2d-3d constellations - North Circumpolar (Boreal)

Starting from the point of view of an observer, the constellations can be organized in many ways, to publish them in parts (there are 88 in total), this humble amateur astronomer organized them by latitudes in the celestial sphere, for which I defined about 5 areas to group them: North Circumpolar (Boreal), South Circumpolar (Austral), Ecliptic (zodiacal +1), Boreal and Austral. It is just a way of grouping them, nothing more, the use given to this set can be both decorative and instructive. I'll explain myself below.

• First of all, the circles represent the stars, you will notice subtle size differences, to differentiate the brightest stars from the faint ones.
• The names of the constellations are in Latin, which seemed most practical to me since it is the international convention proposed by the International Astronomical Union.
• Below the names, when it is repeated at 2 ends of the piece, you will notice an “N” or an “S”, it indicates how the constellation is seen from each hemisphere, we only have to hold the piece facing North or South depending on the hemisphere in which we find ourselves.
• The grid lines within the frames represent right ascension and declination, in 1-hour steps in right ascension and 10° steps in declination.
• In the case of the zodiacal constellations + Ophiuchus, a diagonal line represents the ecliptic, the area through which the planets, the sun and the moon move apparently across the celestial sphere.

Representing a constellation of stars is usually something simple, points are simply joined together, implying a shape that refers to its name, but a constellation is somewhat more complex than 5 or 10 stars joined by lines. There is also a “container” or area that contains it and it is not easy to see with the naked eye.

The intention is that these pieces can be used on observation nights and offer a subtle idea of the whole, both the area and the configuration of stars that define a shape.

The ideal would be to have objects almost double the size in which you project them, but in these dimensions it will allow most of the 3D printers to be able to make them, some of you will have to scale them by reducing them a little.

From an aesthetic point of view, the result of this project is satisfactory, they look very good, but it is important that those who print these objects understand that it is not a puzzle, these pieces do not fit together due to how they have been projected, the representation of the areas of the constellations were captured from a virtual planetarium program, in a 2d-3d representation of the stereographic projection type of the “Stellarium” program. It is a way to represent the celestial dome on a flat screen. They can be displayed together but the frame contains the area of each one, so if we joined them the frames should overlap.

And why do this? Taking advantage of the shape resulting from this projection allows it to be used during observation nights to explain and teach them in a much more “intuitive” way.

Each one is represented as it passes through the meridian of the place, the point at which the constellation crosses the midpoint of the place between East and West. This means that if a constellation is located in the sky very far to the east or west, a deformity or stretching will be noticed if we compare positions of stars.

The idea is that we can superimpose these pieces between us and the night sky about 25 to 30 cm from our eyes and by fitting the brightest stars we would achieve a reference of the same, it is understood that at that distance it will be a bit complex, since focusing on 2 things at the same time for our eyes will be impossible, this is the problem of the size of the pieces, if they were larger at a greater distance from our eyes the result would surely be optimal, but I do not have printers that print 50cm (20 inches) of area J, not to mention how cumbersome it is to transport something of that size.

I hope it is useful to you and you enjoy discovering the night sky.

The project is in development, I will complete the celestial sphere as I finish drawing all the pieces (patience).