A less Rude planisphere? (southern hemisphere)

October 9, 2008 9:22 AM

What planisphere would you recommend for 15 degrees South latitude?

My gf is going to the tropical southern hemisphere. She would like to carry along a planisphere, preferably with constellations and stars +2 magnitude and brighter labeled. The Celestron one appears to be the standard but I cannot tell from online descriptions whether it has the southern hemisphere's stars at all. The Rude Starfinder is too awkward for her to use comfortably. Ideally the planisphere would be plastic since the environment is pretty damp. Have you a recommendation?

posted by jet_silver to science & nature (3 comments total)

I've used the Chandler one which does explicity include a Southern hemisphere, and comes in plastic too.
posted by vacapinta at 9:45 AM on October 9, 2008

I forget the type I have, but they're small plastic devices (maybe 4" diameter) and don't take up much space -- I got mine at backpacking stores, so they're meant to be carried around in a backpack and not weigh too much. The two I have are for 30 and 40 degrees north, and there's really not much difference between the two. I used the 40 degree one at my location (~33 degrees north) without suffering from any significant loss of information for years. They're made by the same company though, so they might have a version for more southerly latitudes.

Mine look similar to this one, but are all black. The linked one is a 35 degree S model which may be a *little* too far off from where your gf will be, but would come pretty close. Most of the difference would be down near the horizon, which may be obscured by trees anyway.
posted by LionIndex at 9:52 AM on October 9, 2008

Thanks to both of you. The Chandler one will be easier for my gf to read; that's the one I ordered.
posted by jet_silver at 8:27 AM on October 11, 2008