# Orientation

Also called: north up, east left, mirror image, star diagonal.

Sky charts show north up and east left; telescopes rotate or mirror the view, so it may not match.

Facing south, east is on your left — so sky charts show east on the left, the reverse of a map of the ground. In the eyepiece it changes: a Newtonian or Dobsonian turns the view upside down (rotated 180°); a refractor, SCT or Maksutov with a star diagonal shows a mirror image. Binoculars and finders with prisms show it the right way up.

**At the eyepiece:** To work out where north is in the eyepiece, nudge the telescope towards Polaris: new stars enter the field from the north side.

**In AstroPilot:** AstroPilot's photos and eyepiece views are north up, east left.

**Related:** [Position angle](https://astropilot.space/glossary/position-angle.md), [Star hopping](https://astropilot.space/glossary/star-hopping.md), [Dobsonian](https://astropilot.space/glossary/dobsonian.md)

From the AstroPilot astronomy glossary: https://astropilot.space/glossary/orientation