The Night Sky Planisphere 30 Degrees - 40 Degrees

Size is a plus if your eyes are good or excellent - read on. You need to know your latitude to make sure you order the correct map and a red flashlight. I googled my City's Latitude for the correct map 30° - 40°. This is for North Latitude, so if you're south of the Equator, it will not work.I'm not totally new to stargazing -- but couldn't find the old ones my son had. Was undecided which stargazing map better so also purchased, Guide to the Stars map, has a bolder print. See the pic. The benefits to this is that it does not take up much room and can be hung on the wall. Magnifying lenses may be needed for the fine print if your eyes are less than good. Map, made of cardstock, is inside a clear plastic holder/hanger and features a turn dial, I liked. This map holder is around 9in X 10.5in. Map diameter itself is about 7 inches - the white football shape portion of night sky. The circular white part contains the month, day and time you will align for the correct view. The shaded area on map is Milky Way. A downside is the South view is on the back side so you will have to flip.Map has instructions and hints along with objects for Binoculars on the facing South (back). Also legend for Star clusters, Nebulas, Galaxy.My map came in a box with other things. It would be a bummer if you only ordered map and was stuffed in a small mailbox. Being bent will ruin the map for sure. I ordered with Red LED flashlight and Guide to the Stars, it all came in one box. Later ordered Eyeskey waterproof compass.Enjoy whatever you buy, it will give you endless fun trying to navigate the stars. Live long and prosper...

There are several but this is one of my favourites of the bunch. Easy to understand and the always-troublesome perspective (transforming a 2D sky map to an upside-down bowl of sky over our heads) is done well. But David Levy's Guide to the Stars is also very fine, and UK/northern Europe folk should look at the excellent Philip's (on Amazon.uk). If you're getting serious (binoculars and up) then you must also have Sky & Telecope's Pocket Sky Atlas and Karkoschka's The Observer's Sky Atlas - both relatively small, but packed with useful information about deep-sky objects, relationships, positions, etc. I have all the big atlases and DSO reference books, but these two books are always with me on nights out, and one or several of the planispheres for myself and any guests who show up. If you want to learn constellations (and navigation), grab one of these.

Within a few days of getting this device I discovered that the planisphere is a paper starmap with a plastic covering which is very cheap quality and disappointing. Why can't the David Chandler Company make the whole thing plastic which would make it more durable and dew proof?Another feature which is super disappointing is the layout of the star map. First, there is no marking for the zenith point of the planisphere. I suppose you could argue that it's because the range is 30N-40N latitude so okay, we will let it slide as a minor technicality.(For the next part I should mention I live in Los Angeles, latitude 34 N.) The front or north facing side has -15S to +90N latitude on the celestial sphere. The back or south facing side has +15N to -80S latitude on the celestial sphere. My question is why is the south side so poorly set up? There is no way to see down to -80S even if you're down at +30N but they cut off the planisphere at +15N when it should go to at least +40N. I have to use the "north" side to look at southern constellations closer to my Los Angeles zenith. Hopefully my photos are detailed enough for you to see what I am talking about in terms of the poor latitude setup of the front and back of planisphere.Simply put, this planisphere is poorly setup, made of poor quality materials and gets two thumbs down.

When I first became interested in learning which constellations & stars were which & how they moved through the skies at different times of the year, I was having a hard time. After I bought this & spent some time studying it I found it a lot easier. I do not have children, but this would be a great way to introduce them to sky-watching. Coupled with a telescope you increase both your enjoyment & skill if you want to pursue taking fotos.

This planisphere is easy to read despite it being fairly compact, which is a an advantage out in the field. I don't use the flip side much, but you might if your southern horizon is free of houses and trees.After trying several planispheres, my advice is to get one like this. It has dark dots & print against a white background, which is much easier to read! White dots & print against a black background just don't make it!One complaint: it includes constellation "stick figures", which don't help star identification, since the "stick figures" don't appear in the sky. But most planispheres include this so-called feature. Also, it only labels the top 20 or so brightest stars. Even in my city location I can see the 48th brightest star in the sky. Drop the "stick figures" and add more star names!But you probably can't do better than this planisphere. Combine it with Dominic Ford's In-The-Sky Online Interactive Planetarium, and you're set!