Question · What you are looking at
What is a star map print?
A star map print shows the sky as it actually appeared above one location at one moment: a specific date, time and set of coordinates, plotted rather than illustrated.
The map is calculated, not decorative. Give it a place and a date and the positions of the stars and constellations are worked out for that latitude, longitude and hour, then drawn as a chart. Two maps for the same date but different cities genuinely differ, because the sky overhead differs. That is the whole appeal: it is not a picture of space in general, it is a record of one night, which is why they are usually bought for a birth, a wedding, an anniversary or the night two people met.
Most are printed as a dark circular sky field with a caption line underneath carrying the place, date and coordinates. Ours is built from your own date and location at personalised star map, previewed before you buy. If you want the constellations themselves rather than one particular night, the constellation prints are the standing charts, and what is a constellation explains the 88 official ones.
Written by Craig Fearn, Aphelion Prints.
From the journal