6 and Starry Night Pro and they take care of most of my needs. Of course there is always Cartes as already mentioned. While its not free and there are more detailed atlases out there, Will Tirions The Southern Sky Guide is popular. Probably because the names are up the right way for a change. ;)

[Octane]

Starry Night Pro Plus 6 user here, too. It's the bomb.

You might want to try downloading the maps from www.skymaps.com for free Southern hemisphere, month-by-month fun times.

H

[jjjnettie]

You get a Southern Hemisphere perspective in Australian Sky and Telescope.
A subscription would be worth while.

[jjjnettie]

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/plot/world.php

Here is our members map, this should help you track down others in your region. Run a courser over the dots and the members name will come up.

LOL some people though have made mistakes plugging in their coordinates and have ended up in the middle of the ocean.