Learn to spot constellations by shape, tell the planets apart, and place them all in the sky — then flip each card for how, when, and where to actually find it. Guidance below is calibrated for northern mid-latitudes (~30–50°N).
Orbits compressed (βAU scale) so all eight fit in one view — not to true relative scale. Exact distances are on each planet's card.
How the family fits together
The four small, rocky worlds crowd close to the Sun; a gap of asteroid rubble separates them from four enormous gas & ice giants spaced far apart. Pluto orbits beyond all of them, tilted and elongated.
Inner Mercury · Venus · Earth · Mars — rock & metal, thin or no atmosphere
Outer Jupiter · Saturn · Uranus · Neptune — mostly gas & ice, dozens of moons each
Beyond Pluto & the Kuiper Belt — icy dwarf worlds in the solar system's outer suburbs
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Mythical figure art: hand-colored 19th-century constellation plates, in the style of the star-atlas card deck Urania's Mirror.
The whole sky, in one view
All constellations in this atlas β including the full zodiac β placed by their real right ascension and declination, so you can see how they actually sit relative to one another. Drag to look around; scroll or pinch to zoom.
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π±οΈ Drag to look around Β· scroll or pinch to zoom
Star positions are approximate real coordinates, plotted for orientation β not precision astrometry.
Find your way in the sky
Two beginner tools: watch how the northern sky turns around Polaris through the night, then learn the classic "star-hop" tricks stargazers use to find fainter objects starting from ones they already know.
The turning sky
Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, and Auriga circle Polaris once every day (23h56m, to be exact) and never dip below the horizon for most of the Northern Hemisphere β everything else in the sky rises and sets, but these four just keep turning.
Turning counter-clockwise, just like the real northern sky
Star-hopping: use what you know to find what you don't
Bright, easy-to-spot shapes double as signposts to fainter things nearby. Here are four of the classics.
The Big Dipper β a sky compass
The two outer bowl stars (Dubhe and Merak) point straight to Polaris. Follow the handle's own curve outward ("arc to Arcturus"), keep going the same way to reach Spica, and extend that same arc further and it sweeps down toward Scorpius, low in the summer sky.
The Pointers, the other way β Regulus
The same two bowl stars that point to Polaris work in reverse, too: follow Dubhe through Merak the opposite direction, down past the bowl, and on spring evenings you'll land roughly on Leo and its brightest star, Regulus β less exact than the Polaris pointer, but a handy seasonal nudge in the right direction.
Cassiopeia β the Pleiades
Cassiopeia sits roughly opposite the Big Dipper across Polaris, so it's a handy backup signpost when the Dipper is low. A line dropped from the middle of its "W" lands near the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus.
Orion's Belt β a two-way signpost
With Orion's shoulders up and feet down, the three-star belt points both ways: follow it down and to the left, out past the feet, to reach Sirius, the night sky's single brightest star; follow it up and to the right to reach orange Aldebaran in Taurus.
Pegasus β the Andromeda Galaxy
One corner of the Great Square, Alpheratz, is shared with Andromeda. Follow the curving chain of stars away from the square and a bit further on you land on the Andromeda Galaxy β the most distant thing most people ever see with the naked eye.
The Summer Triangle
Not a constellation but a giant, unmistakable asterism: Vega, Deneb, and Altair β the brightest stars of Lyra, Cygnus, and Aquila β ride high overhead on summer evenings and make a signpost of their own for finding all three of those constellations at once.