The mad scientists here at Amazing Sci-Fi have labored long into the night to produce this stunning star chart. This stellar map displays some of the most noteworthy celestial objects within 1500 light years of Earth, including habstars, nebula and stars made famous in science fiction cinema. The map itself can be purchased in the Amazing Sci-Fi gift shop in various sizes. Click on the thumbnail below to preview a larger sample of the poster.

The genesis of this map was driven by necessity: I am working on a sci-fi graphic novel, and needed an easy-to-read chart of the local stellar neighborhood for reference. There are already many excellent star maps on the web: the excellent maps of Winchell Chung (if you have never visited Winchell’s Project Rho website, you should….he has produced an awe-inspiring online reference tome for anyone interested in the science of star travel), the Atlas of the Universe, the endlessly amusing 3-D navigator Celestia, and the outstanding flash-based Exosolar map. But I wanted a simple paper map, featuring only the stars likely to be of relevance to a good space opera, in a format that made it easy to read. I quickly found that most existing star charts can be confusing, for the same reason no one can figure out where they are in Cincinnati, Ohio: all of the places have ten different names, depending on who you ask. So I decided to make my own map, using the names I recognized, and (aside from the several thousand neurons that immediately committed seppeku at the prospect of doing math) ended up learning more than I could’ve imagined about astronomy…and even a little trig.

I decided to render it in the style of a vintage nautical chart, in good old 2-D. The map is presented as if you are looking ‘down’ upon the galactic plane. Each star has its z-axis (that is, its distance from the plane) noted in light years beneath its name. The signs of the zodiac surrounding the chart are simply a convenience: while they generally coincide with the real constellations, the actual zodiac is traced along the ecliptic, which is inclined to the galactic plane by a significant amount, so it isn’t a very precise depiction. It does, however, make a handy too for rapid orientation, much like the clock code pilots use to communicate the position of aircraft to each other. If you wish to find your own star on the map, your best bet is to determine its galactic longitude and latitude, and do the math. (The z axis is determined by getting out your handy scientific calculator and multiplying the sine of the galactic latitude by the distance from Earth. Zero degrees galactic longitude points towards the galactic center, 90 degrees points to spinward. It’s not rocket science. Or maybe it is. Anyway, I did it so you wouldn’t have to.)

There are over 1400 star systems within 100 light years of Earth, so trying to find your favorite star on a map that included all of them would be like trying to find a person named “P.C. Windows” on the web. I opted to just include the most interesting and habitable of them, along with some of the more colorful local landmarks. The astonishing pace at which modern astronomers are learning about the universe is such that this map is probably already out of date, so spare me the hate mail. There is a helpful comment box below for those of you who feel compelled to share your vast store of astronomical knowledge. For the rest of us, there is this map. I hope you enjoy it!