A sky atlas is the counterpart to a topographic map – without it, we would find it very difficult to navigate an unknown terrain or sky. Since the beginnings of astronomy several thousand years ago, many attempts have been made to depict the night sky as accurately as possible. With the rapid progress of astrophotography in the twentieth century, photographic atlases have become available that provide a more natural view of large-scale star clouds and gas nebulae than hand-drawn (or even computer-generated) maps. Well-known examples are the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey and Hans Vehrenberg's Falkau Atlas and Atlas Stellarum.

In the past two decades, astrophotography has been revolutionized by the availability of large-format CCD cameras, which have a vastly higher quantum efficiency than photographic plates and film. As a result, images taken with a CCD camera and a standard 50 mm lens reach almost the same limiting magnitude (14m) as the venerable Atlas Stellarum. The present atlas is the result of state-of-the-art digital image acquisition and processing techniques, combining more than 3000 individual photographs into a uniquely detailed view of the night sky. Axel Mellinger did all the imaging and computer processing, while Ronald Stoyan identified and labeled the stars and deep sky objects.

We would like to thank all those who contributed to the success of this project.