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Black Constellation Print, Black Star Chart, Cosmos print, Circular Art, Celestial Art, Celestial Print, Star Map Set, Constellations Art - $15.00 USD

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This print is based on Antique Astronomy Constellation Maps , and comes in either Black or Blue versions. This is a single Cosmos large format print.

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20th my birthday 21st my friends birthday

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* Before dawn tomorrow morning, look east for bright Jupiter and brighter Venus. Between them is little orange Mars. Look carefully; very close to Mars is the 4th-magnitude star Eta Virginis. The two may appear less than 0.1° apart depending on where you are.

* If Mars seems to be awfully slow to brighten as it moves higher in the dawn this season, that's because it's at the aphelion of its orbit, its farthest from the Sun - exactly so today.
Saturday, November 21
* After dark these nights, Altair is the brightest star in the west-southwest. Look upper left of it, by barely more than a fist at arm's length, for the delicate little constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin. To Altair's upper right by a lesser distance is little Sagitta, the Arrow.
Sunday, November 22
* Whenever Fomalhaut is "southing" (crossing the meridian due south, which it does around 7 p.m. now depending on your location), the first stars of Orion are just about to rise in the east, and the Pointers of the Big Dipper stand vertical straight below Polaris, due north.
Monday, November 23
* Look above or upper left of the gibbous Moon this evening for the two leading stars of Aries. Farther left of the Moon is the Pleiades cluster with Aldebaran down below it. Much farther left shines bright Capella.
Tuesday, November 24
* The almost-full Moon this evening shines not quite midway between the Pleiades to its left and Alpha Ceti (orange-tinted Menkar) to its right. Menkar is well off the edge of the scene here.

* Algol is at minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 10:15 p.m. EST (per new predictions).
Wednesday, November 25
* The full Moon blazes in the Hyades tonight. The Moon occults Aldebaran on the morning of Thursday the 26th for telescope users in Canada and the northern half of the U.S.; see the November Sky & Telescope, page 45.
Thursday, November 26
* Does night already seem to be falling about as early as it ever will? You're right! We're still almost a month away from the winter solstice - but the Sun sets its earliest of the year around December 7th, and right now it already sets within only about 2 minutes of that time (if you're near latitude 40° north).

A surprising result of this: The Sun actually sets a trace earlier on Thanksgiving than on Christmas, even though Christmas is around solstice time!

This offset is made up for by the opposite happening at sunrise: the Sun doesn't come up its latest for the year until January 7th. Blame the tilt of Earth's axis and the eccentricity of its orbit.
Friday, November 27
* Venus shines within 5° of Spica in early dawn from tomorrow morning through the morning of Wednesday December 2.

* Algol is at minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 7:04 p.m. EST (per new predictions).
Saturday, November 28
* By 8 or 9 p.m. the waning gibbous Moon, in Gemini, is up in the east-northeast. Look left of it and perhaps a bit higher for Castor and Pollux. Farther to the Moon's right or upper right, Orion is moving up.

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Want to become a better astronomer? Learn your way around the constellations. They're the key to locating everything fainter and deeper to hunt with binoculars or a telescope.

This is an outdoor nature hobby. For an easy-to-use constellation guide covering the whole evening sky, use the big monthly map in the center of each issue of Sky & Telescope, the essential guide to astronomy.

Once you get a telescope, to put it to good use you'll need a detailed, large-scale sky atlas (set of charts). The standards are the little Pocket Sky Atlas, which shows stars to magnitude 7.6; the larger and deeper Sky Atlas 2000.0 (stars to magnitude 8.5); and once you know your way around, the even larger Uranometria 2000.0 (stars to magnitude 9.75). And read how to use sky charts with a telescope.

You'll also want a good deep-sky guidebook, such as Sue French's Deep-Sky Wonders collection (which includes its own charts), Sky Atlas 2000.0 Companion by Strong and Sinnott, the bigger Night Sky Observer's Guide by Kepple and Sanner, or the beloved if dated Burnham's Celestial Handbook.

Can a computerized telescope replace charts? Not for beginners, I don't think, and not on mounts and tripods that are less than top-quality mechanically (meaning heavy and expensive). As Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer say in their Backyard Astronomer's Guide, "A full appreciation of the universe cannot come without developing the skills to find things in the sky and understanding how the sky works. This knowledge comes only by spending time under the stars with star maps in hand."

This Week's Planet Roundup

Mercury is hidden in superior conjunction with the Sun.

Venus, Mars, and Jupiter continue their display in the east before and during dawn, forming a great diagonal line as shown above. Venus is the lowest and brightest, shining at magnitude -4.3. Jupiter, high to the upper right, is -1.9, and Mars, between them, is much fainter at +1.6.

Watch the line lengthening. Venus is descending; Jupiter and Mars are moving higher. So is Spica; look for it below or lower right of Venus.

Saturn is lost in the glow of sunset.

Uranus (magnitude +5.7, in Pisces) and Neptune (magnitude +7.9, in Aquarius) are high in the southern sky during early evening. Finder charts for Uranus and Neptune.

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All descriptions that relate to your horizon - including the words up, down, right, and left - are written for the world's mid-northern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on longitude (mainly Moon positions) are for North America. Eastern Standard Time (EST) is Universal Time (UT, UTC, or GMT) minus 5 hours.
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"This adventure is made possible by generations of searchers strictly adhering to a simple set of rules. Test ideas by experiments and observations. Build on those ideas that pass the test. Reject the ones that fail. Follow the evidence wherever it leads, and question everything. Accept these terms, and the cosmos is yours." - Neil deGrasse Tyson

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This Week's Sky at a Glance, November 20 - 28 - Sky & Telescope

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Before dawn tomorrow morning, look east for bright Jupiter and brighter Venus. Between them is little orange Mars. Look carefully; very close to Mars is the 4th-magnitude star Eta Virginis. The two may appear less than 0.1° apart depending on where you are.

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Uncle Al's Star Wheels are inexpensive star maps, adjustable for any time of night in any month of the year. Such maps are also called planispheres . These star wheels were created by the Hall's Hands-On Universe project, and based on the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) Sky Challenger, a set of 6 star wheels, formerly available through the Hall's Discovery Corner Store.

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Like most people, you probably enjoy getting out under a clear night sky to gaze up at the beautiful tapestry of stars and planets overhead. But what if you can't tell Polaris from Pollux, or Saturn from Sagittarius? No problem! Using this simple, easy-to-make Star Wheel, you'll be navigating the night sky with confidence in no time.

The motion of the stars marks the passage of time during the night. As Earth turns on its axis, the stars appear to rise in the east and set in the west, just as the Sun and Moon do. This means that you'll see different stars overhead at different times of night. Likewise, as Earth makes its annual trek around the Sun, you'll see different stars from month to month.

So what stars will be in your sky tonight? To find out, follow these simple directions to make a star wheel you can use tonight!

Make a Star Wheel

First, you'll need to display (left mouse click) or download (right mouse click) the two parts for your Star Wheel (also known as a planisphere). Make sure your computer can display PDF files; if it can't, download and install the free Adobe Reader.

Part 1, which is the circular sky map.

Part 2, which is the star wheel's outer sleeve.

Each part for the Star Wheel is sized to fit on a single sheet of letter-size paper. Print out both sheets and cut out the parts. For the sky map (Part 1), trim away the gray corners so that you're left with a circle 8 inches across. For the outer sleeve (Part 2), make sure you keep the large white rectangle at the bottom; also, cut out the white oval in the middle.

To make a Star Wheel, fold the white rectangle at the bottom of the outer sleeve so it's underneath the front. Then staple the rectangle to the front at the locations marked by short white lines to either side of the oval. Now slip in the circular sky map so it shows through the oval. That's it!

Using the Star Wheel

Pick the date and hour you want to observe, and set the Star Wheel so this date (on the rim of the circular disk) matches the time indicated along the edge of the outer sleeve. Use white hours when standard time is in effect and orange hours when clocks are set for daylight-saving (summer) time.

The Star Wheel's large oval shows the whole sky, and the oval's curved edge represents the horizon you're facing. Once outside, hold the Star Wheel out in front of you and look at the yellow "Facing" labels around the oval. Turn the entire wheel so that the yellow label for the direction you're facing is on the bottom, with the lettering right-side up. If you're unsure of your directions, just remember where the Sun sets; that's west.

Now the stars above the map's horizon should match the real stars in front of you. Remember that star patterns will look much larger in the sky than they do on the map. The farther up from the edge of the oval the stars appear, the higher up they'll be shining in your sky. Stars in the center of the oval will appear directly overhead.

If you'd like a more visual guide, watch our video on how to use a star wheel.

This Star Wheel is usable for northern latitudes between 30° and 50°, which covers virtually all of the continental U.S., southern Canada, and Europe. It includes the names of the brightest stars and the most prominent constellations. Depending on how dark the sky is in your area, there may be more stars overhead than are shown on the map. Everyone's sky looks a little different. If there are fewer stars visible to you than appear on the Star Wheel, try to find an observing site that is not flooded by house or streetlight. Also, the longer you're outside, the better the chance that your eyes will adapt to the darkness and the more stars you'll be able to see.

Stars in the northern sky do not rise or set - instead, throughout the night they seem to slowly turn counterclockwise around Polaris, the North Star, which seems to stay in the same place in the sky no matter what time of night or season of the year. So let's find the North Star!

Begin by locating the Big Dipper. This giant spoon is actually part of a larger constellation called Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Find the two end stars in the Dipper's bowl - look opposite the handle. They're known as the "pointers." Why? Because a line drawn between them and extended away from the bottom of the bowl leads you to Polaris, the North Star. Now that you know how find Polaris, you also know how to find due north no matter where you are in the Northern Hemisphere!

The Moon and planets aren't shown on the map because their day-to-day movements are more involved than the motions of the stars. However, the curved line coursing across the map is called the ecliptic. It represents the path in the sky that brightest planets follow. If you see a bright "star" shining with a steady glow on or near this curved line, and the object isn't plotted on the Star Wheel, you're looking at a planet. The Moon likewise travels very near the ecliptic in its orbit around Earth.

You can also use our interactive sky chart to see what's in the sky for your time and place.

No matter how well you know the sky, you'll find that a star wheel comes in handy for a quick check of "what's up" on any given night. If you'd like a better version of the star wheel you see here, you can find several star wheels in our online store.

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How to Make A Star Wheel and Observe the Night Sky | Sky & Telescope

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Like most people, you probably enjoy getting out under a clear night sky to gaze up at the beautiful tapestry of stars and planets overhead. But what if you can't tell Polaris from Pollux, or Saturn from Sagittarius? No problem! Using this simple, easy-to-make Star Wheel, you'll be navigating the night sky with confidence in no time.