INSTRUCTION MAN UA L

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Planet
LOCATOR

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TURN DI AL TO PUT

DATE OPPOS ITE

TIME. STARS WI LL
APPEAR IN SKY
THE SAME AS
SHOWN ON CHART.
EXAM PLE SHOWN

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IS FOR JULY 15
AT 9 O'CLOCK 1.'

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Copyright 19M

EDMUND SCIENTIFIC CO. 60 Pearce Ave., Tonawanda, NY 14150

/'\.lnUr~ctulI!rs

and tm.m!)ut(}ls 01 FIne ASJronom+ea1 TelcscopII5 and AccessonllS

wwwse,enlll,csonllne.com

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LOCATOR \

You will rind stargaz ing with the ;Ijd of the Star and
Planet Locator a fascinating past ime, with each passing
night add ing someth ing to your knowledge of the big show
in the sk ies. Using the chart is simple: I f yo u want to locate
a star in the southern sky. si t or stand facing soulh and hold
the chart overhead with South at the bottom , as shown on
front cover. The bottom of the chart opening wil l then
correspond to your sou thern horizon . When (~cine soul h in
this way, Polaris, the North Star, is behind you in the sky,
and you must imagine thc chart as also curving backwards
oyer your head. However, if you want to identify northern
constellations, it is si mpl er \0 face north <l nd hold the chart
with No rth at the hottom, Fig. 1. No te in bot h casc~ th at
East on the chart corresponds 10 :lcw:11 edst , and West is
west.
When you go outd oors 10 loclIe the re.l! stars ilnd
constel lations, you won't find it qu ite as easy as find ing
them 011 the chart. Remember, there arc clouds and haze in
the nigh t sky just the same as in the daytime and you may
nOI be able to sec the fainlcr stars of a constcllation. You
can study the chart wilh a pen fl ashlight, but avoid any
bright light which wou ld spoil yo ur nigh t vi ~ i o n.

Most beginners identify the Big Dipper first, and by its

"pointers" locate the pole star, Polaris. Across the pole
from the Dipper and at about the same distance is the
zig-zag W marking the constellation ussiopeia. Follow the
curve of the Dipper handle and you will come to Arcturus
and Spica, Fig. 4. During winter months, the mighty
hunter, Orion, "tallest and most handsome of men,"
dominates the southern sky and is easily identified together
with such bright stars as Aldebaran, Castor and Pollux, and
brilliant Sirius, brightest of all the stars. Naked-eye double
stars provide an interesting test for sharp vision; most
persons can make out the rider, Alcor, Fig. 2, on a clear
night, but it takes perfect vision to resolve the ncar
companion of Epsilon in Lyra (see chart on inside back
cover). Try this with binoculars and you will find the
separation quite wide; with a telescope at 100x or better,
each star of the pair is again split--and you get the whole
picture of the famous "double double." A OIce double for
low power is Albireo in Cygnus, which shows as a gold star
and a blue one at 25 to 40-power.
Each star or constellation you identify acts as a sort of
signpost to lead you to other stars and constellations by the
simple system of "star hopping." Other sky signposts which
are useful are the meridian, zenith, and celestial equator.
Fig. 6 shows the approximate location of the celestial
equator. To determine its angular position exactly for your
location, you should fill in the blank diagram, Fig. 9,
starting with your latitude, which can be obtained from any

THl GILlSTIAL

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THI. STARS ARt. 'UI'4
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,trnACt410 TO THI
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ClL.1'TIAI. SPltlltl. -

THi ... APr>tAIt TO oWWeo

O"I.Y NA:AIJU. T~'
LUOlL.P 60U AllOU,.. 0

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ANGLES Of'! CE.LESTIAL ~PI-IERE. ARE. Str OFF U~O.N\ E.QUATOR

atlas, or it may be listed in the tables of cities shown on

another page. Note from Figs. 7 and 8 that your zenith
distance from the celestial equator is the same as your
latitude, and the celestial equator is the same angle above
the south horizon as the celestial pole is from your zenith.
The meridian scale, Fig. 10, is used to locate stars by
angular position. Place it over the star chart, Fig. 11; up
from the equator as many degrees as your latitude and you
will locate your zenith. It is helpful to draw (lightly) on the
chart, Fig. 12, the position of your zenith circle-any star
on this circle will be directly overhead when it is on the
meridian and south of the pole. In general, if you use the
star-hopping system, you locate an unknown star by the
way it "bears" from a star you already know. In the angular
system, )-ou observe only on or nCdr thc meridian, and you
locate a st.u by its angular distance from the equator, or, its
distance south or north of your zenith, or, for low stars, the
angular distance above the horizon. Of course you have to
estimate by eye the angular distance in the sky, but with a
little practice you will be able to do this with considerable
accuracy.
The opening in the Star and Planet chart shows stars to
45 degrees below the equator and 55 degrees below the
pole. If you are located at 40 0 north latitude, you can see
stars to 500 south declination if you have a clear south
horizon; you can see all of the Scorpion during the summer
months.
A little mor" than an observer at latitude +50 would see.

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KEY POINTS ON MERIDIAN

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POI.E, EQUATOR. Af'lO

Z.f.NIT~.

MARK 'fOUR: OtuH 11'11

TI-IE SLANK OrAc.Q.AM ABOVE

Your north cutoff line would then be 50 0 {descending from

th e po le: 90-8070-60-50} wh ich places Capella in Au riga

below the harilon when il is o n you r me ridia n below the
pole. However, Capella is very nearly drcumpolar and can

be secn pr'l(;lically the year round; it is a circumpolar star

for o bservers a l 50 nOrl h lat it ude. AI the other extreme, iF
you live in sou th ern Florida or T cxa~, you can sec mJ ny
southern S\JH not even sh own on the Star and Planet chart,
but Capella will be below the horizon throughout the
summer.

Do a little experimental "dialing" o n the StJr and Pl anet

chart and you will find stars C;1n be see n comidcrably "out
of season. " Orion (sec Fig. 13) is a typical winter
conste lla tion, but yo u can scc the mighty hunter rising in
th e cast as early as July jf you care 10 Slay up unlil 4
o'clock in Ihe mo rning.

TIME CORRECTION
If you want to be sc ientificall y correct in using the Star
an d Plallet chart , you ~hou ld se t it according to local mea n
sun time. If you live in or ncar any of the cities listed in the
Llble on opposite page, you can find mean su n lime by
adding or su btracting the lime correc tion given from your
sundard time. For other loca tio ns, you must first find your
longitude fr om an at[as.Then,if you are west of your time
zone meridi ,m, your time correc tion is minus four minutes
for each degree you arc west. [f you arc cast of your zone
meridian the lime correction is plus.
Example: Cleveland, Ohio, is at 81 JA degrees longitude.
Clevel'lnd keeps Eastern standard time but is 6-% degrees
west of the zone meridian. Therefore, the time correction is
61.i times 4, cqu;tling 27 minutes. You ca n call it about 30
minutes. This is a minus correction - if your standard clock
reads, say , 8:30, your mean sun time is ItOO (8:03 to be
exact). You then sct the star dial at 8:00 and the stars will
be in proper position fo r 8 o'clock sun time or 8:30
standard time at Cleveland. If you arc lucky enough to live
on or ncar a lime zone meridian, you have no problem at
all - mean sun time is sundard time.
When you have the problem of Daylight-saving time, the
si mplest soluti on is to turn bilc k the D.S.T. cl oc k one hour
so that it reads standard time. Then, apply the time
correction as before.

FINDING THE PLANETS

Planets are ideal telescope objects and the quartet of
Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn has thrilled thousands of
telescope observers. With unaided eye, you see them only as
bright stars, but with a telescope working at 20x or more
you can see the fascinating ring system of Saturn, the
moons of Jupiter and the brilliant crescent of Venus.
Planets are much closer than stars and are seen against a
background of stars. Referring to the table on the back of
the Star and Planet chart, you can find what constellation
will be the background for any planet for any month of the
year. For example, suppose you want to observe Saturn and
find it appears in the comtellation, Scorpius. Rotate the
star dial and note if you can place Scorpius in the chart
opening at some hour of darkness. If you can see the
Scorpion, you will also be able to see Saturn, but if the
Scorpion is in the daytime sky, Saturn too will be invisible.
You can narrow the location somewhat by the fact that the
bright planets as well as the sun and moon never appear
outside the zodiac. The zodiac is a band 8 degrees wide on
each side of the ecliptic; the ecliptic itself marks the
apparent yearly journey of the sun among the stars. Now,
you know Saturn is in Scorpius and also inside the zodiac,
so it must be somewhere in the area shown in Fig. 15. The
bright star, Antares, will be your guide. When you get
outdoors, you simply locate Antares, and, sure enough,

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there's ,lrlother bright sta r in the sky nC;H

it - and that you know is ringed Sa turn. In
the 30-ye;H orbit of Sat urn, th ere arc two
int ervals when the rings a re ~ up e n ~ or
plainly seen and two times when they arc
"closed" edge-on and invisible (Fig 21).
The pl .. nels
Mars, Jupiter .. nd
Sa turn - arc seen at times to the south from
southeast to southwest, but they arc nol
always so favorably placed and you may
have to catch them rising in the east or
setting in the west. Venus and Mercury can
never be seen rar from the sun. If you stud y
Fig. 19 you will discover why Venus is
SOllletimes seen as an evening star :Inri :lgain
as a morning slar. At her brightest, Venus is
some thirteen times brighter than Sirius ami
is a be .. utiful telescope object. Ilig Jupi ter
with his four bright moons always puts on a
good show, whi le Mars is :I constan t
challenge if you wonder "what's up the rel"
The locator is useful in observi ng
satellites. S:lteliites can cross the sky from
any quarter and can vary in the angular
height above the horizon. The magnitude or
brightness of a sa tellite can range from
invisible to that which is hrighter than the
stars. Also, its magnitude call appear to
change as it travels across the sky.
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