Don't know where the Orion Nebula is? Want to know where she is now? Take a look at our interactive online map space and the starry sky to see the entire observable Universe.
Using modern technology, accurate visualization of space objects, a star map with constellations online and in real time calculates the current position of every star and planet visible from Earth and shows you where they are.
What features does this application provide?
The main thing is a whole library of images, which were taken by the most modern telescopes and combined with a map of the constellations. The result is a huge map with coordinates and names of objects, by clicking on which you will receive comprehensive information about it.
You can see various objects: galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, quasars and much more.
You can use the service at any time - the so-called online mode.
This is a very interesting and useful find for those who are interested in the mysteries of space and astronomy, as well as for lovers of something new.
Click on any object to receive expanded information and photos of its surroundings up to 1x1°.
Online star map- will help with observations through a telescope and simply with orientation in the sky.
Online star map- interactive sky map shows the position of stars and nebulous objects that are accessible to amateur telescopes in given time over this place.
To use the star map online, you need to set geographical coordinates observation locations and observation time.
Only stars and planets with a brightness of up to approximately 6.5-7 m are visible to the naked eye in the sky. To monitor other objects you need telescope. The larger the diameter (aperture) of the telescope and the less illumination from the lights, the more objects will be available to you.
This online star map contains:
- the SKY2000 star catalog, supplemented with data from the SAO and XHIP catalogs. Total - 298457 stars.
- proper names of the main stars and their designations according to the HD, SAO, HIP, HR catalogs;
- information about stars contains (if possible): J2000 coordinates, proper motions, brightness V, Johnson B magnitude, Johnson B-V color index, spectral class, luminosity (Suns), distance from the Sun in parsecs, number of exoplanets as of April 2012 , Fe/H, age, data on variability and fold;
- the position of the main planets of the solar system, the brightest comets and asteroids;
- galaxies, star clusters and nebulae from the Messier, Caldwell, Herschel 400 and NGC/IC catalogs with the ability to filter by type.
It is possible to search for nebulous objects on the map by their numbers in the NGC/IC and Messier catalogs. As you enter the number, the map is centered on the coordinates of the desired object.
Enter only the object number as it is indicated in these catalogs: without the prefixes "NGC", "IC" and "M". For example: 1, 33, 7000, 4145A-1, 646-1, 4898-1, 235A, etc.
Enter three objects from other catalogs: C_41, C_99 from Caldwell and the light nebula Sh2_155 in the NGC field as written here - with underlining and letters.
Its refined and somewhat expanded version RNGC/IC dated January 2, 2013 was used as NGC/IC. A total of 13958 objects.
About maximum stellar magnitude:
The faintest star in the SKY2000 catalog, which is used in the online sky map, has a brightness of 12.9 m. If you are interested specifically in stars, keep in mind that after about 9-9.5 m, gaps begin in the catalogue, and the further you go, the stronger they are (such a decline after a certain magnitude is a common occurrence for star catalogues). But, if stars are needed only to search for foggy objects in a telescope, then by introducing a limit of 12 m you will get noticeably more stars for better orientation.
If you set the maximum 12 m in the “stars are brighter” field and click “Update data,” then the initial download of the catalog (17 MB) may take up to 20 seconds or more - depending on the speed of your Internet.
By default, only stars up to V=6 m (2.4 MB) are loaded. You need to know the downloaded volume to select the map auto-update interval if you have limited Internet traffic.
To speed up the work, at low map magnifications (in the first 4 steps), NGC/IC objects fainter than 11.5 m and faint stars are not shown. Zoom in on the desired part of the sky and they will appear.
When "turning off Hubble telescope images and others." Only black and white photographs are shown, which more honestly show the image available in an amateur telescope.
Help, suggestions and comments are accepted by mail: [email protected].
Materials used from sites:
www.ngcicproject.org, archive.stsci.edu, heavens-above.com, NASA.gov, Dr. website Wolfgang Steinicke
The photographs used were declared free for distribution by their authors and transferred to public use (based on data received by me in the places of their original placement, including according to Wikipedia, unless otherwise indicated). If this is not the case, write me an e-mail.
Thanks:
Andrey Oleshko from Kubinka for the original coordinates of the Milky Way.
Eduard Vazhorov from Novocheboksarsk for the original coordinates of the outlines of the Foggy Objects.
Nikolay K., Russia
It is generally accepted that stars are not visible during the day. However, from the top of Mount Ararat (height 5,000 m), the bright stars are clearly visible even at noon. The sky there is dark blue. In a telescope with a lens diameter of 70 mm, you can see bright stars even from flat terrain. But still, it is best to observe the stars at night, when the blinding light of the Sun does not interfere.
The starry sky is one of the most beautiful sights that exist in nature. All over the sky naked eye you can see about 6,000 stars(at the same time about 3,000 above the horizon).
Since ancient times, people have mentally united the most noticeable stars into figures and called them constellations. Myths and legends were associated with the constellations. Today, a constellation is a section of the starry sky with conventional boundaries, which includes not only stars, but also other objects - nebulae, galaxies, clusters. ABOUT objects included in one or another constellation are not connected with each other, since they are, firstly, at different distances from the Earth, and secondly, the boundaries of the constellations are arbitrary, i.e. may be changed at any time.
Today on starry sky 88 constellations are identified.
Latin names of constellations are also accepted. All star atlases produced abroad contain Latin names of constellations.
Constellations can be divided into three large groups: human (Aquarius, Cassiopeia, Orion...), animals (Hare, Swan, Whale...) and object (Libra, Microscope, Shield...). To better memorize constellations, noticeable stars in them are usually connected by lines into polygons or bizarre shapes. Below are: Ursa Major, Bootes, Virgo and Leo.
Since constellations are sections, that means they have an area. The areas of the constellations are different. The largest in area is Hydra. In second place is Virgo. On the third is Ursa Major. The smallest constellation in area is the Southern Cross (not visible at our latitudes).
Constellations also differ in the number of bright stars. The most bright stars are in Orion.
The bright stars of the constellations have their own names (usually invented by Arab and Greek astronomers). For example, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra is Vega, in the constellation Cygnus - Deneb, in the constellation Eagle - Altair. Remember the names of the bucket stars Ursa Major:
Stars in constellations also have symbols. The letters of the Greek alphabet are used for designation:
α - alpha
β - beta
γ - gamma
δ - delta
ε - epsilon
ζ - zeta
η - this
etc. It is worth remembering the designation and pronunciation of at least the first seven Greek letters. This is how the stars of the Ursa Major bucket are designated:
Usually the most bright Star in the constellation it is designated by the letter α (alpha). But not always. There are other systems for naming stars.
Since ancient times, star maps have been compiled. Usually they depicted not only stars, but also drawings of animals, people and objects with which the constellations were associated. Since there was no order in the name and number of constellations, star maps varied. It got to the point that various astronomers tried to introduce their own constellations (by drawing the contours of the constellations in a new way). For example, in 1798, the astronomer Lalande proposed the constellation Balloon. In 1679, Halley introduced the constellation Oak of Charles. There were many more exotic names(Poniatowski's Ox, Cat, Friedrich's Regalia, etc.). Only in 1922 were the conventional boundaries of the constellations finally drawn, their number and names were fixed.
For practical purposes, today they use a moving star map, consisting of a star map and an overlay circle with a cut out oval. Here's the map:
Stars are indicated by circles of various sizes. The larger the circle, the brighter the star it represents. Double stars, variable stars, galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters are also noted on star maps.
The starry sky rotates slowly. The reason is the rotation of the Earth around its axis. The earth rotates from west to east, and the starry sky, on the contrary, from east to west. Therefore, stars, planets and luminaries rise on the eastern side of the horizon, and set on the western side. This movement is called daily rotation. It should be noted that the constellations retain their relative positions during daily rotation. The starry sky rotates as a single whole, like a huge celestial sphere. The Earth makes one revolution around its axis in relation to the stars in 23 hours 56 minutes 04 seconds. This period is called sidereal day. Every 23 hours 56 minutes 04 seconds the view of the starry sky is repeated.
But this does not mean that if the Earth does not rotate on its axis, the sky will remain motionless. The appearance of the starry sky is influenced by the movement of the Earth around the Sun. If the Earth did not rotate, the appearance of the starry sky would still slowly change throughout the year. This phenomenon is called annual change in the appearance of the starry sky. We can observe that in autumn some constellations are best visible, in winter - others, etc.
Constellations can be roughly divided according to the seasons of the year into autumn, winter, spring and summer. But this does not mean that in autumn you can only see autumn constellations. On an early autumn evening, summer constellations dominate the sky. As time passes, they lean toward the west, and the autumn constellations rise. In the morning the winter constellations are clearly visible.
The appearance of the starry sky also depends on the latitude of the observation location. At the Earth's poles, the starry sky rotates so that not a single star rises or sets. As you move toward the equator, the number of rising and setting stars increases. In mid-latitudes, there are both rising and setting stars, as well as non-setting and never rising stars. For example,in the middle latitudes of the Earth's northern hemisphereThe constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia never descend below the horizon. But the constellations of the Southern Cross, Crane, and Altar never rise. At the earth's equator, all stars rise and set. If daylight did not interfere, in one day you could see all 88 constellations.
Constellations help with location orientation. It is especially useful to learn how to find the sides of the horizon using the North Star, since it almost does not change its position in the sky. The easiest way to find the North Star is by looking at the bucket from the constellation Ursa Major (to be precise, the line runs slightly to the left of the North Star):
The North Star always hangs above the north point. If you stand with your back to it, then the south will be in front, the east will be on the left, and the west will be on the right.
Some people think that the North Star is the brightest star in the starry sky. But that's not true. The brightest is Sirius from the constellation Canis Major. Polaris is the main navigation star.
To measure the apparent distances between stars and also the diameters of the disks of the planets, the Sun and the Moon, and the apparent sizes of nebulae and galaxies, an angular measure is used. 1 arc degree contains 60 arc minutes, and 1 arc minute contains 60 arc seconds. The diameters of the disks of the Sun and Moon are approximately equal to 0.5º.
Constellation and star map JPG
One of the best, in my opinion, star map. The equatorial part of the starry sky is built in a cylindrical projection, and the poles in an azimuthal one. Thanks to this, refractions at the junctions of these projections are reduced to a minimum amount, but do not be surprised that some constellations are seen twice: on the maps of the poles and the equatorial one. presented as an image in jpg format in quite high resolution. 
Google Sky constellation and star map
An interactive map of the sky, stars, constellations and galaxies that has no equal. Done big job and from a huge number of photographs taken by the Hubble orbital telescope, a map of the entire starry sky has been compiled, by increasing the scale of which you can see the starry sky, which is in no way visible not only with the naked eye, but even with an optical telescope from Earth. Besides this constellation map makes it possible to collect starry sky in constellations, look at their historical images, and also take a tour of our solar system, view the sky in the invisible infrared and microwave spectra. 
Google Sky
Map of constellations and starry sky from Google Earth service (Google Earth)
Taking Google Sky and Google Map as a basic basis, Google programmers and artists went even further and created a browser program that, connecting to a single database via the Web, downloads maps of the Earth and star maps, as well as more maps of the Moon and Mars. The Google Earth project is booming and open to anyone who wants to contribute. For example, you can apply constellation map a three-dimensional model of your own objects, if someone else has not already done this. The service also allows you to record videos based on the map, add voice or musical accompaniment to them and save it as a video file. 
Google Earth service
Constellation and star map Photopic Sky Survey
Another fascinating, cool, interactive starry sky project with easy navigation. Just like in the previous case with Google Earth, constellation map obtained by combining large numbers real 5 megapixel photos in one picture and receiving circular panorama of stars and constellations.It is possible to display a layer with connected constellation features on top, however, unlike Google Sky and Google Earth, the image cannot be saved. 
1. Map of the starry sky and constellations
The most optimal, in my opinion, star map. The equatorial part is built in a cylindrical projection, and the poles in an azimuthal one. Thanks to this, distortions at the junctions of these projections are minimized, but don’t be surprised that some constellations appear twice: on the maps of the poles and the equatorial one. The map is presented as a jpeg image in fairly high resolution.
2. Google Sky
An interactive star map like no other. A titanic work has been done and from a huge number of photographs taken by the Hubble orbital telescope, a map of the entire starry sky has been compiled, by increasing the scale of which you can see stars that are not visible not only with the naked eye, but even with an optical telescope from Earth. In addition, the service provides the opportunity to arrange stars into constellations, view their historical images, as well as take a tour of the solar system, and view the sky in the invisible infrared and microwave ranges.
3. Google Earth service (Google Earth)
Taking Google Sky and Google Map as a basis, Google programmers and designers went even further and created a browser program that, connecting to a single database via the Internet, loads maps of the Earth and sky, as well as the surfaces of the Moon and Mars, onto your computer. The Google Earth project is rapidly developing and is open to anyone who wants to contribute. For example, you can map a 3D model of your home if others haven't already done so. The service also allows you to record videos based on the map, add voice or music accompaniment to them and save it as a video file.
4. Photopic Sky Survey
Another interesting and stunning online starry sky project with convenient controls. As in the previous case with Google, the image was obtained by stitching a huge number of real 5-megapixel photographs into a single whole and obtaining a circular panorama of the starry sky. You can apply a tracing layer with constellations connected by lines, but, unlike Google Sky and Google Earth, the image cannot be saved.
