[Mountain_Wanderer]

G'day,

I'm a beginner and am getting pretty confused about which way up I need to read star maps, maps of constellations etc. I bought a set of star maps (by Wil Tirion) which are great and market themselves as having a southern orientation, which I gather means that they are printed the correct way up if you are viewing from the southern hemisphere.

So I've had a look at the star map sheet containing the southern cross (Crux constellation) which is best viewed facing south. The confusing thing is that, from my point of view, the map sheet is actually upside down! I actually need to turn it upside down to see it all make sense, but at the expense of having to read all the star labels upside down. However, if viewing objects facing north, the star maps are the "correct" way up as I see them from the southern hemisphere and the labels on the star maps are also the correct way up to read.

I also manage to have a constellation atlas written by a northern hemisphere author, and everything is in reverse. Crux is actually printed in the book up the correct way as I'd see it, and all the constellations viewable from the northern hemisphere facing north are actually printed upside down in the book. What the?

Confusing! And I know there must be a sensible explanation for this out there which I can't seem to make sense of. Perhaps someone could offer some wisdom?

The key reason for my question is this... Wil Tirions star maps include a CD that contains all the maps in electronic format, a set each from a southern orientation and a northern orientation. So in theory you can also print off the same maps rather with a northern orientation.

To make the sky more understandable for a beginner like myself, would it be better to split the set of star sheets into 2 halves and print the map sheets facing north using the southern oriented version, and print the map sheets facing south using the northern oriented version. In theory this means that, from a southern hemisphere orientation, you could face north or face south and see the stars correspond exactly to what is on the star map, and have all the star labels the right way up so as to be readable?

Just a question. Hope one can provide answers to this mystery...

cheers

Jowel.