Sky Chart

www.astroshot.com/Star-Charts/Star-Chart-2006-06-01-11pm.png

Above is a quick stab at outputting chart from Stellarium. Hopefully it might be of use to someone.

Comments on how to improve it would be appreciated (Colours/text/etc)

Hopefully, over time, it can be improved upon.

Clear skies,

Looks familiar...

I like it, even with the fonts used. It does need to be brightened up IMO.

Whats everyones obsession with the Star Trek fonts around here?!

www.astroshot.com/Star-Charts/Star-Chart-2006-06-01-11pm.png
Above is a quick stab at outputting chart from Stellarium. Hopefully it might be of use to someone.
Comments on how to improve it would be appreciated (Colours/text/etc)
Hopefully, over time, it can be improved upon.
Clear skies,

Hi Michael. Hope I don't appear too critical but I have some suggestions.
1. Perhaps better to use a deep blue sky rather than black - the map is just too dark and there is no discernible edge to the 360 degree horizon map as the background is the same colour.
2. Anything red will disappear entirely in the dark using a red torch.
3. Some overlapping of constellation, star and object names - most star charting programs use special algorithms to avoid this.
4. Best to use the same colour (white) for all star names rather than mix the colours.
5. Check criteria being used for displaying DSOs. For example, bright objects like M35 and M57 are missing.
6. Would be helpful to know the limiting magnitude of the map as well as date & time.
7. DSO symbols are the same irrespective of type of object. Is this a limitation of the software?

Preparing maps for public use can prove difficult and involve considerable experimentation to get right. For all my articles, I used Sky Map Pro but stripped everything from the maps when saving bar stars and DSO symbols, then used Photoshop or Illustrator to manually insert constellation names, star names, replacement DSO symbols, DSO names, compass etc. Time consuming for detailed maps but a simple 360 degree horizon map like this shouldn't take long and you have full control on how the map appears. Use a separate new layer for each text item and symbol and name every layer clearly - makes it easy to move and place without any confusion or overlapping. Save as a PSD with all layers intact as it's easy then to open and drag layers to a new map for another month using the same names etc (saves lots of retyping). Finally flatten and save as a high quality jpeg.

I'll just add one more comment to Gordon's

If you want people to print this out, I would invert the colours..black on a white background

Good suggestions lads. Much appreciated! I'll take another stab at this later.
Hopefully, this will evolve into a star shart which most people would be satisfied to use.
Cheers,