Planisphere
Use a planisphere to start learning your way around the sky. A planisphere is a circular star chart that can be adjusted to display the visible stars for any time and date.
Planispheres can be bought from good book stores, telescope stores, on-line shops or you can download one free from a number of websites. Dominic Ford has a fantastic one that can be downloaded from here on his website. He has great instructions on his site for how to use it.
Circular sky chart
A highly recommended alternative to a rotating planisphere is the monthly free Skymaps.com chart.
This chart has less distortion (because it is only for one month at time) and it has planets shown on it. The chart also has a number of ‘deep sky’ objects marked on it that are visible to either the unaided eye, through binoculars or through a telescope.