a diagram of the night sky as seen from a certain location and date

January 20, 2016 4:10 PM

Is there a widget out there somewhere that generates a diagram of the night sky (i.e. constellations visible), given a date and viewing place? I see commercial websites that will make you a poster of such a diagram for your birthday or wedding anniversary, but I am not looking to buy a poster.
posted by xo to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

Best answer: web; mac/win/linux.

for a phone, search for "planetarium".
posted by andrewcooke at 4:20 PM on January 20, 2016

The ios app Sky Guide will do that on an iPhone.
posted by thatone at 4:21 PM on January 20, 2016

If you can use a desktop, try Stellarium. It's free/open source and has an astounding array of features. You can select location, date, and time, and save a screenshot in .png format, which you could print to take into the field.
posted by Weftage at 4:34 PM on January 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Stellarium is free software that can generate either a realistic view, and/or also overlay constellation art, names, etc. It also works in motion, in realtime, fast forward, etc.
posted by anonymisc at 4:36 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Cartes du Ciel will do this too and is freeware.
posted by Grumpy old geek at 4:50 PM on January 20, 2016

Stellarium and Mobile Observatory are Android apps my husband uses when he is out with his telescope. They are both paid but I recommend them.
posted by poxandplague at 7:12 PM on January 20, 2016

Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel are both great "show me the full sky," planetarium-style programs. If you want a simpler diagram (as opposed to the full-fledged planetarium-type experience), look at Yoursky. It's pretty much exactly what you're looking for - a sky chart for any location on the Earth for (almost) any time/day in history. Once you enter your location, you can fiddle with the settings to make the formatting exactly what you want (i.e. color, white on black or black on white, planets included or not, ecliptic included or not, limiting magnitude for star brightness, etc.)
posted by Betelgeuse at 7:45 AM on January 21, 2016