Can someone recommend a star atlas for me? I'm an absolute beginner with unfortunately limited time for now, looking for something to let me browse the highlights for the moment.

Perhaps something along the lines of turn left at orion?

I'm looking to invest in a decent one anyway, any advice appreciated!

Wow, you're gonna get a plethora of options here efla! Are you looking for something in like a book, or a spread?

Seanie.

One option is a planisphere - eg Philips Planisphere for latitude 51.5 degrees North N. Europe etc.

Two plastic discs (about 12" diameter" pivoted at the centre and alows one to play with different views of the sky for different dates and times of day. They're about €10 in a good book store.

I never used mine much but I feel they're good for aiding one in getting a feel for orientation of the sky over time because you can move the wheel while observing changing time of day or date.

With the use of a straight edge one can even estimate position of several planets and make a stab at determining sunset/sunrise.

For the price you've only got to get a couple of hours use and hang it on the wall of your home office / den to obtain value for money:)

Mark

That sounds just fine!

I'm looking for something that can identify the constellations, brighest stars, perhaps look for some messier items (I'm very new).

Do you by chance know of some places to look in Dublin?

Also directions on getting your neighbours to turn off their floodlights, which for some reason point over our garden.

Thanks for the replies!

I got mine in Borders in Blanchardstown shopping centre.
Do a search on the web and see if looks like something that fits the bill.

For a picture see
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/05400...TF8&n=266239&s=books

Also do check the price - mine has £7.99 (UK) on it and I don't recall spending much more but I saw one going on amazon.co.uk just now for £20 which is way more than I spent.

Also - keep an eye on any other recommendations from other users on this site they may have a suggestion which you may also want to consider.

There are free software packages which are good (I use Carte du Ceil
www.stargazing.net/astropc/

But the hands-on simplicity of the planisphere has a lot going for it and the Phillips one does indicate positions of, for example, the Double Cluster and some of the messier objects.

I have no suggestions, I'm afraid, regarding the light tresspass problem.

Mark

Many thanks, I'll give that a go.

I'm using stellarium at the moment which is very helpful.

(Also, is there a thread with a list of dealers knocking about?)

You might need to clarify what you mean by "list of dealers"

Are you asking for list of suppliers of astronomical equipment and the like?

If so there are links circulating on some astronomy clubs in Ireland to some places - but I find Ireland quite restrictive and have sourced my stuff from the UK. Also click on the "links" on the left hand side of this site - there are some references there.

Mark

Hi,
My first atlas was a small atlas called "collins gem guide, the night sky" by Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion, it fits into a small pocket and is easy to use at the eyepiece, you can hold it with one hand and move/focus the scope with the other. I've written in many fainter objects but still use it to this day.

Thanks for all the replies, i'll have a look about tomorrow

hi efla,

welcome to the boards!

I've some details below of free star atlases that can be downloaded off the internet. The text here is pulled from a mail I sent to SDAs members in May this year.

All the best,

John

- - - - - -

Finding your way around the sky might seem daunting at first but there are many useful star charts on the internet that are created as a labour of love by amateur astronomers worldwide. An excellent resource is www.skymaps.com which has a monthly chart you can download for free. The double-sided A4 sheet also details celestial highlights for the month.

Star atlases extend the possibilities even more and using these in conjunction with your binoculars will reveal many wonders of the sky. Toshimi Taki in Japan has created two free atlases. One goes to magnitude 6.5 (the traditional limit for the faintest star you can see with the unaided eye) while the other is more detailed and shows stars to magnitude 8.5. Each set of charts plot hundreds of deep-sky objects (galaxies, clusters, nebulae, etc.) Go to Toshimi's home page at www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/ and look for the Astronomy section in the menu on the left-hand side. Under "Tools for Observation" you'll see the link to the magnitude 6.5 atlas (option 2.) and the magnitude 8.5 atlas (option 3.) There is also a double star atlas available for small telescope users. The real usefulness of these atlases is that you can scribble notes on the page in the field and then just print a new copy of the chart for your next observing session.

Another beautiful atlas has been created by a Russian amateur astronomer. This can be downloaded via the following links;

www.eproject.ru/beginners_star_atlas1.pdf (184kb)
www.eproject.ru/beginners_star_atlas2.pdf (184kb)
www.eproject.ru/beginners_star_atlas3.pdf (188kb)
www.eproject.ru/beginners_star_atlas4.pdf (182kb)
www.eproject.ru/beginners_star_atlas5.pdf (173kb)
www.eproject.ru/beginners_star_atlas6.pdf (204kb)
www.eproject.ru/catalog.pdf (65kb)

Going even deeper is a project to create a very detailed set of atlases for telescope users. Details about these are on the pinned thread at the top of the Cloudy Nights forum at www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/books

The above brief examples don't even touch on the many sky guides available such as the articles you can browse from the Cloudy Nights home page at www.cloudynights.com/index.php -- columns like Tom Trusock's "Small Wonders" explore the sky constellation by constellation. Binocular observer and well known author Phil Harrington has also got a monthly column on CN.

Finally, the excellent free software Stellarium at www.stellarium.org is extremely useful and the application at www.star-map.fr/ definitely makes it worth trying to acquire an iPhone at some point :-)