1. Planispheres
By: Ashley Steffe & Meghan Kennedy

2. What is a Planisphere?
Planispheres calculate the positions of stars for any
day, any time around the world according to date and
time.
Larger dots represent brighter stars, smaller dots
represent dull stars.
They re latitude specific.
Very inexpensive to make and extremely easy to use
for self-discovery.

3. DATE
TIME
Using
Your ZENITH
HORIZON
Planisphere
DIRECTION
ECLIPTIC
you can find planets near this line!!

4. Using your planisphere,
can you find any
common similarities
between these five
constellations as you
rotate it through a full
24 hour cycle?
■ Ursa Major
■ Ursa Minor
■ Cassiopeia
■ Cepheus
■ Draco

5. Northern Circumpolar
Constellations
■ Ursa Major ■ Cephus
■ Cassiopeia
■ Draco
■ Ursa Minor

6. Build Your Own!
There are a variety of websites where you can
print your own planisphere.
http://www.vcas.org/star-wheels.html

7. Virtual Planisphere
Comcast offers a very cool virtual planisphere.
http://home.comcast.net/~erniew/astro/
plani.html

8. Picture References
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Planisphere.jpg/220px-Planisphere.jpg
http://stevenasimpson.com/planisphere.gif
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/stellar/scenes/seiza/chart/cep_c.gif
http://starryskies.com/The_sky/constellations/draco01.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/stellar/scenes/seiza/chart/cas_c.gif
http://www.greatdreams.com/constellations/ursa-minor.jpg
http://starryskies.com/The_sky/constellations/ursa.major.bear.jpg
http://spaceyuga.com/wp-content/uploads/Circumpolar_Constellations-9.gif