A star chart is a map of the sky used to identify and locate astronomical objects. By the early twentieth century they were essential in various human activities such as human navigation and economic planning. Today, there are various software and mobile applications able to build them in real time. In this work, we present a method to build a sky chart that can be used as a teaching tool to introduce astronomy content in physics classes. The work is divided into three parts. At first, we present the two celestial coordinate systems, equatorial and horizontal. In the second, the time settings. In the third, we show how to calculate the horizontal coordinates of the stars and build a sky chart. Finally, we present a comparison of our results with the literature. In the conclusion, a suggestion of how to approach this this subject in the classroom.
Keywords
astronomy; star chart; astronomy education
