planishpere

When I was a kid my dad gave me this old movie theater lens. In middle school we studied light refraction, so i brought in the lens for a few days. Eventually someone chipped it, so I brought it home.
Several years later I dug it out to incorporate into my steampunk costume.
I remembered making planispheres in the 6th grade and I thought it would go well with the lens.
After making a leather case, I found instructions for a planisphere here, shrank it to the correct size, printed it, traced it, inked it and colored it in.



A planisphere is kind of like a compass that uses the location of the stars instead of the planet's polarity. This one can only be used in the northern hemisphere.

To use it, one aligns the date with the time of night. Where the line between north and south intersects the perforated circle on the chart is where the zenith {the point in the sky directly above you} should appear.
From there, one may decipher the positions of the constellations pictured and determine North, South, East, West, et cetera.

Because of the size, I had to pick and choose the constellations pictured and exclude others. Also, there may not be exactly 365 days and December is a little funny looking.