General Web Destinations
For All Chapters
No matter how hard we try, and despite the many other online sections and resources
here, there will always be more information available in the world than can be contained
on one server.
Here are some useful general sites of broad interest that relate to all chapters. Check
them out, but be sure to return back to this site to do more exploring when you're done!
Starting Points
The
Astronomy Cafe - Maintained by a working astrophysicist. Includes the Ask An Astronomer section,
with an archive of hundreds of previously asked and answered questions.
Mount Wilson
Online Postscript Star Map Service - This service allows you to create a high-resolution Postscript file that contains a
customized star map for the location, time and conditions you specify. The resulting file
will be returned to you via the Web. This file contains printer control commands formatted
for a PostScript printer, so you must have appropriate software on your computer to view
it, or send it to a Postscript printer to create a hard copy. Links are provided to help
you obtain appropriate software if you need it.
Make A Planisphere! - This planisphere service allows you to get a chart of visible stars and planets from any
point of view on Earth in either Compuserve GIF or postscript format.
What's
Happening in the Heavens - The Old Farmer's Almanac offers the dates and locations of solar and lunar eclipses for
the year, as well as a user-selectable monthly listing of upcoming celestial events, the
days of the full moon for the next five years, and a complete set of moon phase
predictions (useful for determining dates near a new moon that will therefore be best for
deep-sky observing). Check it out here, then go outside and look up!
The
Skywatcher's Page - A collection of resources and links for people who watch and gaze at the night sky, from
Abrams Planarium. Of special interest is their
Skywatcher's Diary, which contains a
list of celestial events and observing targets of interest for each evening (or morning)
in the current month.
- Binocular
Observing
- Gives a list of suggested objects to observe, a short introductory lecture, and a list
of sites to visit to learn more about the selection and use of binoculars for astronomical
observing. See also the related Observing
Guide. For observing with even less equipment, see for example the group of
Naked Eye Targets.
Woodlands Sky
Almanac - Caution, slow link from the Americas and Europe! Provides online star
charts for all regions of the globe in high quality graphics. If you're interested in
learning constellations, or viewing the night sky, this is a great place to start. See
also their SkyAlmanac
Calendar of celestial events.
USA and World
Weather - This commercially run but freely accessible site has 4-day forecasts, satellite images,
and city-specific weather information for a large number of locations throughout the
globe, and even an almanac of typical weather that can be expected for different months of
the year. Check the weather before you go out to observe!
- Date and Time Gateway
- Figure out the date and time in any of the defined time zones of the world, and check
the time and timezone for a large number of major cities throughout the globe. (Scroll
down to the bottom of this page when you get there to find regional time zones for the
US.) For sunrise and sunset computations, as well as other useful information such as the
times of Moon phases during the year, see also the USNO Sunrise/Sunset/Twilight and
Moonrise/Moonset/Phase Computation Page from the US Naval Observatory.
- Solar
System Physical Calculator
- This Javascript calculator has several physical constants as well as the masses, radii,
and other dimensional features of the major objects in the Solar System built-in! It works
best on Unix computers equipped with advanced web browsers, but should work acceptably on
Mac and Windows-compatible machines as well if you use a Java-capable browser. Quite
useful. To understand the numerical constants and units programmed into this page, see the
accompanying list of Physical
Constants and Astronomical Data.
- NASA
Acronyms
- Having trouble figuring out what in the world a WFPC might be? Can't figure out the
difference between XRS, XPS, XSAT, XSS, XSW, and the XTE? Here's searchable help from the
folks at GSFC (the Goddard Space Flight Center). Requires a forms-capable browser.
Science
Question of the Week - Check here for a new science question and answer every week.
- Ask An Astronaut
- Explore this site for text and multimedia files featuring the astronaut of this month,
and then send in your questions. The answers to selected questions are posted and can be
reviewed online.
- Star Facts
- Billed as "an electronic journal about the universe," this site contains
essays on various astronomy-related topics and a list of hot links to other interesting
destinations that you might want to explore.
- Space Mathematics
- Several years ago NASA created curriculum supplements for several high school courses,
including a supplementary publication titled "Space Mathematics, A Resource for
Teachers" published in 1972 for teachers of mathematics. This site contains an online
version of the recently updated supplement that should be of general use, covering
mathematical aspects of some space missions, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Conic
Sections, and applications from other related subjects.
Web Sites for Print Media
- Mercury
Magazine
- Mercury is the bimonthly publication of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Written
for the motivated non-specialist, this magazine features nontechnical articles on
astronomy research, education, history, and public policy. The Web site includes a
searchable index of past issues and links to online material.
- Astronomy
Magazine
- A popular magazine with much explanatory and newsworthy material aimed at the beginning
to intermediate astronomer. The Web site includes pages on sky events, clubs, equipment,
books, software, other related links, and news. A monthly listing of "Sky
Events" for both Northern and Southern hemisphere observers is a particulary useful
feature of this site. See also their well-organized collection of Cool Astronomy Sites.
- SKY Online
- Provided by the publishers of Sky and
Telescope Magazine and CCD Astronomy.
This magazine is aimed at a slightly more experienced level than other beginning astronomy
magazines, and is read by many professional instructors and astronomers. The Web site
includes a broad range of online resource material from calendar information and news to
tips for choosing a telescope and accessories. Make a bookmark in your hotlist for their Weekly News Bulletin.
Astronomy Now - Britain's leading astronomical magazine. The Web site includes news updates,
astronomical events, a picture gallery and a list of upcoming events for astronomy clubs
in Europe and the UK.
Picture Source Sites and Updates
- Astronomy
Picture of the Day
- If you have a good network connection, this is an interesting place to check in
regularly. The image of the day is posted along with a nice explanation (sometimes a bit
on the short side). Links to other resources are frequently given. The site tries to
showcase the work of leading-edge scientists, and consequently the significance of these
images is usually pretty high.
- Latest HST
Pictures
- The latest, most up to date pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), with
explanations. The place to go for the latest Hubble images. Also see their index of images organized by subject.
- The STScI
Digitized Sky Survey
- Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute using images from several sky surveys,
this extensive archive can return images corresponding to nearly any user-selectable
location in the sky in either FITS or GIF format. You can also use it to obtain celestial
coordinates for a particular object based on the object's name or designation. Caution,
many of the images contained in this survey are copyrighted.
- Astronomical Images
from the Anglo-Australian Observatory
- Caution, slow link from the Americas and Europe! The primary online
repository for images taken by the renowned deep-sky photographer David Malin. Despite its
title, the site contains pictures taken using several different telescopes at the AAO and
elsewhere. Includes many beautiful color pictures. (Note also the copyright.)
- The Hottest
Messier Stuff Available
- A really well-organized and usable page of links and images at the Web site of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.
Definitely worth a look! See also their Space Images
Archive, which has a graphics-heavy initial page but is searchable.
- ASP List
of NGC Images
- A very long list of New General Catalog images assembled by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Some images are
copyrighted, so check before using them.
- National
Geographic-Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
- This site, not for the timid, provides searchable access to an on-line astronomical
catalog of images of millions of stars and galaxies obtained from the Automated Plate
Scanner (APS) digitized National Geographic-Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS I)
plates. The catalog entries include each object's classification, magnitude, position,
color, and many other image parameters.
- Cookbook Camera
Image Archive
- A pretty amazing set of images, all taken by amateurs using a variety of equipment and
home-built CCD kit cameras. Although this is a commercial site (and for fairness we should
mention one provided by a leading alternative vendor),
the pictures here are very much worth the trip.
Planetarium Links
- The
Planetarian Journal
- The Planetarian is published quarterly by the International Planetarium Society.
The journal's Web site has information and and an online repository containing a sample of
articles that have appeared in past issues.
- ASP
List of Planetariums
- Another useful list from the Astronomical Society of
the Pacific.
- EuroPlaNet - The European
Planetarium Network
- Promotes information exchange and cooperation among European planetaria and astronomy
educators. The site gives links to astronomy-related resources on the Web and provides
communication and publication of news and views.
- Cosmic Mystery Tour
- Sort of a "planetarium show on the Web," this site gives an introduction to
Big Bang cosmology and present ideas regarding the origins of the universe. Part of the
related Cosmos in a
Computer portion of the online "Science for the
Millennium" Expo at NCSA.