For the benefit of you amateur astronomers, or those interested in getting into the hobby, here is a summary of the best currently available advanced paper star atlases. A lot of stargazers prefer carrying their charts on a laptop, but for those who prefer paper maps, or who find screens ruinous to their night vision, here are the best of the lot, in my opinion. These are brief summaries, look them up for detailed descriptions, prices and reviews. All these charts are machine-plotted for Epoch 2000.0.
In no particular order:
Sky Atlas 2000.0, 2nd Ed. (Sky Publishing Co., 1998) W. Tirion, R. Sinnott
81,000 stars to mag 8.5, 2700 Deep Sky Objects, Scale: 8mm/degree
Large, uncluttered, colorful charts at a scale that approximates the naked eye view. Useful for getting oriented and locating the brighter DSOs and the finder stars near them. A dedicated catalog is available as a companion. This is a great improvement over the now out-of-print 1st Ed., although the latter can be found at a discount in the used book market and is still a great value.
Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas (Cambridge University Press, 2014) R. Stoyan, S. Schurig
201,000 stars to mag 9.5, 13,000 DSOs, 15mm/deg
Convenient, detailed, easy to use at the telescope, printed in color.
AstroAtlas (Out of Print, 1994) D. Herald, P. Bobroff
All Stars < mag 9.0, DSOs < mag 14.0, 9mm/degree
Cluttered and hard to read in dim light, but contains many useful features and extensive symbolgy describing the properties of charted stars and DSOs. Snap it up if you can find it on the used book market.
Millennium Star Atlas (Sky Publishing Co., 1997) R. Sinnott, M. Perryman
1 million stars to mag 11, 10,000 DSOs, 36mm/deg
Very strong on stellar data, relatively weak on DSOs. Big, bulky, expensive, out of print.
It would be the ideal desk atlas if it had Uranometria’s (see below) DSO list.
Uranometria 2000.0, 2nd Ed. (Willman-Bell, 2001) W. Tirion, B. Rappaport, W.Remaklus
280,000 stars to mag 9.75, 30,000 DSOs, 18.5 mm/deg
Probably the best, optimal, all-around atlas, for completeness and ease of use. Can be taken to the field, but it is best used as a desk reference. A must-have. It also comes with a highly detailed catalog. This is an excellent upgrade over the now out-of-print 1st Ed., although copies of the latter can be found at a discount in the used book market and are a valuable low-cost alternative.
Great Atlas of the Sky (Astropolis.PL, 2009) P. Brych
2.4 million stars to mag 12.0, 70,000 DSOs. 35mm/deg
Lots of stars, faint galaxies and nebulae. Other DSO types, hard to evaluate; there is little metadata available for it, no catalog or bibliography/acknowledgements. Out of print, but still available at discount houses for about $100. Beautifully published, but very bulky, although individual sheets can be detached and taken into the field. IMO, primarily of value to faint galaxy hunters with dark skies and big instruments. It never caught on with American amateurs.