Invaluable for both beginners and advanced observers,
Philip's Planisphere (Latitude 51.5 North) is a
practical hour-by-hour tracker of the stars and
constellations, designed for use anywhere in Britain and
Ireland, Northern Europe, Northern USA and Canada. Turn
the oval panel to the required date and 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) and the Orion Nebula (M42). Because the planets
move round the Sun, their positions in the sky are
constantly changing and they cannot be marked
permanently on the map; however, the back of the
planisphere has tables giving the positions of Venus,
Mars, Jupiter and 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, and 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 and
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 and some
fascinating deep-sky objects. The movement of the stars
is also explained. |
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