Kevin Jardine's starmap

I like 2-D representations of our 3-D immediate space; Kevin Jardine posts (png), I admire. This one's got TRADE ROUTES! How Starflight 2...

Anyway I'm keen on how it works for viewing the night sky, which is also two-dimensional to our eyes, on the Projection model. Also considering the 1994 Guide to the Galaxy which I wish I still owned.

First up is something called "Coma" very close to (0,0) which is us. (We're somewhat-famously almost dab in the Local Bubble's middle.) I hadn't heard of it (somehow); unless this be the Local Fluff of 1994. Looking around, I read that the Greeks first assigned the stars here to Leo's tail and, later, some Ptolemy in Alexandria renamed it after Berenice's hair. This Ptolemy proved cartographically correct since the Coma is closer to us than are the bulk of the Leo stars. At least they hadn't passed it to Taurus - Taurus is its own cluster (Hyades) except for Aldebaran which is just in the way, and for T Tauri of course.

The familiar-to-northerner stars cluster to the top of the map, I see. Alpha Tucanae (named after a toucan) is lower; same with the Eridani. So I guess up is north. The zodiac, which is the plane of earth's orbit, does have some lower-left presence, though.

I had no idea, none, about Alessi 13. Apparently this is a star cluster. It is also called χ¹ Fornacis... and it's 108 parsecs away. Which means it doesn't belong on Jardine's map. D'OH! In fairness Jardine's websites have that distinct 1997 scent of Tripod to them.