Joan, I think at one time the Vehrenberg book was the most popular set of charts in the world (Although I think Brent gave old Hans a run for his money). Would love to see your "veteran" copy one of these days, duct tape and all. My old Skalnate Pleso is also epoch 1950, but at the scale of these pre-Hipparchos-data atlases, it's not a problem. (And God bless the person who invented the laminating machine.) "Bring your old atlas and star charts to lunch" day at the next L&O would be a great idea. On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 3:54 PM, <jcarman6@q.com> wrote:

Ahhhhhh, memories. When I got my first telescope - a C-8 (orange - the best color) back in 1980, I also purchased Vehrenberg's Handbook of the Constellations. 1950 Coordinates. Much smaller about 8" by 12", w hite stars on black background. On the right side was the constellation and on the left side was a whole page of objects and their ra/decs to find within the constellation. Good for northern and southern hemisphere. Am sure it is not nearly as detailed as your's Chuck, but it certainly served me well. The binding is held together by duct tape (bless that invention), but the pages are in very good shape. The Tirion is to big and cumbersome.

BUT, those old fashioned paper charts are well loved and appreciated at private observing sessions The glow from lap tops, ipads/pods and such are NOT appreciated. Tried it once with my Sky program -gahhh, the glow blew the night vision to smitherins.