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Any books on "Astro" Cartography? (I'm not a crank)



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 30th 03, 12:51 AM
Adrian B.
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Default Any books on "Astro" Cartography? (I'm not a crank)

Sorry, I was told that in my original posting I sounded like a Star
Trek crank by asking about "Stellar" cartography. The correct term is
apparently "Astro" cartography (and hopefully I now won't get confused
with an astrology cranks by using that term ).

Anyway...

I'm interested in star map projections from star catalogs, coordinate
systems, dealing with precession over time, refraction effects, etc.
So can anyone recommend an introductory book on Astro Cartography?
I'm having trouble finding anything. Alternatively, any introductory
articles or online resources would be great too.

Thanks
A.B.
  #2  
Old July 30th 03, 01:01 AM
Brian Tung
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Default Any books on "Astro" Cartography? (I'm not a crank)

Adrian B. wrote:
Sorry, I was told that in my original posting I sounded like a Star
Trek crank by asking about "Stellar" cartography. The correct term is
apparently "Astro" cartography (and hopefully I now won't get confused
with an astrology cranks by using that term ).


I certainly knew what you meant. I have a sneaking suspicion that a
particular person is meant, but I don't really know.

I'm interested in star map projections from star catalogs, coordinate
systems, dealing with precession over time, refraction effects, etc.
So can anyone recommend an introductory book on Astro Cartography?
I'm having trouble finding anything. Alternatively, any introductory
articles or online resources would be great too.


Jean Meeus has a book called something like Astronomical Algorithms,
which covers most of what you're interested in. Not sure about the
actual projections. For those, try

http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapPr...cartIndex.html

It's for ordinary cartography, but you'll probably be able to use many
of the equations, provided you do the proper transformations between
right ascension and longitude.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt
  #3  
Old July 30th 03, 05:16 AM
Sam Wormley
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Default Any books on "Astro" Cartography? (I'm not a crank)

There are excellect short sections

o Tirion & Sinnott, "Sky Atlas 2000.0", Sky Publishing
o Tirion, Rappaport, Lovi, "Uranometria 2000.0" Vol. I, Willmann-Bell (1987)

o http://www.qadas.com/~rad/astrocarto.html
  #4  
Old July 30th 03, 05:53 AM
Stephen Tonkin
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Default Any books on "Astro" Cartography? (I'm not a crank)

Adrian B. wrote:
Sorry, I was told that in my original posting I sounded like a Star
Trek crank by asking about "Stellar" cartography.


Who the hell told you that?

I'm interested in star map projections from star catalogs, coordinate
systems,


The map projections used are the same as those in "normal" cartography.
The projections most often encountered in stellar cartography are
azimuthal:

* Stereographic: Projection from one pole to a plane at the other. It is
conformal, i.e. it preserves shape. parallels become increasingly
separated the further one gets from the pole. Probably the most common
one, especially for large areas of sky up to a hemisphere because it is
conformal, so constellation shapes are preserved.

* Equidistant: This requires modification of, e.g., a stereographic
projection. This is the one used in planispheres, e.g. the ubiquitous
(in Britain, at least) _Philips Planisphere_. Parallels are equally
spaced, so distances are correct along the meridians (hence the name),
but not in any other direction. It is capable of representing more than
a hemisphere but, as you can see from planispheres, the price is
appalling distortion at the periphery.

*Gnomonic: Projection from the centre of a sphere to a plane at the
pole: Great circles plot as straight lines. Used by meteor observers
because trains plot as straight lines if the pole of the map is placed
at the radiant. Becomes impractical for large areas because an equator
will plot as a straight line at infinity!

IIRC the _Times_ Star chart uses Mercator projection for the "main bit"
and stereographic for the polar maps.

(Please not that "pole", "equator", etc refer to the projection, not
necessarily to celestial poles or equator, although it is often
convenient to have them coinciding.)

A decade or so ago I started writing a star-charting program. IIRC I
used a slightly bodged secant conic projection -- I may have the source
code ('C') somewhere on a floppy -- I could have a look for it if you
were interested.

dealing with precession over time,


Precession isn't really going to change appearance -- all it does from
a cartographic point of view is move the RA/Dec grid around the starry
sky. All you would need to do is shift your pole of projection to the
celestial pole for any epoch.

refraction effects, etc.


You would need to factor this in at the "co-ordinate" stage, i.e. you
would need to have an algorithm that "tweaks" the co-ordinates dependant
on object altitude, air temperature, etc..

So can anyone recommend an introductory book on Astro Cartography?


For the methods of projection, I would imagine that any decent book on
cartography would suffice. I can't suggest any (I tend to approach this
sort of thing from the point of view of projective geometry), but a
colleague of mine teaches cartography -- if you remind me when term
restarts (mid-September), I'll ask him for a recommendation, if you
like.


I'm having trouble finding anything. Alternatively, any introductory
articles or online resources would be great too.


Try a search on "Azimuthal Map Projections" -- it might throw up
something useful.

Best,
Stephen

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  #5  
Old July 30th 03, 09:23 AM
Paul Schlyter
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Default Any books on "Astro" Cartography? (I'm not a crank)

In article ,
Adrian B. wrote:

Sorry, I was told that in my original posting I sounded like a Star
Trek crank by asking about "Stellar" cartography. The correct term is
apparently "Astro" cartography (and hopefully I now won't get confused
with an astrology cranks by using that term ).

Anyway...

I'm interested in star map projections from star catalogs, coordinate
systems, dealing with precession over time, refraction effects, etc.
So can anyone recommend an introductory book on Astro Cartography?
I'm having trouble finding anything. Alternatively, any introductory
articles or online resources would be great too.


Try these links:

ftp://ftp.blm.gov/pub/gis/
http://www.colorado.Edu/geography/gc...oordsys_f.html
ftp://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/software/gctpc/
ftp://nmdpow9.er.usgs.gov/pub/amdahl/
http://www.inmap.co.nz/mi_faq/contents.html
http://plaza.powersurfr.com/jsavard/maps/mapint.htm
http://everest.hunter.cuny.edu/mp/
http://www.colorado.Edu/geography/gc...mapproj_f.html
http://www.Colorado.EDU/geography/gc...j/mapproj.html
http://www.hypermaths.org/quadibloc/maps/mapint.htm
http://www.treasure-troves.com/math/...MapProjections
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1224/mapref.html
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/
http://www.treasure-troves.com/math/...rojection.html
http://www.remotesensing.org/proj/
ftp://kai.er.usgs.gov/pub/
http://www.swig.org/
http://kai.er.usgs.gov/ftp/PROJ.4/proj.html
http://www.cnde.iastate.edu/staff/sw.../maps/utm.html
ftp://nmdpow9.er.usgs.gov/pub/amdahl/
ftp://mapping.usgs.gov/pub/

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  #6  
Old August 1st 03, 10:02 AM
Pete Lawrence
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Default Any books on "Astro" Cartography? (I'm not a crank)

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 05:53:58 +0100, Stephen Tonkin
wrote:

Adrian B. wrote:
Sorry, I was told that in my original posting I sounded like a Star
Trek crank by asking about "Stellar" cartography.


Who the hell told you that?


"Mr Tonkin, will you join me in Stellar Cartography please"

Oh come on he so did ;-)

--
Pete
Homepage at http://www.pbl33.co.uk
CCD/digicam astronomy
 




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