planisphere

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Make your own cardboard model planisphere

This repository contains Python scripts that can be used to produce a cardboard cut-and-glue kit to make your own model planisphere.

Introduction

A planisphere is a simple hand-held device which shows a map of which stars are visible in the night sky at any particular time. By rotating a wheel, it shows how stars move across the sky through the night, and how different constellations are visible at different times of year.

See https://in-the-sky.org/planisphere/index.php for more information, including detailed assembly instructions.

Getting started

To make planisphere models for all latitudes, at five degree intervals, run the shell script main_planisphere.sh.

Caveat

Planispheres do not work well when used close to the equator. The scripts in this repository do not allow you to create planispheres for latitudes between 15°N and 15°S, as the celestial pole is too close to the horizon.

Author

This code was developed by Dominic Ford https://dcford.org.uk. It is distributed under the Gnu General Public License V3.