The Mag-7 Star Atlas Project
What is it?
This project is my attempt to produce a free, downloadable
set of high-quality star charts -- the Mag-7 Star Atlas -- capable of
being printed at reasonable resolutions on the average home printer.
The Mag-7 Star Atlas plots stars down to Magnitude 7.25, with double /
multiple stars indicated by a thin horizontal bar. Plotted DSO's (Deep
Sky Objects) include all objects on the Messier list, the RASC's finest
NGC list, and the Herschell 400 list --- more than 550 DSO's in total.
Now that this project is also being hosted by the kind folks at
CloudyNights, availability shouldn't be an issue and it will be more
convenient and reliable to make reference to the charts in forum posts
(no need to worry about an external site being down when linking to or
referring to a chart). It will also relieve some of the bandwith load on
my website, for which I am certainly grateful.
I hope beginner's and experienced observers alike might find some use in
these charts -- as a first atlas, as a bridge atlas between planishere and
a deeper atlas, as a binocular atlas, as printable charts for outlining
observing plans and/or recording small field notes, or to make wallpaper
for your outhouse. At the very least, when you take family or friends on
an observing outing it is easy (and affordable) to ensure everyone has an
atlas of their own to refer to. The free licencing (see below) makes these
charts an open resource for teachers and astronomy outreach programs. But,
you don't have to be an association -- go ahead and print one off for
your neighbor, and the kid down the street, and ...
But Free? Really?
Yes. And not just free of charge -- you have other freedoms as well. This
work is licenced under a Creative Commons License.
Basically you are free to download, use, and or distribute this work for
non-commercial purposes with appropriate attribution. You can create
and distribute derived works if they follow the same licence.
The Mag-7 Star Atlas
There are 20 primary charts and one supplemental chart (11a for the Virgo
Coma Berenices region) comprising the complete Mag-7 Star Atlas.
Based on early feedback, I've made two versions available: a black on
white version for use in the field (where red light may interfere with
different color schemes), and a version with DSO's, constellation lines
and boundaries, and gridlines highlighted in different colors.
Different colors help to visually break up the charts making for a more
relaxed viewing experience (whether viewing on-screen or printing in
color for a "desktop" version). Apart from color, the two versions
are identical. Enjoy.
Black and White field version:
Download the whole Black and White Atlas
as a gzipped tar file, or just take the individual charts you need
from the table.
| Chart-1.pdf |
North of declination +65 |
Chart-11.pdf
Chart-11a.pdf
|
RA 12h to 16h, Dec +20 to -20
RA 11.5h to 13.5h, Dec +20 to 0
|
| Chart-2.pdf |
RA 0h to 4h, Dec +65 to +20 |
Chart-12.pdf |
RA 16h to 20h, Dec +20 to -20 |
| Chart-3.pdf |
RA 4h to 8h, Dec +65 to +20 |
Chart-13.pdf |
RA 20h to 0h, Dec +20 to -20 |
| Chart-4.pdf |
RA 8h to 12h, Dec +65 to +20 |
Chart-14.pdf |
RA 0h to 4h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| Chart-5.pdf |
RA 12h to 16h, Dec +65 to +20 |
Chart-15.pdf |
RA 4h to 8h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| Chart-6.pdf |
RA 16h to 20h, Dec +65 to +20 |
Chart-16.pdf |
RA 8h to 12h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| Chart-7.pdf |
RA 20h to 0h, Dec +65 to +20 |
Chart-17.pdf |
RA 12h to 16h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| Chart-8.pdf |
RA 0h to 4h, Dec +20 to -20 |
Chart-18.pdf |
RA 16h to 20h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| Chart-9.pdf |
RA 4h to 8h, Dec +20 to -20 |
Chart-19.pdf |
RA 20h to 0h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| Chart-10.pdf |
RA 8h to 12h, Dec +20 to -20 |
Chart-20.pdf |
South of declination -65 |
Color version:
Download the whole Color Atlas
as a gzipped tar file, or just take the individual charts you need
from the table.
| ChartC-1.pdf |
North of declination +65 |
ChartC-11.pdf
ChartC-11a.pdf
|
RA 12h to 16h, Dec +20 to -20
RA 11.5h to 13.5h, Dec +20 to 0
|
| ChartC-2.pdf |
RA 0h to 4h, Dec +65 to +20 |
ChartC-12.pdf |
RA 16h to 20h, Dec +20 to -20 |
| ChartC-3.pdf |
RA 4h to 8h, Dec +65 to +20 |
ChartC-13.pdf |
RA 20h to 0h, Dec +20 to -20 |
| ChartC-4.pdf |
RA 8h to 12h, Dec +65 to +20 |
ChartC-14.pdf |
RA 0h to 4h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| ChartC-5.pdf |
RA 12h to 16h, Dec +65 to +20 |
ChartC-15.pdf |
RA 4h to 8h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| ChartC-6.pdf |
RA 16h to 20h, Dec +65 to +20 |
ChartC-16.pdf |
RA 8h to 12h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| ChartC-7.pdf |
RA 20h to 0h, Dec +65 to +20 |
ChartC-17.pdf |
RA 12h to 16h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| ChartC-8.pdf |
RA 0h to 4h, Dec +20 to -20 |
ChartC-18.pdf |
RA 16h to 20h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| ChartC-9.pdf |
RA 4h to 8h, Dec +20 to -20 |
ChartC-19.pdf |
RA 20h to 0h, Dec -20 to -65 |
| ChartC-10.pdf |
RA 8h to 12h, Dec +20 to -20 |
ChartC-20.pdf |
South of declination -65 |
Notes
Double Stars
I selectively marked double stars using the Washington Double Star catalog
with the following criteria: only stars with a separation of at least 0.5
arc-seconds, a secondary component of Magnitude 11 or brighter, and were
based on at least five observations, were marked as doubles on the charts.
Because separate, non-synchronized data sources were used, occassionally
the star positions are not identical, resulting in the double-star marker
(the thin horizontal bar) and the star being slightly offset. Also, since
the magnitudes may be slightly different in each source, stars close to
the Mag-7.25 cutoff may be mismarked. This means either a star could be
plotted but not marked as a double (if the WDS listed it as fainter than
the cutoff), or a marker might be plotted without its star --- the latter
being the only case you can readily notice. These are pretty rare
occurrences and I'm not sure any reconciliation is worth the effort at
the moment.
Viewing/Printing
These PDF's display and print as expected on Acroreader-5.05 on my Linux
box. Your results may vary depending on platform and PDF viewer.
Credits:
The following software and data are being used in this project:
Additional thanks to:
- Several members of the
Cloudy Nights community
for providing some feedback and suggestions.
- The Cloudy Nights
organization for hosting these charts here, and all their hard work
in building and maintaining the nicest online astronomy community
available (in this author's humble opinion) -- it's not just a
resource or community, it's an education!
Sincerely,
Andrew L. Johnson (jandrew on CN)
Copyright © 2005 Andrew L. Johnson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
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