The charts, with some slight variations, were used in Hieronimus Gourmontius’s typography in Paris to illustrate a work of 1552. Additionally, the 'Arati Solensis, Phaenomena et Prognostica' (published in Paris by Guillaume Morel in 1559) is illustrated with two woodcuts, which take references from Johannes Honter's charts, apart from some variations regarding the planispheres' frames.

This star chart shows the  ‘Constellationum Borealium' (Northern Hemisphere), and pairs with the ‘Constellationum Australium’ ('Southern Hemisphere'). Together they derive from Honter's 1541 edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s collected works titled 'Omnia Quae Extant Opera' ('All the Works of God'), published in Basel by Heinrich Petri.

The stars are represented by dots, with brighter or larger stars shown with six-points. Interestingly, Honter shifted the longitude thirty degrees from the correct position for the year 1532, possibly to reflect an earlier epoch. Both Northern and Southern charts are in stereographic projection and depict stars included in Ptolemy's 'Almagest' until the 'sixth magnitude'. However, here, the stars are not graded and are wrongly positioned, as can also be noted from the meeting of the Ecliptic with the Equator.

In the centre of each sheet are projections of the two ecliptic poles; their perimeters represent the Zodiac circle, and the constellations are depicted on both maps. Also included are projections of the two terrestrial poles, the polar circles, the tropics, and the Equator. The longitude lines are represented by thirty degree cloves and can be read with the precision of one degree.

The Sunderland Collection

Johannes Hontor’s two star charts, representing the Northern and Southern Hemispheres were first published individually in 1532 and, later, together in 1541. This chart shows the constellations of the Northern Hemisphere ('Constellationum Borealium') from the 1541 Basel edition of Ptolemy's collected works. This is the first time that the constellations are represented in concave projection and some, such as Boötes, Ophiuchus, and Perseus – in strong contrast with the previous tradition – are dressed in contemporary costumes.

Honter’s star charts were included in a 1541 Basel edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s collected works published by Heinrich Petri, 'Omnia Quae Extant Opera' ('All the works of God') but were first published separately in 1532. Whereas earlier printed examples of star charts, like 

’s pair of charts printed in 1515 - upon which these maps are based - showed the constellations from the perspective of the Heavens (a 'God’s-eye view'), Honter’s charts were the first to adopt a geocentric perspective - as if looking at the stars from a terrestrial viewpoint. This represented a shift from a classical world view of the Heavens to a Humanist belief in the centrality of human reason to understand the world.

Although Honter, like Dürer, relied on the classical astronomical work of Ptolemy’s ‘Almagest’ (1496) as the basis for his charts, he chose to dress the human constellations in modern garments, initiating a tradition of styling the constellations in contemporary dress.

The first printed geocentric star charts, showing the night sky as seen from the Earth rather than the Heavens, while maintaining the Earth at the centre of the Universe. These charts were based on the first European printed celestial charts by 

 and Johannes Stabius (1515), and likely produced as a counterpart to their map of the world as a sphere of the same year.

Honter's Star Chart of the Northern Hemisphere