Athasian Star Map and Planisphere

 Athasian Star Map

  Beautiful stars! in other days

The prophet's eye might read your rays;

And tell of many a strange event,

Of warfare, and of warning sent.

I would not wish to know the fate

Of purple crown or royal state.

The stars might show to other eyes

Their deep and mighty mysteries—

Enough for me to know them fair,

And read my lover's safety there.⁠

L. E. L.

I was inspired to create this star map partly because I had recently purchased a planisphere for viewing constellations in the night sky. And I recently had been playing around with the calendar.  I have also been aware of a star map of Athas created by Geneome a few years ago.  

I really liked the idea of mapping out the heavens of Athas and have felt this is an area that is lacking in Dark Sun. Especially after reading several Pathfinder products; particularly People of the Stars and Distant Worlds. I tried to add in more detail than just the known zodiac constellations from the 2e Ivory Triangle supplement and I tried to make something actually useable in some manner.  So I figured I would combine a star map with the calendar information I have recently worked.  The result is a Star Map above and working planisphere below.  I used some of the methods and programs that Geneome recommended for the artwork I am not an artist by any means.  I did not follow his layout exactly, but I did try to follow it fairly closely in case other people were using his layout.  I tried to keep the orientation of the constellations similar and I tried to keep the location of large stars in a given constellation as well. I did add a few stars where I felt it was needed.

I went ahead and populated the map with a bunch of more constellations, images, and names; several of them came from what legends I could find in the DS material.  Dragon Kings had several.  I pulled art from 2e and 4e sources. I aligned the map with the corresponding months and day along the outer edge so that a front cover with a viewing hole could serve as a planisphere. If you know how one works. Great.  If not, they are pretty straight forward. Turn the date on the outer circle to the hour of the night and in the viewing screen are the visible constellations. East and West are reversed.  So be aware of that.  One way to think of it is to face north and point it north and hold it against the night sky. 

Another thing to not get tripped up on is that the month that corresponds to a particular zodiac constellation IS NOT the one that is visible at night. The zodiac sign corresponding to a date is where the position of the SUN is at daytime.  The zodiac sign sits behind the sun, but it cannot be seen because of the brightness of the sun, atmosphere, and daylight. A given zodiac constellation is most prominent at night a half a year later. For example on the year or Ral there is a lunar conjunction (eclipse of Ral crossing Guthay) at midnight on Dominary 1; the first day of the year, on the star map, directly opposite of that date you will find the constellation of Tasker the Scorpion at its zenith at midnight. This is where the moons would be visible in the sky in that constellation.

I also included the breakout of the constellations to also include the three cusps (five day festival weeks) as designated in the Ivory Triangle supplement.  I lined these up with the corresponding dates. I also added a few names to important stars and objects.  

I decided to omit the planets that Geneome had included because planets do not show up on a standard planisphere. And if you were tracking them on one somehow, they would show up along the ecliptic anyway. However, I have decided to include a few names of stars, particularly the brighter ones and also I included a few named after the seven names in the Seofean cycle, which are spaced out about 51.4 degrees apart (360/7) I am assuming that the Seofean cycle is based on a planet in the Athasian system named "Seofea" that has a seven year orbit around the sun and passes one of these these seven named stars every year in the standard Seofean cycle: Fury, Contemplation,  Vengeance, Slumber, etc.  

So here I have the image of white stars on a black background.  For the planisphere I have black stars on white background printer friendly pdf version you can print out and assemble yourself. 

Linkified Planisphere PDF

When assembled it will look like this: