Beginner-friendly links recommen

Beginner-friendly links recommended by CCSU students

From Becky Martin:

1. http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx

This website is very helpful for anyone that wants information on the night sky. The site has all of the up to date information on the night sky. In the top right corner, it gives you what phase of the moon we are in, what time the sun will rise and set, and what times the planets will rise and set. The site has an area for you to order the astronomy magazine, as well as a section for astronomy for kids which could be helpful for anyone who is not an expert astronomer. The website is full of images and research articles as well.

2. http://library.thinkquest.org/3645/

This website is the perfect source of information for children to get information on our solar system. The page contains a virtual telescope in which you can look at different planets as well as constellations in our sky. The site also contains frequently asked questions that kids may ask, as well as photos and information about the universe, sun, eclipses, moon, etc.

3. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Nebulas.html

This is a website all about nebulae. It has photos of over 100 different nebulae in the night sky. When you click on the photo of the nebulae, you will also be optioned to read information about the nebulae. This website is great for anyone who is interested in looking at these amazing objects in the sky.

4. http://www.space.com/galaxy/

This website has information on galaxies and it has many different articles written about the galaxies. There are also a lot of photos of different galaxies and different things in the universe. There is also a virtual space tour and videos of different things within our universe.

5. http://www.coldwater.k12.mi.us/lms/planetarium/myth/index.html

I chose this website because I found a lot of useful information on it about the constellations. There is a table of a bunch of different constellations and when you click on each one, you can read some mythology and information about the constellation and it also gives you the outline of the constellation. I thought this website was very helpful if you are wanting to learn how the different constellations came to be.

6. http://www.abc.net.au/children/space/games/skypictures/default.htm

This website doesn’t give a lot of information, however it basically a constellation game. This game would be fun for kids to play after viewing or before viewing constellations in the night sky. In the game, you have to connect the stars to create constellations, so I think it is very helpful to play the game to strengthen your idea of the constellations in the sky.

7. http://www.nasa.gov/

When people hear about the universe, most people automatically think of NASA. Therefore, I thought it was an important website to include when researching any news on our universe. The website contains so much information and has sections for teachers, students, media, etc. There is up to date news as well as images for people to look at. There is so much information on this website that it would take days to read everything.

8. http://astronomy.eaglecreekobservatory.org/doubles/

This website is all about double stars. The website gives information on what a double star is and how astronomers can tell the difference between a regular star and a double star. On the bottom of the page, there is a table of all of the constellations, and when you click on the constellation it gives you a list of all of the double stars in each of the constellations and information about them. Therefore, I think this website would be helpful for anyone wanting to find double stars in the night sky.

9. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/pulsars.html

This website is an information article about pulsars and neutron stars. It explains what a pulsar is and how it works. There is also a photo of a pulsar on verses a pulsar off. On the left hand side there are also links that could quiz you on the subject and gies you additional resources on this topic along with other related topics.

10. http://www.allthesky.com/clusters/clusters.html

I chose this website because it was all about different kinds of star clusters. There are 5 globular cluster images. When you click on one of them, there is information about the type of cluster. There are also a bunch of images of open clusters and when you click on each one, you will also receive information on the cluster you clicked on. I thought this was interesting to see how clusters work and where they are located.

From Jennifer Lewis:

Fun Websites for Kids:

1) http://www.amnh.org/ology/index.php?channel=astronomy

This website is made for kids to explore the solar system. There are games, information, pictures, and other items to explore the solar system. There are also arts and crafts projects, writing projects, and other creative projects too.

2) http://www.kidsastronomy.com/

This is an interactive website made for kids to learn about objects in space. Kids can learn about planets, black holes, nebulae, moons, the sun, stars, asteroids, and comets. There are games, jokes, puzzles, and other fun things for kids to learn about astronomy.

More websites:

3) http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/nasa/space-telescopes/space-telescopes.html

This website allows the user to explore the sky, and see what constellations are visible in either the Northern, or Southern hemisphere. There are also other areas of interest that are red dots that the user can click on to see other interesting objects. This website also lets the viewer explore the different space telescopes.

4) http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6189

This website is for amateur astronomers, and is called the ABC’s of observing. This website gives viewing tips for looking at the sky. Some examples are avoiding eye fatigue, dark adaptation, high altitude observing, as well as others.

5) http://www.opticsplanet.net/telescope-faq.html

This website is about frequently asked questions about telescope assembling, and telescope viewing problems. The questions are a good resource to look up problems people may have while backyard observing.

6) http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/basics

This website gives any amateur astronomers basics tips for viewing. The site talks about almost everything from how to start observing, the magnitude scale, star names, what to do about observing in a city, and seeing scales, as well as many other things.

7) http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

This is an astronomy picture of the day taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The site shows a spectacular photo and a brief description of the object.

8) http://www.deepastronomy.com/why-do-you-want-a-telescope.html

This website helps amateurs decide what kind of telescope to purchase when they decide to buy one. The website asks questions like what you want to look at. What kind of person are you? How much do you want to spend? This website asks important questions that one may need to ask when purchasing a telescope.

9) http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/solar_eclipse_view.html

This article explains ways to view the sun safely when viewing a solar eclipse, or sunspots.

10 http://www.astronomygcse.co.uk/AstroGCSE/Unit2/Features.htm

This website shows specific features of the moon, and where they are located. This is good for backyard astronomers when looking at the moon they can find out specifically what they are looking at.

From Kari Hellmann:

1. This website was cool. It has a medium size image of all 110 Messier Objects and a link underneath the picture to click on for more information of the object.

http://www.ngcic.org/dss/dss_messier.asp

2.This website was pretty good, I liked it. It covers almost everything in our solar system. You can click on a topic you want to know about and pictures and information pops up. Even though it's called the Nine Planets, they do correct themselves and say that Pluto is no longer a planet.

http://www.nineplanets.org/nineplanets.html#toc

3.I feel like this website was taken from of my notes in class; it hit the many aspects we talked about in class about refractor and reflecting telescopes. It described the optics, diagrams, the advantages and disadvantages of both telescopes, and chromatic and spherical abberation. This site hits everything we've talked about in class about telescopes. It describes the powers of telescopes, seeing vs. transparency, The link below is the first page that starts out with the history of telescopes and the viewer has to realize that there is a button that says NEXT to go on to another sections that describe the two telescopes and more. And there is even some review questions at the end.

http://www.astronomynotes.com/telescop/s1.htm

4. This site shows a complete list of constellations. It has the constellation's name, meaning, possessive form, abbreviation, location, brightest star (w/ both proper name & Greek name), and remarks for anything interesting. When you click on a constellation you have a map and basic information about that constellation. Also, on the homepage there's a link for constellation maps, I don't think they are that great, I've seen better.

http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/const.html

5. I thought this website was interesting for people when they are first time buyers of a telescope. Even though the author mentions to join a club in the Bay Area or in Mountain View, obviously the arn't talking about Connecticut so that's something the reader has to ignore, but they are referring to joining a club, so it doestalk about something the reader might be interested in.

http://www.backyardastronomer.com/pages/scopes.html

6. This site list some astronomy clubs in Connecticut. Also, on top there are links to planetariums, space observatories, and museums. It gives the name and contact information for each resource.

http://www.astronomyclubs.com/1/190/9/0/club.aspx

7. This website was awesome. You punch in the coordinates of your location and it gives you a custom sky chart of what's above you. Also, if you know the azimuth direction you can punch that in and you get a horizontal view. Also, if you know the Right Ascension and Declination of the object you are looking for, there is a section where you can punch those coordinates in and gives you a map of that area.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/

8. This webiste gives information about where and when the next eclipse will occur in North America. Prior to finding this website was a bunch of information about eclipses around the world, but this is specifically for North America for people who don't want to travel. Unfortunatly, the next total eclipse in the United States isn't for a long time. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmap/SEmapNA.html

9. This link gives different options for a Meade Telescope such as refractors, Dobsonian, Maskutov-Cassegrains, Schmidt-Cassegrains, Schmidt-Newtonians, and Coma Free Catadioptrics.

http://www.astronomics.com/main/Meade-Telescopes.asp

10. This website was interesting. It gives information for someone who wants to pursue a career in astronomy. It gives background information on college degrees, employment potential, where to find a job, and other related resources. http://aas.org/education/careers.php#work

From Carolyn Sluis

1. http://science.nasa.gov/Astronomy.htm

exellent article, “Nasa’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.”

Discovered new kind of pulsar, indicative of new stars in the Milky Way?

Blinks. How collapsed stars work. 1967 Jacelyn Bell and Tony Hewish discovered neutron stars with sun mass compressed to 20 km in size. Gamma-ray only pulsar in constellation Cepheus revolving at 1 million miles/hour. Photons having the energy of 20 million to 300 billion times the energy of visible light.

2. www.astronomy.com

excellent article on Comet Holmes as photographed by Nasa Spitzer Space Telescope. Eruption and mystery of direction of streamers and skill

3. www.ast.cam.as.uk

Institute of Astronomy at University of California. Theoretical and Observational Astronomy. “Sackler Lecture 2008: Massive Black Holes and Galaxies.” Nov. 13, 4:30 pm (Tea at 4). Prof. Reinhard Genzel (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, University of California, Berkley. Decade of measurements confirming the existence of a black hole in the middle of the Milky Way. Optics imaging and spectroscopy. Use large ground-based telescope to discover properties of the environment. Interferometric studies of Galactic Centered black holes that will enable astronomers to test gravity in its strong field limit and to cosmologically evaluate massive black holes. Public talks are listed including the following: “Are we alone?”, “Humans in space”, “The history of the universe”, “Black Holes for beginners”, “Massive stars in their death throes”, “Time-travel: fact or fiction?” Just marvelous titles!

4. www.cfa.harvard.edu

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. A cascade of selections allows the viewer to zoom in to an area: solar system, galaxies, lab astrophysics, stars and planets and their origins, cosmology, external astrophysics , image gallery, current night sky, black holes, early universe. Interesting articles, ex.: “dark energy” – 70% of mass/energy densities in the universe. The Great Wall – the largest superstructure in the universe, is followed by a cascade of intriguing topics: galactic filaments, relativity and quantum, black holes, white dwarfs, neutron stars, pre-stars, supernovas, and (my favorite unknown) magnetars.

5. www.dsc.discovery.com

Interesting articles of a scientific nature, ex.: “Britain Releases UFO files, dispelling rumors and debunking sightings” because those believers “are out there!”

6. http://hubblesite.org

Latest news re: Hubble. Cascade of choices, ex.: dark energy, sombrero, galaxies, and Orion nebula. Images, ex. Wide Field Planetary Camera (WFPC2): intense blue ring of stars forming at 400 million light years away (further than in Virgo!) Arp 147 in Cetus.

7. www.hubble.nasa.gov/multimedia/

Live web camera, multimedia. Cascade of choices by location: year, category, type. Astronaut team. A dynamic world map: “Where is Hubble now?”

8. www.astro.caltech.edu

Images and articles, ex. Light pollution and National Dark-Sky Week: 3/29-4/4: “Lights Out America.” Earth hour. Aussies in Sydney and the World Wildlife Fund united.

9. www.as.arizona.edu

Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory. Cascade of lectures and tours. Articles, ex.: $30 million donation for telescope from Charles Simonyi and Bill Gates. (Now CCSU knows whom to ask!)

10. www.saquaroastro.org

Saguaro Astronomy Club. 30 years in existence. Maps and clear sky clocks provided. Interesting participant gatherings: “All-Arizona 2009 Messier Marathon,” and “Grand Canyon Star Party (North Limit)”.

From Ian Lancaster:

http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html

Live satellite tracking with 3D-rotating earth.

http://www.google.com/sky/

Navigable, searchable flat projection/collage of high quality sky images, plus infrared and microwave layers.

http://www.stellarium.org/

Free planetarium software with realistic-sky and field of view.

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Free 3-dimensional space simulator with thousands of objects and the goal of physical and optical accuracy.

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmolog.htm

Ned Wright's cosmology tutorial.

http://www.universetoday.com/