This DIY planisphere is designed to show the appearance of the sky at latitudes similar to Greenwich at different times and on different days of the year. 

As the Earth spins on its axis, the stars move across the sky in much the same way as the Sun. Whilst some stars rise and set, others, the circumpolar stars, are always present. Because the Earth is orbiting the Sun as well as spinning on its axis, each star rises and sets about 4 minutes earlier from one day to the next. When viewed at the same time on successive nights, the sky will have shifted by about one degree in an anticlockwise direction - moving through 360 degrees sign in the course of a year.

• Exclusive to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich