[Chaos-l] Wil Tirion's _The Cambridge Star Atlas_

[Daniel Schudel]

I use XEphem - http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/xephem/ - for all my custom
charts.  If you are exclusively a MS Windows user - then it may not be for
you.  It is nice to be able to define FOV circles (including telrad) and
include them on your plots.

Here is one that is web based and produces PDFs -
http://www.nightskyatlas.com/

And on the topic of atlases - I've been using this -
http://www.siaris.net/astro/atlas/ - but I am considering "The Cambridge
Star Atlas".

Thanks for your review Jon.

Daniel
--
Daniel Schudel
dan.schudel at gmail.com


On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 16:19, BOBI and Mike GALLAGHER <vega13705 at verizon.net
> wrote:

> Neat stellar adventure, Jon!
>
> The comparison of the star atlases, got me thinking. Is there any handy
> software (maybe free:) where one could specify a rectangle in the sky and a
> limiting magnitude for a handy map of territory to explore with the scope?
> It seems that a box 5 degrees on a side down to 8th mag, for example would
> be helpful to bring along.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Stewart-Taylor" <
> joncst at earthlink.net>
> To: <chaos-l at rtpnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2010 1:18 PM
> Subject: [Chaos-l] Wil Tirion's _The Cambridge Star Atlas_
>
>
>
>  Hi all.  During my observing session last night at Farrington Point, i was
>> using a copy of Wil Tirion's _The Cambridge Star Atlas_ (which i'd checked
>> out of the library) to hunt things down.  I currently use Tirion's _Bright
>> Star Atlas 2000_ as my main atlas, and was curious  how the two compare,
>> especially since _BSA_ was out of print for some  years. The first obvious
>> difference is that _TCSA_ has a  moon map,  listing about 250 craters as
>> well as the various mares.  The map is  inverted as per Newtonian 'scopes,
>> but at a scale perhaps more suited  to binoculars. The monthly whole-sky
>> maps are divided per-hemisphere  in _TCSA_, as opposed to the one-chart-fits
>> all approach in the _BSA_,  and are are a pretty blue with the Milky Way in
>> a lighter blue.  More  importantly, there are 12 in _TCSA_, intended for use
>> from 9 to  midnight, compared to 7 in _BSA_ labeled with  the 16 month//time
>>  combinations each of the 7 charts cover.
>>
>> The most important differences between _BSA_ and _TCSA_ are limiting
>> magnitude and scale.  _BSA_ is a  mag 6 atlas, and covers the sky in  10
>> full-page charts. _TCSA_ is a mag 6.5 atlas, and covers the sky in  20
>> full-page charts.  _TCSA_ also lists fainter objects, some as faint  as 12th
>> mag, in contrast to the usual mid 10th magnitude limit for  BSA. These
>> differences mean that BSA is a better unaided-eye,  binocular, and Telrad
>> reference, while _TCSA_ is a better finder-scope  and telescope reference.
>>  Using _TCSA_, i sometimes had to flip back  and forth between pages to get
>> the layout of the bright stars used for  Telrad hopping. Conversely, the
>> extra half magnitude, and especially  the finer detail, helped in using the
>> finder to close in on the targets.
>>
>> The _BSA_ has a set of tables at the front, one listing all the  Messier
>> objects and one each for the double stars, clusters, galaxies,  and nebula
>> shown in the whole atlas.  Both atlases (atlasi?) have  tables for each
>> chart listing the objects on that particular chart.   _TCSA_ has 4 charts at
>> the end showing the distribution of each kind  of object over the whole sky:
>> kinda fun, but not something you'd refer  back to all that often.
>>
>> Bottom line is that you probably don't need both of these.  If you  want
>> to do primarily unaided eye or binocular observing, _BSA_ is  probably
>> better, especially given you can usually get it for under $12  including
>> shipping.  For telescopic purposes, _TCSA_ has better  charts.  It also
>> costs about twice as much, on the order of $24 in  hardback.  Either is a
>> good choice to pair up with _Turn Left at Orion_.
>>
>> Hope this was useful.
>>
>> J.
>> --
>> Jon Stewart-Taylor:  joncst at earthlink.net
>> Chapel Hill Astronomy: http://www.rtpnet.org/chaos
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Chaos-l mailing list
>> Chaos-l at rtpnet.org
>> http://rtpnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chaos-l
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chaos-l mailing list
> Chaos-l at rtpnet.org
> http://rtpnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chaos-l
>
-------------- next part --------------
HTML attachment scrubbed and removed