04/19/2026
It is becoming increasingly common at our star watch events to have guests using phone apps to navigate the sky - using the features that let them point to a region of sky and be shown the constellation they are looking at. It seems like a good way to learn to navigate the stars. Personally I don't know how easy or effective they are to use because I cannot go back to the time when I didn't know the sky to try them out. But our visitors like them.
Those of us of a more... er... Jurassic.... origin remember learning the sky with charts printed on paper! And they didn't change as you looked at the sky!
At the April 24th meeting of the WCAC, two of our more Jurassic members are going to share the development of star charts and atlases that we used back in the day (not all that long ago). Drew Miller & Dave Gill will share some of these atlases, their histories, and how they helped lead to the electronic versions that we all use today.
The meeting will be on Friday, April 24 at 7:30 pm in the Planetarium in the Astronomy Education Building at TWC. Guests are always welcome! No charge.
