DIY Star Map

[LAW]

Hey all, I've only had my scope for a few months but I'm loving every minute. :thumbsup: Suzy's lists have been invaluable and all the suggestions from other people too, so thanks everyone! :thumbsup:

Rather than blind myself everytime I check Stellarium or Distant Suns to find my next target I decided to print out some star maps. So to help out some other newbies like myself, here's how I made my own...

Find what you're looking for in Stellarium (or whichever program you like).

http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww351/NSWRATS/ngc6302black.png

Take a screenshot, 'paste' it into Paint, Right-click and select "Invert Colour"

http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww351/NSWRATS/NGC6302invert.png

One custom Star Map ready for printing :thumbsup:

http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww351/NSWRATS/NGC6302.png

I've made some for specific targets and a few which show a whole area.

http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww351/NSWRATS/scorpiusregion.png

It's made it so much easier for me to find things now and I don't find myself getting confused and running out of things to look at.
Good nights everyone! :D

[stardust steve]

great idea:thumbsup:
Looks cool too in the inverted colour.
Great to print out and sleeve into one of those clear plastic binders.
Then plaster astro stickers all over the front cover :)

[silv]

hey!! going to steal this, immediately! thanks for sharing :thumbsup:

[mithrandir]

You could download Taki's maps from here (http://www.geocities.jp/toshimi_taki/). The are in PDF format for A4 paper.

"Taki's Star Atlas" goes down to mag 6.5, has more than 500 DSOs and is 12 charts.
"Taki's 8.5 Magnitude Star Atlas" goes down to mag 8.5, has over 2900 DSOs and is about 150 charts.

The only drawback is you won't have solar system objects.

[LAW]

That's cool, I like his planesphere design.


Me too! He must be a top bloke :rofl:

I've bookmarked his site, there's a lot of fascinating reading on there.

[ZeroID]

He's a very clever guy for sure. I hae printed out his star maps, filled a folder up.
The Stellarium invert idea is good, at least then you can write your own notes on them and quite often the give you a better idea of any nebula dust spread by making the faint colours more apparent.

[bojan]

You should also try CdC (Cartes du Ciel) - it is possible to control what needs to be printed (on laser or inkjet printer), and native format is inverted (black or coloured circles for stars on white background).
Whenever I go for some less specific observing, I print maps as needed..

[MattT]

If you get SkySafari pro on iPhone,iPod or iPad you get everything you'll ever need. I started on star charts though.... sort of 'The Knowledge' of the night sky. Whatever works!
Matt