This marks the annual path of the Sun over the year and it is also the plane of the Solar System. The thin yellow line stretching across the charts is called the ‘ecliptic’. The Southern Cross never sets anywhere in Aotearoa so is perpetually in our skies, even though in the very north of the country it nearly touches the southern horizon. From Invercargill, the SCP will appear nearly 10° higher in the south so more of the southern sky will be circumpolar from there. These charts are done for the latitude of Auckland (37° south). The elevation of the SCP above your horizon measures your latitude. The whole sky seems to rotate around this point so objects close to the SCP will never set – they are called ‘circumpolar’. The other key marker is labelled ‘SCP’ – the South Celestial Pole.

Locating the ‘OVERHEAD’ marker for each chart will help with orienting your view of the sky. Also, because of city lights and the absorbing effect of Earth’s atmosphere, objects nearer the horizon will generally appear fainter and redder – an effect we are all familiar with when watching the setting of the Sun or Moon.Įach chart will match the sky at the times given in the table on each page. Be aware that hills, trees and buildings may well block your view of objects nearer the horizon. To match the chart to the western sky, hold the western chart with the ‘WEST’ label aligned with west on your horizon. A small piece of the northern and southern sky is not shown so that we can show you a better scale for the charts. One view shows the western sky and the other shows the eastern sky. The star charts show two views of the night sky for each month.

Sky chart tonight observing