DIY Star Chart (planisphere)

There are 2 great sources if you wish to create yor own star chart.

DIY-planisphere-onlinetool

in Wikipedia:

A planisphere is a star chart in the form of two adjustable disks that rotate on a common pivot. It can be adjusted to display the visible stars for any time and date.

The disk and overlay are adjusted so that the observer’s local time of day on the overlay corresponds to that day’s date on the star chart disc. Users hold the planisphere above their head with the eastern and western horizons correctly aligned to match the chart to actual star positions.

One can printout the planisphere, and use hard paper or something else to make them a little stronger.

The final planispheres

First is the result using the planisphere tool, with latitude 60 degree and english language. The tool has another layout format too and that resembles more the Uncle Al’s layout. As the next step, I’ll print this out on bigger paper.

DIY-planisphere

The second is the Uncle Al’s starwheel.

DIY-planisphere-uncleal

Uncle Al’s site contains easy instructions for using it.

  • Set date and time of night by rotating the Star Wheel in the Star Holder until your desired time of night lines up with the desired date.
  • To find a constellation note which horizon it is closest to and orient the Star Holder so that horizon is near is at the bottom, making that part of the sky to look right-side up.
  • Constellations higher in the sky (closer to the zenith) are closer to the center of the map
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