Quote:
Originally Posted by Jowel
G'day. Yeah I downloaded Rob's charts. Very nice 
I also have Stellarium but I actually want to stay away from computers. Charts are nice to use in the field.
What I want to do it have set of star charts that show the sky exactly as I'd see it, like what Stellarium does. |
The charts are all the same whether north, south, east or west since the stars will remain fixed for the current epoch. The only thing that a printed chart cannot not offer you that a computer can is the abilitry to rotate the labels to match the orientation of your head as you view the sky. eg. facing north Leo the Lion is 'upsidedown' but you as a southern hemisphere observer want the labels at least to be rightside up. If you were to face south and tilt your head over your shoulders you would see Leo rightside up and you would want the labels to be the same. another eg. is Orion. When it rises in the east it is upside down, north to the lower left for southern hemisphere observers. When it sets in the west it is rightside up with north on the lower right. For northern hemisphere observers it is the opposite but which charts does either observer use since both are correct (as far as lables go) at some point just depending on how you look at them.
Note too that Crux is circumpolar for southern Australia and is down low and upside down in the evening in summer and up high and rightside up in the evening in winter and the reverse is ture for the pre dawn hours. A printed chart cannot rotate its labes to match Crux as it circles the SCP.
It's all a question of orientation and how easily you can remove the horizon as your main reference point from your mind. Same thing happens when viewing through a telescope. eg. When viewing Saturn for the first time I've had many people say to me that it's on it's side and I say tilt your head and it wont be. It just happens to be on it's side because of the geometry of the planets position in the sky, the horizon, the observers position when viewing, the position of the eyepiece with respect to the horizon. ie. many factors affect the view.
I prefer charts and don't use computers at the telescope either as I find the screens too bright even in 'red' mode.
Keep at it and you will eventually be able to read star charts from any angle and that includes road maps when driving.