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Are there printable 2D star maps that are distorted such that, when printed, they can be cut (along printed lines) to be applied to the outside of a sphere to represent the celestial sphere, as seen from the center of the substrate sphere?

Is there a term for this type of map?

If they don't exist, how can one be created?

Glorfindel
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manateed
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  • What you're looking for is called a star chart to make a celestial sphere. – Mike Harris Oct 07 '18 at 14:59
  • Related: https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/15639/what-projections-should-i-use-to-make-my-own-globe – Mike G Oct 07 '18 at 15:05
  • Would two polar projections, one for each pole, suffice? It doesn't violate the Riemann Mapping Theorem since there's an irremovable discontinuity at the equator. –  Oct 07 '18 at 18:00
  • There's no way I know of to paste paper nicely on to a proper sphere, but there will be cut-outs you can tape together that look close to a sphere. I remember my old globe was indeed pieces of what looked like paper pasted to a glass sphere, but I have a hunch that was a fairly specialized paper and process developed for globe manufacture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe#Manufacture – uhoh Oct 08 '18 at 11:10
  • I've found out that vertical segments that one would cut out to try to paste to a sphere are called gores and this is indeed how old globes were made. I know that the Python package Skyfield can generate locations of stars and the math to make a printable image superimposed on the gores is not hard. Is this a way you might want to proceed? Or are you looking for something you can just download and print? – uhoh Oct 08 '18 at 11:32
  • Old videos about globe making: 1, 2, 3, 4 In the mean time, if you are bored, in-the-sky.org has a way to make a planisphere. https://in-the-sky.org/planisphere/index.php – uhoh Oct 08 '18 at 11:32
  • Thank you all for the suggestions and information! It has been immensely helpful. – manateed Oct 14 '18 at 21:20

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