Q2 : Star Maps and Your Location

Q:"I have this book that has star maps for any time of the year, for both Northern and Southern hemispheres. I'm wondering if I can use them fine being that we are at the equator? What adjustments do I need to do, if any?

I've tried star/constellation-hunting with the maps in the book, looking at both Northern and Southern hemisphere maps but so far I've been unable to orient myself. That's either because (1) I am at the equator, neither Northern nor Southern, or (2) I don't know what I'm doing.

Thanks for any tips!"


A: Thank you for your inquiry. Yes, you can indeed use the star maps you have there even if you're at the equator!, it just takes a little familiarity to get your way through the stars so don't worry if at first you find yourself lost.

Usually star maps teaches you the correct orientation by just facing North or South as the Star Map indicates depending on the time of the month that you choose to stargaze.

But I'll give you a few tips instead. When you have your appropriate map for the month, look for the BRIGHTEST stars first, you'll identify them by their apparent magnitude. With star maps, the brightest stars are drawn with a larger diameter compared to others and at the legend beside the map you'll usually find an indicator showing the apparent brightness of the star, the brightest ones have a negative value.

This is important! They will serve as your guide or markers in the sky so that you can find your way and recognize the patterns drawn in your starmap.. you'll easily be lost if you dont know your bright stars!

You might get overwhelmed by the star patterns drawn in your star map but if your viewing from the urban cities you'll most likely see only the brightest of the stars, and from there i'm sure you'll find your way!

Try to find these bright stars with your star map in the night and you would know where to go: Vega (From 'Lyra' constellation), Deneb (Cygnus), Altair(Aquila) these three stars would appear to form an isosceles triangle when you connect them, once you do just find the other constellations relative to them!

Furthermore, you can practice this technique in moving through the night sky using other bright stars!

Another tip! Try to view your star map and you'll recognize that they appear to be similar to each other especially with months that are consecutive, if you become a regular stargazer you'll recognize the stars would appear to move with time from east to west, and furthermore you would recognize other constellations to appear depending on the season..

This is because the Earth is moving along the background of stars with its daily rotation on its axis and revolution around the sun, this is an important principle in stargazing that you should also know so that soon you would let go of your star map when you become familiar with the seasonal rotation of the constellations!


Prepared by: Leizl Ann Motilla