Detailed Paper All-Sky Charts suitable for field use

'Pocket Sky Atlas'  from Sky And Telescope and by Roger W. Sinnott
Highly recommended set of charts nicely organized that contains detailed and well done charts for medium to bright deep sky targets.  Very nice book size format and very well thought out charts covering objects of all sorts.

'DeepMap 600'  by Will Tirion with object selection by  Steve Gottlieb.  You have to get this map available from Orion telescopes. This shows northern skies on one map for quick browsing of the night sky.  The back has info on 600 objects that cover all the Messier objects and more.

'SkyAtlas 2000.0'   by Wil Tirion and Roger W. Sinnott
A wonderful double-size large field reference with fold-out charts. This is a classic set of charts

'UranoMetria 2000.0'   by Tirion, Rappaport, Remaklus  (Get version 2)
Two large format book volumes (North and South) that are 1.85cm per degree for main charts and loaded with objects and stars to mag 11.  If you are serious about observational astronomy these are important charts.

'Night Sky Observer's Guide' by George Kepple and Glenn Sanner
Very popular and wonderful 3-volume large format book set.  North sky Autumn/Winter, North sky Spring/Summer and Southern skies.


Computer Based Charting Programs

MegaStar - A lightweight (fast) PC only tool with a feature rich and my choice. This can as it integrate with RealSky DSS images but that is out of print.  I happen to have it and love it's ease of use and detailed catalogs. 

The Sky X  - A very popular and modern full featured star chart program.   Many people integrate this with DSS images as well although it is a bit clumbsy to get to the pictures if in the field away from internet.

Starry Night Pro 6 - A very well done modern full featured star chart program.    I have used this for years and find it wonderful for at-home usage although it could be used in the field easily as well, I use MegaStar.

SkyTools - A powerful charting program although the inteface is often non-intuitive it has amazing avility to accuratley show star fields.


The lists above are in no way complete and only represent many popular references.

Charts For The Night Sky