Most tags reset to 21 April 2003.

Astrophotograph of the day

• Good Starting Points
• Black Holes
• Meteors, Fireballs, and Bolides
• Star Maps
• Antarctic Astronomy
• Time (Horology)
• Commercial Stuff
• Galileo Jupiter Probe Information
• Space Shuttle Schedule
• Robot Telescopes
• Comet Hyakutake Information
• Comet Hale-Bopp
• Other older news

Breaking News

Good Starting Points

• Sky Publishing (publishers of Sky and Telescope Magazine)

• John Walker's software and interactive demonstrations (all freeware!--but Windoze only); includes something called Home Planet, which can also be downloaded directly

• The Astronomical League (a confederation of US-based societies)--information for societies and individuals interested in astronomy. This has probably moved to this new location. Be sure to check out their astro-notes. (Mon Mar 29 06:21:49 PST 1999)

• Orbital elements, images, and other stuff

• Astronet (from Edwin Hirsch's advt. for DayStar H-alpha solar filters)
• American Astronomical Society
• Web resource listing for astronomy
• The US Geological Survey astronomy home page
• A list of Internet astronomy resources
• A long list of astronomy and astrophysics home pages
• Prairie Astronomy club of Lincoln, Nebraska
• IOTA (International Occultation Timing Association)
  or it may be at this URL instead (things change on the Web)
• NOVAC (Northern Virginia Astronomy Club). There is a mirror site, which may be useful if the main site appears to be down, but it may not be quite as current.

  Craig Tupper, a member of NOVAC, offers some CCD images on his web page.

• Michael Richmond at Princeton University offers an enormous number of interesting astronomical resources
• International Supernova Network
• US Naval Observatory
• Hubble Deep Field home page
• Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii
• HDF Active Catalogue
• Noctilucent clouds
• Space Environment Center provides an official forecast and much more information about space weather.
• Hubble Space Telescope images and where to buy prints.
• Images from HST
• If you are wondering what to get for your first telescope, here are some ideas; this is part of a larger site.
• Hansen Planetarium, Salt Lake City, UT
• Weather and astronomy from Bsoton meteorologist Todd Gross
• Meade ETX page by Mike Weasner
• American Association of Amateur Astronomers
• Mid-Atlantic Star Party
• Some useful information about the moon.
• Space Telescope Science Institute's AstroWeb
• The Messier Catalog Online
• Web Space Site Directory (they claim over 1,000 space-related links)
• Orbital Elements, Satellites, Tracking
• SETI at Home--a project using linked computers to look for extra-terrstrial signals.
• Jeff Bondono's home page is an enormous collection of resources for the amateur astronomer
• Want to build an amateur observatory? Some architectural ideas explored by others are available.
• Today's Space Weather, courtesy of NOAA
• If you would like to observe planets near Messier objects, someone named Gotz has provided information
• George P. Varros has an interesting page with resources for amateur telescope makers (ATMs).
• Parents might like to check out A Child's Guide To Astronomy
• Delmarva Stargazers have a dark-sky site not too far from Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD (maybe even accessible from the Philadelphia area)
• What kind of weird telescope designs have been invented? Find out! (Schiefspieglers and more.)
• Some NASA Space Science information, including Lunar Prospector project information, where you can sign up for a mailing list maintained by Craig Tupper (a NOVAC member).
• The Usenet newsgroup sci.astro.amateur contains many discussion items of interest to amateur astronomers. Those with more professional interest may check out sci.astro as well.
• Stellafane home page--another amateur association
• Solar observations:
  • The sun today from Space Weather, with views in white light, soft x-rays, hydrogen-alpha, and other selected wavelengths.
  • The Space Environment Center provides information on solar and geophysical phenomena.
  • ALPO solar section
• Dr. David W. Bonnell's web site and gallery.
• Lockheed-Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory
• The Messier catalog, complete with pictures in color, and the NGC catalogue (in less detail)--and other stuff at that site.
• The AC 2000 catalogue is based on the Astrographic Catalogue compiled from photographs during the early 20th century (see Sky & Telescope, 1998 June, p. 40ff).
• We have made it easier to subscribe and unsubscribe to Sky & Telescope's "Skyline" and "Sky at a Glance". To subscribe, send an e-mail to: skyline@corvus.com , and put the word "join" in either the Subject or the body of the message. It doesn't matter which one, or both. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to: skyline@corvus.com , and put the word "unjoin" in either the Subject or the body of the message. That is all there is to it. If you are changing e-mail addresses, send an e-mail to: skyline@corvus.com , and list the old e-mail address, and then the new e-mail address that you want it changed to.

  John Wagoner - President American Association of Amateur Astronomers

• Gamma-ray burst information
• P. Chewning Toulmin's web site, with various observing records, tips, etc.
• Visual satellite observation web page
• Sky and Space update
• The Messier catalogue with images and lots of information
• The Saguaro Astro Club has many interesting files and links
• A 360-degree panoramic image of the Milky Way
• The Hubble constant measures the expansion rate of the universe. (No wonder it seems to take longer to get places than it used to!)
• Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer page
• NASA space science
• The Amateur Astronomy Mailing List Archive may contain some interesting information.
• GOES satellite weather imagery
• Gravity Probe B--orbiting gyroscopes testing general relativity
• Antonio Cidadao's CCD imaging page at the AstroSurf (AstroSurf is in French, but the CCD page is in English, notwithstanding the Portuguese surname...)
• A map showing light pollution in the US.
• Retrieve images from Space Telescope Science Institute image archive by name or co-ordinate. (Mon Apr 21 09:51:22 EDT 2003)
• Retrieve images from SkyViuew with access to many sky surveys in all wavelengths. (Mon Apr 21 09:54:29 EDT 2003)

Black Holes

• Ted Bunn's Black Hole FAQ
• Robert J. Nemiroff's Visual Trips to Black Holes and Neutron Stars (you may need an MPEG player; try this software repository if you don't have one)
• NCSA has some QuickTime and MPEG animations of the "Spacetime Wrinkles" produced when black holes collide.
• PBS has some hands-on activities from their Newton's Apple series.

Meteors, Fireballs, and Bolides

When you make a report, include the exact location where the observation was made, date/time, direction, angular speed, brightness, color, and any sounds heard. Don't forget to include your name and contact information! For more details, see the FIDAC web site.

Star Maps

PostScript printer users can visit Mount Wilson Observatory's StarMap service for a custom map download.

Here are some other choices:

• Starchart Map Server is very customizable.
• Starchart Online (in Taiwan--don't stress the Net at peak times!) offers output as gif's and plots solar-system bodies, too.
• Winchell Chung ("nyrath") has created a page on 3D star maps
• SkyView from NASA--star maps from multiple surveys, with choice of projection, etc. Highly versatile.

A lot of this information is from the 1996 November issue of Sky & Telescope, p. 91 (Astronomy Online, Stuart J. Goldman).

Also see the Commercial Stuff section here.

Antarctic Astronomy

• JACARA home page
• ICAIR home page

Time (Horology)

• Naval Observatory Master Clock
• National Institute of Standards and Technology and its atomic clock
• Clocks and Time (Horology) home page

Commercial Stuff

• Starry Night shareware ($28) planetarium program for the Macintosh--even does QuickTime movies!
• Astronomics sells telescopes by mail order from Norman, Oklahoma.
• Novagraphics is a "space art gallery" in Tucson, Arizona, that sells prints, paintings, posters, stationery, etc.
• Focus Camera, Inc. in Brooklyn, New York, will answer inquiries and accept orders for many brands of telescopes by email.
• DeepSpace is a planetarium program for your DOS machine (sorry, Mac users, see Starry Night above) from David S. Chandler, who runs, surprisingly enough, the David Chandler Co. in La Verne, California.
• Andromeda Software catalogue with CD-ROMs for Macintosh and IBM-compatible systems.
• A NOVAC member suggests that this camera offers good performance at a very reasonable price and is easy to hook up to a standard telescope with a T mount. Output can go to any VCR, TV, or computer that accepts standard video input.
• SAA's Digest of Space Industry Links
• Southern Stars Software offers a program called SkyChart 2000.0 which supports both Macintosh and Windows systems and is able to hold up to 80,000 objects in its database. A beta version may be downloadable.
• The magazine Amateur Astronomy has many useful articles for amateur astronomers
• A very large mail-order dealer is Orion Telescope and Binoculars
• TL Systems offers mounting platforms for guiding and other related products
• DeepSky is another commercial program with a demo version available via the Web
• Roger W. Tuthill has been reselling scopes, with modifications, for about 25 years. (I was one of his earliest customers.) (Wed May 26 07:19:15 PDT 1999)
• Internet Telescope Exchange offers trade-up opportunities and other buying ideas. (Tue Aug 3 12:33:25 EDT 1999)
• High Point Scientific offers a large selection and have a very knowledgeable staff. (Wed Sep 11 12:00:06 EDT 2002)

Galileo Jupiter Probe Information

• NASA Ames Public Affairs
• More Galileo from NASA Ames
• Galileo Home Page at JPL
  Mirror of the JPL site (due to heavy traffic)

Space Shuttle Schedule

Robot Telescopes

• The Bradford Robotic Telescope provides views of observations by others (in real time) and the opportunity to control the telescope yourself. (Sky & Telescope, 1996 December issue, p. 92ff)
• "Stardial", a live view of an 8-degree field of the meridian at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
• Remotely Operated Telescope, a 14-inch reflector at the University of California at Santa Barbara
• Automated Telescope Facility, a 7-inch refractor at the University of Iowa, which is also working on the Iowa Robotic Observatory
• Nassau Station provides a 36-inch telescope based in Chardon, OH. Goes online 17 Dec 1998.

Comet Hyakutake Information

I observed the comet from just east of Sierra Vista, Arizona (on a business trip). Despite a fairly bright moon (not quite at first quarter), the comet and some 10 degrees of tail were visible in a dark, transparent sky. Limiting magnitude was about 5, judging from the appearance of the Praesepe near the zenith. (I also observed the comet from a brightly lit street corner in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC, although none of the tail could be seen from such a poor location. Many people were amazed that it could be seen at all from there, given the previous experiences with Kohoutek and Halley.) Jerry Lodriguss has posted some comet photos to the Web. (Not sure if this link is currently working.)

Also try this image from Doug Jackson, or this one.

Comet Hale-Bopp

An amateur and member of NOVAC, Bob Bunge, has provided some pictures of the comet.

Other older news

A new comet may reach naked-eye visibility in 2000. (Tue Oct 5 05:26:28 PDT 1999) A nova has appeared in the constellation Vela, designated Nova Velorum 1999. (Mon May 24 16:42:27 EDT 1999) Want to find those LGM's (Little Green Men) yourself? Join the SETI@home (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) project. (Mon May 24 13:17:04 EDT 1999) Want to hear the Space Shuttle operations? If you have Real Audio, you can receive them at this link. (Thu Oct 29 05:31:05 PST 1998)

What's an Iridium flare? A sunglint from one of the Iridium satellites being set up to provide global telecommunications. The German Space Operations Centre (former link: http://www.gsoc.dlr.de/satvis/) has an orbit calculator for this phenomenon and other satellite apparitions. And the Delmarva Stargazers have some info on these satellites also, including a picture of a flare. More information on why the flares occur is at the Visual Satellite Observer's Home Page. And Geoff Chester has provided location-specific Iridium flare information along with other bright satellites over Washington, DC. Also check the geo-distribution of those requesting flare information.

It may still be possible to order a Mars Pathfinder mouse pad.

A major coronal mass ejection (CME) has occurred. Photos are available from a NASA site.

Satellite sunglint on 22-23 Jan 98. The NEAR satellite should be visible at a distance of 9000 miles when its solar panels reflect the sun during a re-orientation of the satellite. It will be bright enough to be seen even from light-polluted areas. Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory provides more information. The NEAR web site features an animation; IOTA will provide maps at its sites soon.

Comet 103P/Hartley 2 is a binocular object as of late December 1997. Location information is available.

A recent observation of a rare phenomenon involving Jupiter is at this German site, with animated imagery.

Asteroid impact in 2028? Learn more about Asteroid 1997 XF11 courtesy of the Solar System Dynamics group at JPL.

The earth during the 26 Feb 98 eclipse may be studied in these GOES 10 photos; GOES 10 is still in experimental test mode. Mid-eclipse was about 1815 UT.

An eclipse movie from geosynchronous orbit is available in AVI format as one link on the indicated page (maybe you can find a converter if you're a Mac user).