Philip's Planisphere (Latitude 51.5 North)

Product Description

Invaluable for both beginners & advanced observers Philip's Planisphere (Latitude 51.5 North) is a practical hour-by-hour tracker of the stars & constellations designed for use anywhere in Britain & Ireland Northern Europe Northern USA & Canada. Turn the oval panel to the required date & time to reveal the whole sky visible from your location. The map by the well-known celestial cartographer Wil Tirion shows stars down to magnitude 5 plus several deep-sky objects such as the Pleiades the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) & the Orion Nebula (M42). Because the planets move round the Sun their positions in the sky are constantly changing & they cannot be marked permanently on the map; however the back of the planisphere has tables giving the positions of Venus Mars Jupiter & Saturn for every month until 2020. The planisphere is supplied in a full-colour wallet that contains illustrated step-by-step instructions for how to use the planisphere how to locate planets & how to work out the time of sunrise or sunset for any day of the year. It explains all the details that can be seen on the map
- the magnitudes of stars the ecliptic & the celestial coordinates. In addition the section ' Exploring the skies season by season' introduces the novice astronomer to the principal celestial objects visible at different times of the year. Major constellations are used as signposts to navigate the night sky locating hard-to-find stars & some fascinating deep-sky objects. The movement of the stars is also explained.