It was created by Torsten Bronger using the program PP3 on 2003/07/23. At PP3's homepage, you also get the input scripts necessary for re-compiling the map.
The yellow dashed lines are constellation boundaries, the red dashed line is the ecliptic, and the shades of blue show Milky Way areas of different brightness. The map contains all Messier objects, except for colliding ones. The underlying database contains all stars brighter than 6.5. All coordinates refer to equinox 2000.0.
The map is calculated with the azimuthal equidistant projection (the azimuth being in the center of the image). The north pole is to the top. The (horizontal) lines of equal declination are drawn for 0°, ±10°, ±20° etc. The lines of equal rectascension are drawn for all 24 hours. The scale of the map is (approx.) 11.8 pixel per degree at the centre of the bitmap. Towards the rim there is a very slight magnification (and distortion).
本圖片是以PNG、GIF或JPEG格式上傳。然而,其中包含的資料或訊息,應該重新建立成可縮放向量圖形(SVG)檔案,以更有效率或更準確的方式儲存。如有可能,請上傳本圖片的SVG格式版本。在上傳之後,請修改維基各姊妹計畫中所有使用舊版圖片的條目(列在圖像連結章節中),替換為新版圖片,並在舊圖片的描述頁中加入{{Vector version available|新圖片名稱.svg}}模板,同時移除本模板。