visual almanac

When I was up at the CAO, I noticed the Sky & Telescope 2008 Almanac. You can presently buy this from the Sky & Telescope store for $2.



It is colourful, informative, intriguing. I considered buying one. But that would be kinda silly, all by itself...

So, I decided to make my own visual almanac (for 45° latitude). Inspired by, you'll be happy to note, the "Right Ascensions of the Sun and Planets 2008" graph in the Observer's Handbook. I used Macromedia Fireworks to do it.



I enhanced my version.

• full colour, i.e. indigo background, coloured planets
• realistic twilight
• twilight encroaching in the corners
• uncluttered vertical axes
• Mercury inferior and superior conjunctions shown

Hope you like it.

Warning: the full size image is approx. 3000 pixels square.

§

Note: My version corrects are error in the Observer's Handbook. The labels for Jupiter and Pluto in the handbook are flipped. Jupiter should be at the bottom, the wavy line; whereas, Pluto should be at the top, the nearly straight line.