Celestial Star chart

Dystonic

Senior Member
I am a very amateur astronomer. I’ve always been interested but was always putting it off for later. I’m prepped as can be. Assuming Trump wins and we’re spared four years, I’m going to get into astronomy.
I know their are now apps on your phone that are beyond awesome. 30 years ago when I took an astronomy class in college and we had to use a star chart. We were given two sheets of paper, one was a map of the northern hemisphere, and the second was a 180° sign wave. We glued the bottom piece around a pringles can. We cut out the sine wave on the other sheet and taped it over the first. And the second piece would move and give us the current sky.
Has anyone seen that and know if they are called something other than just a star chart? I’ve been searching for it online to print out. Right now it would be just a trinket, but if we have no electricity, that trinket and binoculars would be really handy on relieving boredom.
 

tanstaafl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I don't know what the Pringles can thing might be, but I have one of these. It consists of two disks that rotate independently, allowing you to set the sky view for a specific day of the year -- note that it's restricted to 42 degrees N and is intended for the US, southern Europe, and northern Japan. There are several of these on eBay.
Philips' Planisphere.jpg
 

Dystonic

Senior Member
I don't know what the Pringles can thing might be, but I have one of these. It consists of two disks that rotate independently, allowing you to set the sky view for a specific day of the year -- note that it's restricted to 42 degrees N and is intended for the US, southern Europe, and northern Japan. There are several of these on eBay.
View attachment 228076
I’ve got one similar to that. I’m looking for that one I made in astronomy class. It was such a simple design, but all these years later, I think it would be neat to find the two sheets online and make one.
 
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