This chart have been prepared for an observer located in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. If you are located North of Wollongong, stars shown on the Northern horizon chart will be located higher in the sky and stars shown on the Southern horizon chart will be lower in the sky or not visible at all. If you are located South of Wollongong, the opposite will apply.
The chart has been created using the highly recommended freeware astronomy program Stellarium. Each monthly chart has been prepared for around the end of astronomical twilight. This will mean you have a completely dark sky – assuming you are away from street lights and the Moon is not visible.
For those interested, the TimeandDate website can be used to generate the exact time that astronomical twilight ends at your location.
This all-sky charts is designed to be used by holding the chart over your head. You then orientate the chart so that the direction on the edge of the chart matches where you are facing. Anotherwords, if you are facing to the East, you need to have the Eastern horizon of the chart in the same direction.
A number of websites offer print friendly versions of all-sky charts. A highly recommended site is Skymaps.com. Other sites offer the option of customising the charts for your exact location and observing time.
Once you are ready to move on from using these types of charts, I suggest you install Stellarium on your computer or the highly recommended Sky Safari app on your tablet or phone. Another source of information is the annual astronomy yearbook published by Quasar Publishing.
Finally, no planets are shown on the charts. This allows the charts to be useful for the next hundred years. If you happen to view a ‘star’ in the sky that is not shown on a particular chart, you will have ‘discovered’ a planet or if you are really lucky, a supernova!