Many excellent charts, maps, atlases are available from book
publishers. The more
expensive ones show dimmer stars and are printed at a larger scale
(i.e. smaller sky area per sheet.) Here are some free ones
available for download:Charts, Maps and Atlases
"We're all pilgrims on the same journey-but some pilgrims have better road maps." - Nelson DeMille
Everyone needs a planisphere, a star chart that can be adjusted to display the stars for any time and date. It consists of a circular chart attached at its center to an card that has a window or hole. The chart is mounted so that it is free to rotate about the pivot point at the center. Planisphere are made according to latitude so be sure to get the right one for your location. Templates for making a planisphere can be downloaded from Lawrence Hall of Science. Also, students can request a free one from City Lights Astronomical Society for Students.
Many excellent charts, maps, atlases are available from book
publishers. The more
expensive ones show dimmer stars and are printed at a larger scale
(i.e. smaller sky area per sheet.) Here are some free ones
available for download:
Toshimi Taki is an Aircraft Structure Engineer and Amateur Astronomer who lives near Nagoya in Japan. Taki has created and offers for download three star atlases: a 12 chart, 6.5 mag. atlas similar to Norton's Star Atlas, a 149 chart, 8th mag. atlas similar to Uranometria 2000 and a 36 chart, double star atlas. All atlases use epoch 2000. In addition to the price, I like Taki's charts because I can print them out and mark them up. Also, if they get damp or dirty from use at the scope, I can print fresh ones. Also, check out Taki's double-sided planisphere, handy chart and double star apparent orbit figures.
Andrew L. Johnson offers a free magnitude 7 star atlas on Cloudy Nights Telescope Reviews. A black-and-white field version and a color version are available for download in PDF format.
The Lunar and Planetary Institute's Lunar Map Catalog provides a variety of lunar maps for download including a landing site chart; topographic, geologic and shade relief maps; and NASA's Lunar Chart. These maps are very detailed, but unfortunately, the projections do not show the lunar surface as viewed from the Earth. The 1876 Neison map is available from ChucK Wood's Moon. The best Lunar Map for use at the scope is Sky and Telescope's Field Map of the Moon by Antonin Rukl. This laminated, foldable map is available in both mirror-image and "normal" versions.
Alan Chu offers the free downloadable Photographic Moon Book. In addition to 33 maps of the nearside, it includes profusely illustrated chapters on lunar features and events, the farside, lunar spacecraft and imaging methods. Most of the high quality photographs were taken by Mr. Chu from his home in Hong Kong. Unlike most photographic atlases, this one shows lunar features under different lighting conditions.
Patrick Chevalley and Christian Legrand's Virtual Moon Atlas
displays customizable views of Earth's Moon. It has
a complete database of lunar features and
tools to display lunar cycles, the lunar surface, orbit and
position for any date.
Touring the Universe Through Binoculars Star Atlas by Phil Harrington was originally commercial software but is now offered as freeware. According to the website, it is the only star atlas designed specifically for use with binoculars. Conceived by Dean Williams of Cabot, Arkansas, the atlas plots all of the objects listed in Phil's book plus shows stars to 11th magnitude. It does not show deep-sky objects that require a telescope.
Planetarium software can simulate the night sky from any location and at any time. A comprehensive list of freeware, shareware and commercial planetarium software for Macs, Windows, Linux and OS/2 and Palm complied by Bill Arnett is available here. Commercial software can be expensive (e.g. $279 for TheSky 6 Professional Edition as of January 2008) but there are free substitutes.
SkyGlobe, originally developed by Klassm Software for DOS, is still available including a Windows version. I loved the DOS version. Both versions have simple interfaces; however, the Windows version has better help. Simulating the movements of the Moon, planets and the night sky over various time periods is easy.
Stellarium is an open source planetarium program for Windows, Mac or Linux with very realistic graphics. The program is still in development (version 0.9.1 as of March 2008), but it has great potential. The scripting capability offsets the interface's quirkiness. According to it's website, it is being used in planetarium projectors.
If you have a Palm organizer, I recommend Planetarium for Palm by Andreas Hofer. It draws a small sky chart and displays ephemeris information for celestial objects on the Palm. You can easily lookup astronomical twilight, moonrise and set, transit times, positions of objects, etc. to plan your observing session. Planetarium is shareware and requires a EUR 24 registration fee for continued use.
Interactive sky charts and planetariums are available on various websites. I am not enthusiastic about them because their graphics are not as robust as planetarium software. They do have some limited utility so I'm listing some:
AstroViewer Sky View Cafe Sky and Telescope WikiSky Your Sky DeepSkyLive Google Earth WW Telescope