Star Charts On The Cheap Page 2-
Heavens-Above is one of the simplest online star chart sites, but unlike Your Sky, you have to register. The downside is that is a lot of steps. The upside is that it builds a basic profile that it keeps stored; you never have to worry about things like setting your location again.
The registration process is fairly straightforward. Once you've selected your location, you're set (you also have the option to enter your location manually).You can also add more locations, which is a great feature if you plan to observe while traveling.
At this point you can now proceed to the main prediction page.
Admittedly, there is a lot to take in here. The things you can do at Heavens-Above are amazing. For now, though, we'll concentrate on the Whole sky chart link under the Astronomy heading. Clicking that gives you this -
This is a nice, clean, full sky chart. While not as fully featured as Your Sky, it does give the budding astronomer a very usable chart. The controls below the chart are also very easy to use.
Again, if you plan on printing out the chart, it's best to select black on white.
When you do save it to your computer, you might be greeted by a file name that seems a bit confusing, skychart.aspx.gif. It is still just a gif image; if it makes it easier for archiving purposes, simply rename it and remove that aspx.
Final Thoughts on Heavens-Above
I admit that I mix my online charting applications. If you look at my "Seeing Double?" entry at the Vagabond's blog, you'll find that I freely mix Heavens-Above maps with those produced at Your Sky to produce the charts (though I have edited them to highlight the targets).You might consider starting off with Heavens-Above and using the coordinate data. Either way, Heavens-Above is a great place to start your stargazing.
This page assembled with TextEdit on Macintosh OS X version 10.4.6... believe it or not.