Links to Other Astronomical Web Sites

Links verified 04/07/10

Interlochen Public Radio

Novice and General Observing

• New! Mrs McVey's Class recommends Planetary Guide to Outer Space

• Lets go stargazing - from Sky and Telescope Magazine

• This Week's Sky at a Glance - from Sky and Telescope magazine

• Sky and Telescope Magazine - News - astronomical news from Sky & Telescope magazine.

• Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Space Calendar contains space mission and observing events.

• NASA's Eclipse Home Page

• Students for the Exploration and Development pf Space (SEDS)

• SEDS Messier Database - Descriptions and images of the 100+ Messier objects (star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies). These are among the brightest in the sky for binoculars or small telescope.

• US Naval Observatory: Calculates sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, civil twilight and moon's phases for locations in the US,

• Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer Jack may have passed on to that big star cluster in the sky, but his crew keeps on looking up.

• SpaceWeather.com. Sunspots, aurorae and more

• Space.com

• Gary W. Kronk's great web site on Comets

• International Meteor Organization Calendars. They have them also in PDF formats for printing.

• The Constellations and Their Stars page (University of Wisconsin - Madison)

• Galaxy Astronomy Page - A starting point for even more astronomy pages.

• Bad Astronomy: Here's a site which reviews the astronomical and other science errors in television programs and reporting in general. It would be funny, if it weren't true.

• StarChild - A learning center for young astronomers

• Seti@Home

Astronomical Publications

• Sky and Telescope Magazine – web site

• Astronomy Magazine web site

Advanced Observing

• The International Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. The official source for late breaking astronomical discoveries.

• International Astronomical Union IAU: Minor Planet Center

• Today's Space Weather - from NOAA

• Current Solar Images in all wavelengths - from NASA

Planetariums, Observatories and Astronomical Organizations

• Grand Traverse Astronomical Society

• Michigan State University's Abrams Planetarium

• The Planetary Society: News, views pictures and other resources about planetary exploration and Seti.

• Northwestern Michigan College's Rogers Observatory

• International Dark-Sky Association

• W.M. Keck Observatory

• AAVSO - American Association Of Variable Star Observers

• The Astronomical League

• Gemini Observatory

• Vatican Observatory

• Lowell Observatory

• National Radio Astronomy Observatory

• Mauna Kea Observatories - Hawai'i

Current Space Missions

• See the left column on my main page

Commercial Astronomical Sources:

These are companies I've purchased from and have been satisfied with. There's no other endorsement other than that.

• Enerdyne – In Suttons Bay,a local source for telescopes and other astronomical and science items

• Willmann-Bell, Inc - Source for astronomical books and atlases

• Orion Telescopes & Binoculars

• Edmund Scientific - telescopes, binoculars and lots of other stuff

• Celestron telescopes

• Oceanside Photo and Telescope (OPT)

Free downloadable astronomical software

• Stellarium – a great realistic planetarium program which is easy to use! “Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.” For Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

• Cartes duCiel – (Sky Charts) not as beautiful as Stellarium but a very robust star chart program with stars down to 12^th magnitude and the ability to download hundreds of asteroid and comet orbits. I find this is better on a laptop than star charts at the telescope. Lots of star and object catalogs are available for it. It can supposedly drive a telescope, but I haven't tried it.

• Celestia - “... space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. ”

• Virtual Moon Atlas – This is the ultimate reference for studying the moon. “Used in several books, magazines, observatories, universities and Web sites. Used in Chandrayaan 1 lunar mission preparation. Recommended by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the French Ministry of National Education ” For Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

• Microsoft WorldWide Telescope - “WorldWide Telescope (WWT) enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world. Experience narrated guided tours from astronomers and educators featuring interesting places in the sky. ” A client can be downloaded for Windows or a Web client can be used for Mac.

• Google Earth – (Contains also Google Moon, Google Mars and Google Sky) Roam these as easily as you can roam Google Earth.

Go to:

• Ephemeris Home Page

• Ephemeris Calendar

• Ephemeris Star Charts and observing notes

• The Bright Planets this month

Comments? Email to: bob@bjmoler.org

Updated: 03/15/12