Best Planimeter?

What is the best planimeter to buy if I want to learn the names of as
many stars as possible (the constellations I know)?

"Fred H." wrote in message
...
What is the best planimeter to buy if I want to learn the names of as
many stars as possible (the constellations I know)?

I think you might mean "planisphere".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planisphere

A planimeter is a device for measuring areas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planimeter

My favorite is the large cardboard one by David Chandler:

http://www.davidchandler.com/nightsky.htm

You get to choose the one most appropriate for your latitude.

You can buy these from a number of suppliers.

On 2007-12-17, Fred H. wrote:
What is the best planimeter to buy if I want to learn the names of as
many stars as possible (the constellations I know)?

As Greg has point out, I am assuming you mean _planisphere_.

A planisphere is the wrong tool for the job. None of the planispheres
name very many stars - I haven't counted but I would guess a couple
of dozen at the most. There simply isn't space to put too many
names on.

IMHO you'd be better off with a book of star charts. Have a look
at what is on offer at your local bookshop - you can flip through
each to get a general impression of the book in a way you can't
when buying on the net. The kind of thing I'd recommend are the
ones that deal with no more than one constellation to a page (more
for larger ones) that give a good map of each and possibly written
notes on points of interest within the constellation. Being in
book form there is a lot more space for details so any star that
actually has a name rather than a catalogue number is likely to be
labelled.


--
Andrew Smallshaw

As has been pointed out, if you want to learn star NAMES, a book of star
charts may be more what you're looking for. While there are probably
more up to date ones available, (watch this thread...) I've found Neale
Howard's "Telescope Handbook and Star Atlas" to be good for star names.
I'd suspect it's long out of print, but it should turn up cheap on used
book sites, or with a little eBaying or Amazoning.
Marty

"Fred H." wrote

What is the best planimeter to buy if I want to learn the names of as
many stars as possible (the constellations I know)?

So much for my talent... You did say you wanted to learn the stars, not the
constellations, so no -- a planisphere is not what you want.

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 04:32:18 -0500, "Fred H."
wrote:

What is the best planimeter to buy if I want to learn the names of as
many stars as possible (the constellations I know)?

Others have suggested an atlas or charts. That would do, but actually,
depending on what you mean by "names", you may be able to get by with
much less. There aren't many stars with proper names (Algol, Vega, etc),
so if you already know the constellations, just take them one at a time
and learn the few named stars in each. That information is readily
available online, e.g.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constellations . Beyond that, you
may also learn the Bayer designations of the brighter stars in each
constellation, which can also be accomplished with simple online charts.
Only if you want to learn the designations for dimmer stars in each
constellation will you really need a more comprehensive atlas.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

You may mean a 'plainsphere' as others noted here. However, if you
want to learn the stars, rather than generally where the
constellations are located in your sky, a planisphere is not really
helpful.

You really need an atlas, whether in paper or computer form.. You then
cut a print (from a computer atlas) or photocopy from apaper one, the
constellation you want to learn in detail. The planisphere (or
planetarium program) shows you where it is in the sky. You then
compare the chart with the sky to pick out the stars.

The computer-generated chart can be customized to include labels of
various kinds, as you want for finding the stars. These can be the
Bayer, flamsteed, propoer names, corrdinate lines, catch-figures,
boundries, allegorical figures.

A paper atlas chart will have a signle one set of labels, usually a
bit modest to prevent clutter, yet still entirely useful.

On Dec 17, 1:32 am, "Fred H." wrote:
What is the best planimeter to buy if I want to learn the names of as
many stars as possible (the constellations I know)?

A planisphere is probably not what you want. Get a good
sky atlas instead.

What a planisphere *will* do is tell you what stars are
in the sky, when they rise/set/transit, and when this
stuff happens on different dates. This makes it a very
useful observing tool.

The best planisphere is a big one.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Non sequitur. Your ACKS are
Grid: CN89mg uncoordinated."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Nomad the Network Engineer

Fred H. wrote:
What is the best planimeter to buy if I want to learn the names of as
many stars as possible (the constellations I know)?

In conjunction with a star atlas, you may find the following compilation
of interest:

http://astro.isi.edu/reference/starnames.txt

It lists derivations for a couple of hundred star names, as given in
Paul Kunitzsch and Tim Smart's book on star names.

--
Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.html