Product Description

The Night Sky is a rotating star finder (planisphere) that allows the user to recognize the constellations for any time of night, any day of the year. The sky appears to rotate (due to the rotation and orbital motion of the earth), so to be successful recognizing the constellations a beginner needs to know which stars are above the horizon at any time.

This is the full-sized version of The Night Sky suitable for the 50°-60° latitude zone (Canada, Alaska, England, Northern Europe, etc.).There are versions for the following latitude zones: 50°-60°, 40°-50°, 30°-40°, 20°-30°, and the Southern Hemisphere. There are also pocket-sized versions available for the same latitude zones.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #318172 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-01
• Binding: Map
• 2 pages

Review
Chandler's planisphere is the finest available. -- Terence Dickinson, astronomy textbook author, in SkyNews Magazine --Terence Dickinson

I think The Night Sky is the finest and easiest to use star finding aid in existence. -- Jack Horkheimer, TV's Star Hustler --Jack Horkheimer

Most aficionados now prefer David Chandler's The Night Sky wheel. -- J.T. Westways Magazine --Westways Magazine

From the Publisher
The Night Sky comes in two sizes: Large (8 inch diameter) and Small (5 inch diameter). The large size is best for learning the constellations. The small size is best as a pocket reference to tell you what constellations are up if you are already reasonably familiar with the constellations. In each size the charts are available for different latitude zones.

To find the correct size and latitude zone, use the following ISBN numbers in your Amazon.com search:

The Night Sky 50°-60° (Large), 1891938088 (Small), 1891938096

The Night Sky 40°-50° (Large), 0961320745 (Small), 1891938010

The Night Sky 30°-40° (Large), 0961320753 (Small), 1891938029

The Night Sky 20°-30° (Large), 0961320761 (Small), 1891938037

The Night Sky Southern Hemisphere (Large), 0961320737 (Small), 1891938002

From the Author
Most planispheres attempt to represent the whole dome of the sky on one flat map, creating severe distortion near the outer edges of the map (the southern part of the sky). The Night Sky was specially designed to overcome this problem: two maps divide the sky into north-facing and south-facing views, which are shown on the front and back sides of the chart. When you turn around, simply turn the chart over. This design feature eliminates over 90% of the distortion found in conventional one-sided planispheres.

Other features of The Night Sky were designed with observers in mind:

--Dark stars on a white background make the map easier to read at night with a dim (or preferably red filtered) flashlight. (Under red light the dark blue of the chart becomes a velvety black.)

--The maps are computer-plotted for accuracy and show stars down to a consistent brightness cut-off. What you see on the chart is what is really there.

--The constellation figures emphasize simple patterns connecting the brightest stars, making the constellations easy to recognize and remember.

--The pocket version has fewer stars and omits some of the less conspicuous constellations to minimize clutter and maintain readability.

--The Night Sky comes in a protective vinyl pouch and the chart has plastic outer surfaces for dew resistance.

Customer Reviews

Must have
This is a durable and easy to use tool for identifying the night sky. Great for novices or seasoned pros. Easy to read with red light. I recommend the large version. Be sure to order the appropriate Latitude!!

A decent pocket-sized star map
This is quite a good star map, showing all the major constellations, the names of a few of the brightest stars and the locations of the Milky Way and ecliptic. There are also some extra dotted lines on it that I guess are to show larger structures that link constellations together, though oddly it does not show the very useful one of taking the last two stars of Ursa Major and extrapolating to the pole star (Polaris).

When I bought this I was mainly looking for a planisphere that fits in my pocket to help me recognise the constellations. This fulfills that need, though there are some ways it could be better. The two-sided projection of the sky to reduce distortion is a clever idea, but in the high latitude (50-60deg North) version I have, it means the back face only shows a small crescent of the low sky around the South direction. For high latitudes a conventional one-sided form might be better. Other planispheres sometimes have tables of the positions of the planets over several years on the back, which would have been a nice addition, whereas this one has no extended information at all, just instructions on how to use the planisphere.

The construction quality is OK, fairly good, though I'm worried the inner layer with the star chart is actually just card (although the outer layers are plastic) and I haven't tried it in very wet weather. The fact that it's a sandwich construction as opposed to two plastic layers in a normal planisphere also makes it a bit harder to turn. I also wish there was a version of this with luminous paper (OK silly I know, but still would be nice).

However, I could find very few pocket-sized (5" or less) planispheres on the internet in my latitude, and this one serves that purpose quite well. Four stars out of five.