Combo-Pak: 
The Night Sky : A New Kind of Planisphere
and
Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars

Save $$$ - Get Two of David Chandler's Great Products in One Set

BEST VALUE
Planisphere, Booklet, Sky Atlas, and more,
 in First Light Astronomy Kit

Combo-Pak: Save $$$
Get Two Great Products
 in One Set

Availability: 
In Stock

Combo-Pak: Sets with Large or Small Planispheres and Booklet

Latitude Ranges: 20°-30°, 30°-40°, 40°-50°, 50°-60°, Southern Hemisphere (30°-40° South)

Description: The Night Sky planisphere is printed with dark stars on a light background for easy nighttime readability. The constellations are drawn simply, emphasizing the brighter stars. Coordinate grid lines are shown without being intrusive. A selection of deep sky objects for binocular viewing is included. The map scale is larger than on similar-size planispheres because the whole sky does not have to be shown on a single map. Even the 5" pocket version is large enough to be quite readable.

Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars was written to be a companion handbook for The Night Sky planisphere, serving as a general introduction to observational astronomy. It covers both what can be seen in the sky and the significance of what is seen. Although it was not written explicitly for children, it won honorable mention in the New York Academy of Sciences Children's Science Book Awards (older children's division). It is illustrated with specially commissioned artwork by Don Davis, one of the leading space artists today. Besides being a starter book for beginners, it is used in a number of colleges as a textbook supplement for the first-week's reading assignment!

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The Night Sky is Designed to be Used!

• Unlike coffee-table planispheres, The Night Sky is printed with dark stars on a light background, for easy nighttime readability.

• The constellations are drawn simply, emphasizing the brighter stars. (The constellation patterns were designed in collaboration with the editors of Sky and Telescope magazine.)

• Coordinate grid lines are shown without being intrusive. Coordinates are shown because they can be useful for cross referencing with star atlases.

• A selection of deep sky objects for binocular viewing is included. It is important to point out to beginners that the best first telescope is a pair of binoculars. You may already have what it takes to start observing tonight!

• The Night Sky is larger than it looks! The map scale is larger than on similar-size planispheres because the whole sky does not have to be shown on a single map. Even the 5" pocket version is large enough to be quite readable.

Sky and Telescope adopted The Night Sky in 1976 and has promoted it ever since. The Night Sky is widely recognized by the amateur astronomy and educational communities as the overall best planisphere on the market.

A New Kind of Planisphere

"Chandler's planisphere (rotating star-finder wheel) is the finest available"--Sky News

"The Night Sky is not just another planisphere. I think The Night Sky is the finest and easiest to use star finding aid in existence."--Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer (Seen on PBS stations throughout North America and Internationally via satellite, the Armed Services Network, NASA C.O.R.E. and USIA WORLDNET)

The Distortion Solution!

Conventional planispheres severely distort the sky near the southern horizon. The distortion results from trying to stretch the whole dome of the sky onto a single flat map.

This is the constellation Sagittarius...

...as shown in a photograph (courtesy of John Sanford)

The Night Sky is NOT a conventional planisphere! No flat map can remove all distortion, but The Night Sky eliminates over 90% of the distortion inherent in conventional 1-sided planispheres.