Sky map or star chart to print

[ManUtdFans (Alan)]

I am new but wonder is there a sky map or star chart can be used as reference and print that out for reference and post it on the wall.

I can download and print it out in eg A2/Poster size.

[Astro_Bot]

It depends what you want it for. There are large poster-sized star charts and also books of star charts available commercially.

There is one here that is optimised for SynScan alignment stars, but is also a handy general reference - it's A2 and downloadable/free.

Here's a quick (semi-random) selection of commercial reference material:
http://www.skymaps.com/store/cat10.html
http://www.allposters.com/-st/Astron...rs_c50424_.htm
http://www.astroshop.com.au/products...sp?id=MAS-002I
http://www.bintel.com.au/Accessories...oductview.aspx
http://www.bintel.com.au/Accessories...oductview.aspx

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Did you want the whole sky? Even at A2 it won't show much detail and will be seriously distorted towards the poles - just like a Mercator projection map of the Earth.

Two of the better free sets of free maps available come from Toshimi Taki and Jose Torrres.

Toshimi's Star Atlas (to mag 6.5) and his Mag 8.5 Star Atlas.
Jose's Tri-Atlas

You can print off just those pages which are of interest.

PS. I would have spelled Jose's name with the correct accent but IIS can't cope.

[ManUtdFans (Alan)]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

Did you want the whole sky? Even at A2 it won't show much detail and will be seriously distorted towards the poles - just like a Mercator projection map of the Earth...

I just want the part of sky from Australia can see.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by ManUtdFans

I just want the part of sky from Australia can see.

The problem you'll have is that from Sydney (say 33°S) you can (in theory) see everything south of declination +57°.

I'd suggest you download the mag 6.5 Taki maps and have a look at them to see if they are sufficient. They are only about 20MB in total. If you just get the 1S, 2S, 3S, 4S, 5S and 6S ones with names starting with "c_" that will give you everything up to declination +20°.

[JJDOBBER79 (Jas)]

google "eyes on the skys"