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Astronomy Guides Constellations Map Map of the Constellations The chart below shows the boundaries of the 88 constellations of the night sky, plotted on a rectangular grid right ascension – celestial longitude – and declination – celestial latitude. Each chart is available in two color schemes: light-on-dark, recommended for screen viewing, or dark-on-light which is printer friendly. Each can be viewed at higher resolution by either clicking on the images to expand them to full screen, or by clicking the "pdf" link in the bottom right corner to download each image at the highest possible quality in Acrobat Reader.
The rectangular projection used above does not accurately represent the sky areas covered by the constellations. The sky is a spherical surface – like the surface of the Earth – and it is impossible to represent it on a flat map without distorting some areas. The simple rectangular projection chosen here warps those constellations close to the north and south celestial poles to appear much larger and wider than they are in reality. However, it does provide a convenient reference for converting between constellation names and right ascensions and declinations. By clicking the "Galactic coordinates" tab, the same chart can be viewed in Galactic coordinates, a rotated coordinate system in which the plane of the Milky Way runs horizontally across the middle of the chart. |
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