Astronomy Today 4E CW Chapter 1 -- Destinations

Chapter 1: Charting the Heavens
Destinations

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 our favorites for this chapter. Go ahead and check them out, but be sure to return back to do more exploring when you're done!

For a good selection of general sites of broad interest and utility that are related to many chapters of the book, see our collection of General Web Destinations For All Chapters.

List of Constellation Facts and Figures: Includes the stars the constellations contain, and a sky map too. See also the resources listed in our General Web Destinations For All Chapters.
Primer on Seasons: See why the modern explanation of the pattern of the seasons fits important observable facts, and is not "just a theory."
Coordinate Conversions: Convert between right ascension/declination, galactic, and ecliptic coordinates, or find the coordinates of a particular object by name. The "name resolver" returns the coordinates for the given source name, and the search is made around those coordinates within a specified search radius. The object name is sent to one of two selectable astronomical databases for resolution.
Astronomical Coordinate Systems: One of the basic needs of astronomy, as well as other physical sciences, is to give reasonable descriptions for the positions of objects relative to each other. Scientifically, this is done in mathematical language, by properly assigning numbers to each position in space; these numbers are called coordinates and the system defined by this procedure a coordinate system. Learn more from this excellent introduction.
Celestial Spheres: A celestial sphere shows directions in a coordinate system analogous to Earth's latitude and longitude projected up into the heavens.
Celestial Coordinate Systems: Teaches the use of celestial coordinates, including topocentric (horizon-based) and equatorial reference systems. Subsequent links contained within this page are worth exploring as well.
Stardial: Stardial is a stationary weather-proof electronic camera for recording images of the sky at night. Like a sundial, Stardial is a stationary device placed outside 24 hours a day. Both depend on and make evident the rotation of the Earth. A sundial operates with sunlight, while Stardial operates with starlight. There the similarity ends. Stardial's purpose is to record images of the night sky and provide them in real time to the world wide web. These images can be used for a variety of purposes, including visualization of geosynchronous satellites, monitoring the daily apparent motion of the stars, looking for dim or variable objects such as variable stars or comets, or just "looking up."
What Time Is It?: Until recently, when atomic clocks became available, time was reckoned by the Earth's motions: one rotation on its axis was a "day" and one revolution about the Sun was a "year," an hour was one twenty-fourth of a day, and so on. The position of the Sun in the sky was used to measure various intervals. Now there are many methods used to keep time, each having its own special use and advantage. Learn about the differences between local time, apparent time, mean time, civil time, universal time, international standard time, sidereal time, and ephemeris time from the discussion given at this site.
Solar System Live: Caution, slow link from non-European sites! An interactive orrery on the Web. You can view the entire Solar System or just the inner planets through the orbit of Mars, using either realistic or a choice of compressed scales. The controls allow you to set time and date, viewpoint, observing location, orbital elements to track an asteroid or comet, and a variety of other parameters. You can compose a request with custom settings and save the results in your browser's hotlist or bookmark table, allowing direct access with all the controls preset to your own preferences. To use this page, all you need is a graphical Web browser with forms support and the ability to display GIF images.
Deep Space Network: NASA's Deep Space Network is the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system and the most precise radio navigation network in the Solar system. Its principal responsibilities are to support interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations in the exploration of the solar system and the universe. Find out how this network is used for modern spacecraft navigation and distance measurement.
The Moon Phase Page: Delivers an image of the current phase of the Moon as viewed from the central US (Mountain time). This page can also be used to view the Moon's phase for any date that you select. See also the similar and well-done Phase of the Moon page of Lunar Outreach Services.
Lunar Phases: This activity is designed to help you understand a number of things about our moon: why we always see the same side, why we see different shapes (phases), and why the moon moves among the background stars and is sometimes not visible. Written for young audiences, but suitable for anyone who wants to understand the phases of the Moon.
Eclipse Tutorial: An eclipse occurs when a body cuts off the light from a light source so that we can no longer see it shining. An eclipse can be due either to a dark body coming between us and a light emitter, so that we can no longer see the source, or it can be a body coming between a light source and the body that the light is illuminating, so that we no longer see the illuminated body. Learn more from this site, including the conditions for a solar or lunar eclipse.
Solar Eclipse Path Predictions: Includes maps and paths for all central solar eclipses from now through the early portion of the next decade, and complete details about upcoming eclipses. The site includes charts and animations of the predicted eclipse paths, and images from recent eclipses. See also solar eclipse predictions available in a different form from Catania Astrophysical Observatory (Italy).
Nick Strobel's Intro to Astronomy: A good place to begin learning how to look up, and how people began to look up in general. Covers the basics of observing, with a little bit of information on everything, and concentrates on observations that you can do without a telescope.