Introduction to Star Charts

A star atlas, a pictorial record of stellar observations, is an important tool in astronomy for recognizing stars and indicating their positions. Unlike traditional geographic atlases or astrophotographs, star atlases are now precise descriptions or drawings of persistent features in the night sky, such as stars, constellations of stars, galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, and other extragalactic systems; i.e., "maps of the stars.