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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. |
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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
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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
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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 -- + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Stephen Tonkin | ATM Resources; Astro-Tutorials; Astro Books + + (N51.162 E0.995) | http://www.astunit.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + |
#6
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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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