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WAS AstroWeb Links Archive
This page contains the archive of Cal Powell's monthly AstroWeb columns in the WAS newsletter. You can use your browser's find or search function to locate an entry by keyword. Please feel free to send e-mail on your own personal astronomy-based web pages, or astronomy links that you find noteworthy to me at calpowellusa@yahoo.com.
Planning has already begun for a year-long celebration of astronomy. Formally proclaimed by the United Nations General Assemply, 2009 will be the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the telescopic discoveries by Galileo. Pay a visit to the IYA web site at http://www.astronomy2009.us/ to keep abreast of the programs and events that are being planned. This can be another good opportunity to increase awareness of astronomy as a means to the enjoyment of the night sky.
For three-dimensional cruising in space, it is tough to beat the free program Celestia at http://www.shatters.net/celestia/. Celestia is a space simulation program that lets you explore the universe in 3D. It contains a large catalog of stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft, and, if that is not enough, it is expandable with an impressive library of user-contributed add-ons. Celestia is open-source software that can run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Imagine the Universe! is a NASA web site intended for students aged 14 and older, as well as anyone else interested in learning more about the universe. It features a dictionary of astronomy and astrophysics terms, a guide to resources (both online and print) on a wide range of astronomy topics, and an “Ask an Astrophysicist” service for those tough questions that Google can’t help you with. Point your web browser to http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html and Imagine the Universe!
A cool podcast/vodcast site from NASA at http://www.nasa.gov/nasaedge/: “NASA EDGE. One NASA. Two hosts. Twenty thousand plus rocket scientists. We have liftoff! NASA EDGE is different. Unscripted and unpredictable, NASA EDGE takes a unique look in and around the greatest space program on the planet. Whether it’s the latest launch or the coolest gadgets, NASA EDGE hosts provide an offbeat, funny and informative look behind the NASA curtain. If you’ve ever wanted to learn about NASA but thought you needed to be a rocket scientist, wait no longer. Watch NASA EDGE and embrace your inner astronaut.”
The good folks at Google have added an astronomical twist to their popular Google Earth program. Version 4.2 of Google Earth includes Google Sky, a feature that allows you to navigate around and zoom into the night sky. You can incorporate layers such as constellation outlines, Hubble Space Telescope images, the NGC, the Yale Bright Star Catalog, and planets in motion. You can even take a guided tour using the “Life of a Star Tour” layer. Zooming into the sky brings images from the Digital Sky Survey into view. You can download Google Earth at http://earth.google.com/.
Amateur astronomers (and other interested individuals) have yet another means of contributing to the science of astronomy. In contrast to programs such as SETI@home that use Internet-connected computing power to examine large amounts of data, GalaxyZoo uses Internet-connected human power to examine large amounts of data. The goal of this project is to classify every galaxy captured in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) which will eventually find about one million galaxies. To get started you can visit the project web site at http://www.galaxyzoo.org/Default.aspx and study the galaxy classification tutorial. When you are comfortable with your ability to distinguish spirals from ellipticals, you can then register and take an “entrance exam.” If you pass the exam you can start to request galaxy images from the SDSS that need classification. The GalaxyZoo project is sponsored by Oxford University, the University of Portsmouth, and Johns Hopkins University.
[This month we feature a guest submission (posted on his “Talking Telescopes” Yahoogroup) by Phil Harrington, contributing editor for Astronomy magazine and author of the books Star Ware, Star Watch, Touring the Universe through Binoculars, The Space Shuttle: A Photographic History, Eclipse!, The Deep Sky: An Introduction, The Illustrated Timeline of the Universe (with Richard Sanderson), and Astronomy for All Ages (with Edward Pascuzzi).]
Anyone who has read any of my books knows that I always try to start out with a quote from a century-old treatise that discussed a similar topic. Star Ware, for instance, opens with a quote from Garrett Serviss’s 1901 book Pleasures of the Telescope. From that habit, you could deduce, quite accurately, that I’m a big fan of antiquarian astronomy books. I recently discovered a wonderful (free!) on-line source for many such books. It’s called the Internet Archive and is available at http://www.archive.org. From their “About Us” page: “The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.”
The page you may want to bookmark is http://www.archive.org/details/texts, which is their Open-Access Text Archive. Simply type in the name of the author or title of the book you’re searching for into the Search box at the upper left and you’ll get a quick list of files available in several formats (usually including PDF) that can be downloaded and saved for future reference. Entering Serviss into the search box yields six titles, including Pleasures.
By the way, entering “Phil Harrington” produces one result, a video entitled “Toothpaste vs Orange Juice - Why does drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth taste so bad?” That’s *not* me! :-)
SKY-MAP.ORG is a wonderful way to use the Internet to learn the night sky. The main purpose of the SKY-MAP project is to consolidate astronomical, astrophysical, and other information about astronomical objects. The home page at http://www.sky-map.org/ displays a zoomable all-sky map where you can mouse-over a star or deep-sky object to bring up some basic information about the object. Click on the object and you get a new web page containing more detailed information about the object culled from a database containing more than 500 million entries. This site is a must for any astronomer, armchair or otherwise.
Before they start contemplating another summer of fun away from school, all young readers of this column should pay a visit to the Cogito web site at http://www.cogito.org/. Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth, this site is a portal designed for young thinkers around the world who are passionate about math and science. There are lots of links, tools, and useful information here for all students interested in science.
What better way to celebrate the warmth of Spring (which is due to the increasing Sun angle) than by visiting a web site with dynamic images and videos of our local star. The ESA’s Hinode article page at http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMNA6R08ZE_index_0.html has these items and more. The site has startling views of sunspots, flares, and the Sun’s turbulent magnetic field all captured by the Japanese-led Hinode mission (formerly known as Solar-B).
If you like Google Earth, you should also like NASA World Wind. You can spend hours in NASA World Wind exploring not only the Earth, but also the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Jupiter’s four largest satellites, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and even the WMAP results. NASA World Wind is an open-source program available free from NASA Learning Technologies. For downloading and other information, point your web browser to http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ or http://www.worldwindcentral.com/.
The New Horizons spacecraft will get a gravity assist as it passes by the planet Jupiter at the end of February. Although this boost will add 9,000 mph to our fastest space probe, even at 52,000 mph it will be eight more years before New Horizons reaches Pluto. Mission scientists are using the Jupiter flyby as a trial run to check out the information gathering and transmission systems on the spacecraft. Since this will be the only close look at Jupiter until the scheduled Juno mission in 2016, New Horizons will perform valuable science observations during the flyby. For the latest information and images, visit the mission web site at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/.
Since 2007 is an odd-numbered year, it must be time for the launch of another mission to Mars. Sure enough, the Phoenix Mars Mission is planned for blast-off in August. This mission, the first in NASA’s “Scout Program,” will utilize many components of two unsuccessful Mars missions (Mars Surveyor Program 2001 and Mars Polar Lander) to create a viable spacecraft that will explore the Martian “Arctic.” You can visit the Phoenix Mars Mission web site (hosted by the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) at http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/. It is worth noting that this will be the first Mars mission to be led by an academic institution.
For the remainder of this month (and year, come to think of it), you can take advantage of a rare opportunity to gain free access to the Royal Society Digital Journal Archive at http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/. This archive has every paper published in the Royal Society’s journals dating back to 1665. Seminal research papers include accounts of Michael Faraday’s groundbreaking series of electrical experiments, Isaac Newton’s invention of the reflecting telescope, and the first research paper published by Stephen Hawking. Again, access to this treasure trove of more than 60,000 articles is free until the end of December 2006.
If talk of string theory has you tied up in knots, visit Patricia Schwarz’ Official String Theory Web Site at http://www.superstringtheory.com/. This well-organized site has pages devoted to basics, experiment, black holes, history, mathematics, cosmology, people, and even theatre. Most of the topics discussed are presented in two flavors: basic (for the formula-phobic) and advanced (for the formula-centric).
Sky & Telescope magazine has recently redesigned its web site. It has been renamed SkyTonight.com and can be found at http://skytonight.com/. (You don’t have to change your browser bookmarks and/or favorites just yet. The old S&T URL will still get you to the new address.) The site contains links to a galaxy of astronomy content and you can sign up for a variety of newsletters if you need more delivered to your e-mail inbox.
“Alas, poor Pluto! I knew him, Horatio” (with apologies to the Bard). Astronomers (yes astronomers!) made the news in a big way in August 2006 by passing two resolutions. The first resolution established a scientific definition of the term planet, the second resolution stated that Pluto is no longer a planet as a result of the other resolution. The debate hasn’t quite ended, but if you want to give informed answers to the lay public, you must visit the International Astronomical Union (IAU) IAU 2006 General Assembly resolution web page at http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0603/index.html and Mike Brown’s Eight Planets web page at http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/eightplanets/. If you are saddened by the planetary loss, check out Prof. Brown’s Requiem for the 10th Planet page at http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/whatsaplanet/requiem.html.
In August, our astronomical thoughts naturally turn to meteors. August is, after all, the month of the justly famous Perseid meteor shower. If you have any interest in meteors, you must visit the American Meteor Society web site at http://www.amsmeteors.org/. The AMS is a non-profit scientific organization established to encourage and support the research activities of both amateur and professional astronomers who are interested in meteor astronomy. Their searchable site contains everything that you need to know about the observation and study of meteors.
If you are an astrophotographer looking to publish your images on the web, check out AIDA. This refers not to the opera by Giuseppe Verdi, but rather the Astronomical Image Data Archive at http://aida.astroinfo.org/. AIDA is an image archive that provides free webspace for amateur astronomers to publish their pictures and share experiences with others. The more than 2000 pictures and videos are organized by object category for easy reference. This site is operated by the Astroinfo Society of Switzerland.
Subtitled “A website to display popular astronomy both visually and entertainingly,” Larry Koehn’s Shadow & Substance website at http://www.shadowandsubstance.com/ lives up to its billing. This site contains excellent graphics, photographs, and animations of eclipses, comet orbits, and auroras.
If you are tired of light polluted, milky skies and you are willing to travel, pay a visit to the new home of the Dark-Sky Site Directory at http://www.observingsites.com/. Hosted by consummate amateur astronomer Phil Harrington, this user-friendly site describes dark-sky observing sites in the United States and Canada. Many entries in the directory include Attilla Danko’s “Clear Sky Clocks” which give sky transparency predictions. If you know of a good site that is missing from the directory, it is a simple matter to get it added.
British astronomy enthusiast Richard Powell has created An Atlas of the Universe, a web site designed to give visitors a good idea of what the universe looks like at various scales. There are nine primary maps, simulations of multiple star orbits, a glossary, and a page of useful links. Of particular interest is his page that discusses the problem of defining cosmological distances in an expanding universe. You can visit An Atlas of the Universe at http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com.
If the prospect of warmer weather has you considering the construction of your own observatory, take a look at the Amateur Astronomical Observatories web page. This site (at http://obs.nineplanets.org/obs/obslist.html) was compiled by Bill Arnett and is a page with links to many amateur observatory web sites (including Bill’s own observatory, Ptolemy’s Cafe). A look at these web sites should give you plenty of ideas on how to build your own private “stairway to heaven.” By the way, if you already have a private observatory featured on your own web page, you can get it listed by following the instructions on Bill’s page.
In teaching astronomy, it is sometimes difficult to explain and illustrate concepts in the non-interactive format of a textbook, or blackboard. Instructors needed ways to dynamically illustrate concepts to their classes, and students needed an interactive learning format to review and explore these concepts on their own. Thus, Demonstrations and Animations for Teaching Astronomy (DATA) at http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/projects/data/index.html was born. All of the concepts presenented on this site are ones frequently encountered in teaching and learning basic astronomy. The demos and animations are designed to bring life and interactivity to the concepts in order to make them easier to understand and learn. Available demos include lunar phases, Kepler’s Laws, retrograde motion, the Doppler effect, and seasons.
The NASA Mission Planner at http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/MissionPlanner/MissionPlanner.html is an interactive facility where you can help NASA plot the course for future space shuttle and robotic missions -- and find out if you've got the right stuff. You will need a recent version of Macromedia Flash Player, a speedy internet connection, and a good knowledge of NASA space missions (such as the New Horizons mission to Pluto) to get the most enjoyment from this site.
How does a resident of the International Space Station (ISS) celebrate the holiday season? Go to the Space Station Christmas web site at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast21dec_1.htm?list666723 to find out. Brought to you by NASA (the folks who would really know), this site recounts the story of how the jolly man in red did not forget the orbiting outpost of humanity. You can even download an audio version that you can play on your MP3 device.
If the prospect of spending long hours in an unheated observatory in the cold sends chills up your spine, check out the Robotic and Remotely Controlled Telescopes web site. Hosted by Sonoma State University at http://gtn.sonoma.edu/public/resources/telescope_resource_site/rt_materials/the_list.html, this site contains links to professional and amateur robotic telescope sites, programs that utilize robotic telescopes, and resources you will need if you wish to develop your own robotic site.
Practical Uses of Math And Science (PUMAS) is a collection of brief examples illustrating how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes can be used in interesting settings, including everyday life. The PUMAS web site at http://pumas.jpl.nasa.gov contains more than 50 of these examples which can be accessed and used by anyone. Some examples relevant to astronomy are “Can an Astronaut on Mars Distinguish the Earth from its Moon?”, “Determining the Altitude of Iridium Flares”, “Launch Speed”, and “Modeling the Motions of the Earth, Sun, and Moon”.
The space launch business is still pretty busy these days despite of the woes of the Space Shuttle program. If you want to keep up with who is launching what and when, look no further than the Space Database at http://www.spaceandtech.com/spacedata/index.shtml sponsored by Andrews Space & Technology. The Space Database provides a comprehensive overview of expendable and reusable launch vehicles, rocket engines and motors, satellite buses, satellite constellations, rocket upper stages, and launch sites. The Space Database also includes a launch schedule with details of launch vehicles and payloads. If you want to know anything about rocket hardware, this is the place to go.
August is a vacation month as well as back-to-school month, and offerings from Google can help with both. Google Earth (at http://earth.google.com/) is a downloadable program that allows you to go anywhere on our home planet via an interactive 3D interface. You can check out Mt. St. Helens, Meteor Crater, Arecibo, Cerro Tololo, or Siding Spring as well as schools, cities, mountains, and lakes. A fairly robust PC with a large monitor and a good video card work best for Google Earth. If you view the Earth from an altitude of 4000 miles or greater, you will notice an accurate starry background.
Once you get back to school, you will want a good source of technical information. Google Scholar is an academically-targeted web search facility that gives you access to many sources of scholarly literature. These sources include peer-reviewed papers, theses, book, preprints, abstracts, and technical reports. As vanilla Google does with normal searching, Google Scholar ranks the search results presenting the most relevant references at the top of the results page. Google Scholar's URL is http://scholar.google.com/.
Although most of us are taking journeys in space -- the largely two-dimensional space that describes the Earth’s surface -- during this time of year, a visit to this month’s AstroWeb site will take you on a journey through time. The Cosmic Evolution site at Tufts University’s Wright Center for Science Education traces the cosmic origin and evolution of matter and energy from the Big Bang to the present. Entry to the Cosmic Evolution site is at http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/cosmic_evolution/ where you will find loads of well-written text, diagrams, videos, and activities related to the history of the universe.
Are you ready for Deep Impact, on Independence Day? Before you make plans for a quick move to another planet, know that this Deep Impact is a mission that involves sending a spacecraft to rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1 in early July. The spacecraft will deploy an impactor that will slam into the comet while the rest of the spacecraft flies by and takes pictures. By forming a deep crater in Comet Tempel 1, the mission scientists hope to find clues to the comet’s structure and, by extension, the formation of our solar system. The mission’s home page at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/ is packed with information, videos, animations, and activities that will interest casual browsers, amateur comet observers, and professional astronomers alike.
If you have not yet visited the Stamford Observatory, a trip to the Fairfield County Astronomical Society and Stamford Observatory website at http://www.stamfordobservatory.org is the next best thing to being there. At this site, you can peruse a complete history of the observatory and club, view images taken through the research-grade telescope housed there, catch up on all scheduled events at the observatory, and check out the biography of the observatory’s curator, Charles E. Scovil, variable star observer and charter par excellence, and all-around mainstay of Fairfield County astronomy.
The detection of a gamma-ray burst emitted by a magnetar on the far side of the Milky Way Galaxy has given a jolt of publicity to the topic of neutron stars. A good and somewhat technical introduction to these objects with Sun-like masses compressed to the size of a city can be found at Prof. Cole Miller’s Introduction to Neutron Stars web site at http://www.astro.umd.edu/~miller/nstar.html. Of special note is the color diagram of the structure of a neutron star.
With the discovery of 12 new extrasolar planets in the past month, the number of known planets outside our own solar system has grown to 145. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Extrasolar Planet web site at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/ combines the latest news in the search for another Earth with a rich array of special features. The site contains an interstellar trip planner, a new worlds atlas, a Keck Observatory virtual tour, an interactive gallery of games and simulations, and a 3D black hole animation.
Saturn’s large moon Titan became the latest extraterrestrial world to be touched by the hand of man when the Huygens space probe (built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and deployed by the Cassini spacecraft) landed on the surface of Titan on January 14, 2005. You can explore all of the raw images, timelines, animations, press releases, and videos from this historical event at the ESA Cassini-Huygens web site at http://saturn.esa.int/. Of special note is the ESA Kids web page that has astronomical activities and goodies for kids of all ages.
Timed to coincide with the centennial celebration of Albert Einstein’s annus mirabilis (and, coincidentally, the 50th year of his death), the World Year of Physics 2005 (WYP 2005) plans to bring the excitement of physics to the general public and inspire a new generation of scientists. Pay a visit to the WYP 2005 web site at http://www.physics2005.org/ for news, events, projects, and downloads related to Einstein’s 1905 intellectual tour de force. For those of us seti@home types who may be looking for a new distributed computing research project, this site provides information on the upcoming Einstein@Home project.
In keeping with the apparent increasingly commercial aspect to the holiday season, this month’s AstroWeb site is SpaceMartGifts.com. Although this columnist has not ordered anything via this site at http://www.spacemartgifts.com (so don’t consider this review to be an endorsement), they do seem to have a very good selection of reasonably priced space and astronomy gift items. In addition to the items for sale, SpaceMartGifts.com has some links to astronomy web sites.
Scholarly radiologist by day, bold astrophotographer by night, Dr. Ruben Kier has placed a wonderful collection of deep sky and planetary images on his web site http://www.stardoctor.org. Each web page contains a description of the object (or objects), the equipment and exposures used, and a MIDI musical selection (most are from the 1960s and 70s) as a theme tune. Dr. Kier also has a couple of pages describing his observatory setup; you can read more about his “astro-shed” on page 72 of the November 2004 issue of Astronomy magazine.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has a wonderful web site at http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html. Links on the GSFC site take you to pages covering a wide range of NASA activities such as satellite studies of Earth and the merger of distant galaxy clusters. Their mission says it all: “To understand and protect our home planet, to explore the Universe and search for life, to inspire the next generation of explorers…as only NASA can.”
If you are searching for a challenging observing project, look no further than this month’s AstroWeb site, the Ursa Major Project. Conceived by Dave Kratz way back in 1974, the objective is to join other amateur astronomers around the world to observe the more than 100 Ursa Major galaxies that are brighter than magnitude 13.5. (The observing list contains two anomalies: M97, the “Owl Nebula” which is a planetary nebula; and NGC 4111, a galaxy that is just across the constellation border in Canes Venatici.) For more information including the list of objects, reporting guidelines, the project’s history, and downloadable observing forms and finder charts, point your web browser to http://www.denebsystems.com. My thanks go to WAS board member Evan Tilley for bringing this web site to my attention.
The heat of the summer makes one think about the electromagnetic spectrum, and what better part of the electromagnetic spectrum is there to ponder than the far ultraviolet. We have been studying the universe in this wavelength range for more than five years with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite, developed and operated by Johns Hopkins University. You can learn more about the spacecraft, mission, and the science at FUSE’s comprehensive web site, located at http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu. The site contains a rich trove of materials for educators, researchers, and the general public.
History was made on June 21, 2004 as a private manned vehicle reached an altitude of 100 km and then landed safely. You can get details about SpaceShipOne and its carrier vehicle White Knight at Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites web site. This web site, located at http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/, has general information, press releases, test logs, and a photo gallery. You can even visit the SpaceShipOne merchandise site to purchase trademarked hats, shirts, and travel mugs.
What was founded in 1984, has two Nobel Prize winners on its Board of Trustees, and employs more than 100 scientists, educators, and support staff? If you guessed the SETI Institute, you are correct! Dedicated to the exploration and understanding of the origin, nature, and prevalence of life in the universe, the SETI Institute is about serious science. A visit to its web site at http://www.seti.org will give you a good overview of the Institute’s two research centers: the Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, and the Center for SETI Research. The well-designed site allows you to view video interviews with the principal scientists and take a video ride under the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. The Institute also sponsors a considerable number of education and public outreach programs concentrating on astrobiology and evolution.
At sunrise on June 8, 2004 we will be treated to an event that hasn’t been seen since 1882. The planet Venus will be nearing completion of its transit across the face of the Sun for observers on the east coast of the U.S. The transit begins at 1:30AM and ends at 7:30AM on that Tuesday morning. The Transit of Venus web site at http://www.transitofvenus.org has everything you would want to know about this rare event: global projects, historical links, activities, safety tips, and a description of the mysterious “black drop effect.” Plan on paying a visit to this site prior to the event; this web page will get a lot of hits during the transit.
In his January 14 speech, President Bush directed NASA to replace the Space Shuttle with a to-be-developed Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). This effort is now known as Project Constellation. Space science writer James Burk maintains a Project Constellation weblog at http://www.projectconstellation.us and it contains the latest news articles, NASA documents, concept artwork, and editorials about the development of this next-generation spacecraft.
After an interplanetary journey lasting six and a half years, the Cassini spacecraft has begun its final approach to the planet Saturn. Did you know that the spacecraft’s images are being studied carefully by the CICLOPS? CICLOPS is an abbreviation for the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations which hosts the work of the 14-member Cassini Imaging Science Team. The CICLOPS web site is located at http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu and it contains a description of the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), publications produced by the team, a newsroom area for press releases, and an imaging diary that features all of the major images produced by Cassini during its 3.4 billion kilometer journey to the ringed planet. High resolution images from Cassini will be published on this site on a weekly or more frequent basis until the spacecraft enters orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004.
If you are tired of listening to taunts that Tang is the only real byproduct of the U. S. space program and you need some snappy responses, pay a visit to the Space Technology Hall of Fame at http://www.spacetechhalloffame.org. The Space Technology Hall of Fame was established in 1988 by the Space Foundation and NASA to honor the innovators who have transformed technology originally developed for the space program into commercial products, to increase public awareness of the benefits of space spin-off technology, and to encourage further innovation. At this site you can “tour” the hall of fame, nominate a technology for hall of fame consideration, and take the Space Technology Hall of Fame Space Challenge.
Radar is now a key research tool in the study of asteroids. Dr. Steven J. Ostro, a leading expert in the field of planetary radar astronomy who is a senior research scientist at JPL, has created an informative web site on asteroid radar research at http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/. The site contains links to press releases on asteroid imaging and other radar-assisted discoveries, as well as summary data on all asteroids that have been detected by radar and a comprehensive list of web resources pertaining to asteroids.
The holiday season is a time of travel for many of us, and taking that theme beyond our home planet, the folks at Disney Online have designed a great website called Mission: SPACE. This web page, located at http://www.disney.go.com/vacations/missionspace/index.html, introduces Disney’s new simulated space adventure attraction at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center. You can learn about the International Space Training Center at the attraction, the X-2 Deep Space Shuttle spacecraft, and the Advanced Training Lab games and activities, all on a site loaded with terrific sound and animation effects.
NASA’s Planetary Photojournal website is the place to visit for images of our solar system. This website, maintained by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, can be found at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov and has links to hundreds of pictures taken by NASA spacecraft over the years. Whether you are preparing a talk or researching a report, if you need images of any planet (including the earth), the sun, planetary moons, asteroids, or comets, you will find them at the Planetary Photojournal site.
This month we pay homage to a wonderful space mission that ended on September 21, 2003. On that date, the Galileo spacecraft disintegrated in the thick atmosphere of Jupiter some 14 years after its launch from the Space Shuttle Atlantis. There are two Galileo websites maintained by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/indexold.html. Both sites are loaded with information, history, animations, and activities related to Jupiter as studied by Galileo; the latter site will be maintained as the official Galileo archives.
A distinguished university is the web host of the recently-launched Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF). SIRTF is the final mission in NASA’s Great Observatories Program, joining the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The California Institute of Technology’s SIRTF web site at http://sirtf.caltech.edu contains profiles of the project scientists, animations of the launch and mission milestones, a special area for the astronomical community, and the latest news releases concerning the mission. Of special interest is the link to Cool Cosmos, a one-stop page for students, teachers, and anyone else who wants to learn more about infrared astronomy, the electromagnetic spectrum, or simply enjoy various games and activities.
To wind up our Mars website series in acknowledgment of the historic 2003 opposition of the “Red Planet” at month’s end, let's highlight a group that is planning for the future. The purpose of The Mars Society is to further the goal of the exploration and development of the Red Planet. Their website at http://www.marssociety.org contains all the background of the organization and plenty of news on the organization’s activities. You can find a Mars “picture of the day,” Mars news, and the status of all current Mars missions via links on the society’s web pages. If you are interested in putting a human on Mars, you should take a look at this organization.
This month we visit another Mars mission site in advance of the historic 2003 opposition of the “Red Planet” at the end of August. The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the Mars Express mission on June 2. You can follow the progress of this spacecraft by pointing your web browser to the SciTech Mars Express website at http://sci.esa.int/marsexpress/. The site has mission details, press releases, and background science information with plenty of images and a few videos. If all goes well, this site will be busy during the December holiday season as “webizens” from around the world look for news about the Mars encounter of the Beagle 2 landing module, which will be deployed from the Mars Express spacecraft and is scheduled to touch down on the Martian surface on Christmas Day 2003.
Mars fever is definitely on the rise in advance of the historic 2003 opposition at the end of August. Taking advantage of this opportunity, NASA plans to launch twin missions to the red planet in June. Both missions (known as MER-A and MER-B for Mars Exploration Rover A and B) will carry a lander and deploy a rover in very much the same manner as the Pathfinder mission did in 1997. You can get all the background and technical information on MER and the Athena Mars Rover payloads at Cornell University’s Mission to Mars / Athena Instrument website at http://athena.cornell.edu. Of special interest are videos of the rover’s robotic arm and a simulation of the planned launch, landing, and rover operation. JPL’s Mars Rover website at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/ is also well worth a visit.
You’ve probably seen at least one television show (usually on a cable network such as the Discovery Channel) about the potential threat posed by near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) or comets. You may be left wondering if anyone is doing something about it. Wonder no more; a group of about twenty scientists and engineers met in October 2001 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to discuss the feasibility of deflecting asteroids. They reached a consensus and decided to organize as the B612 Foundation with the following goal: To significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015. Their web site (at http://www.b612foundation.org/) discusses the history of the organization, names the participants and principal officers, describes the risks of an NEA impact, and outlines the group’s proposed solution. If there is a sizable space rock headed our way and if this group’s proof-of-concept mission is successful, the B612 Foundation may well have the best alternative to disaster.
Although we hope the onset of spring means that we have left the cold weather behind, we should not say goodbye to winter without visiting one of the “coolest” observatories on Earth. Designed to detect some of the most elusive particles in the universe, IceCube is a one-cubic-kilometer international high-energy neutrino observatory being built and installed in the clear deep ice below the South Pole Station. The web site (at http://icecube.wisc.edu) covers the design and science of IceCube, workshops for teachers and other educational opportunities, and a gallery of diagrams, simulations, and photographs including life at the South Pole. If you want to dig into the details, many of the technical documents are available in Adobe Acrobat format.
What is the name of the first planetarium built in the Western Hemisphere? If you answered Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, you are correct! The Adler (officially the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum) has a terrific web site at http://www.adlerplanetarium.org. An education area on the site has lesson plans for teachers and distance learning opportunities for students of all ages. The astronomy area has links to news items, Chicago-area astronomy clubs, and a description of the Adler’s impressive astronomy department. The history area describes the Adler’s exhibitions and holdings. An unexpected feature is a webcam perched atop the Adler Planetarium providing live shots of the Chicago skyline that you can control!
Bob Meadows has been looking at web sites for astronomy related vacations. There are several tours that include trips to major observatories and star parties for observing the southern skies. http://www.tq-international.com/ is a Travel Quest tour sponsored by Sky and Telescope to Arizona including Kitt Peak, Lowell Observatory, and the MMT. http://astronomyvacations.com/ is a Mayhugh Travel tour sponsored by Astronomy Magazine to Hawaii including two trips to the summit of Mauna Kea. http://www.a1specialtytours.com/ is a Specialty Tours trip sponsored by Astronomy Magazine to the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu that will include observing Mars while camping at Machu Picchu. http://www.siriustravel.com/ is a Sirius Tours trip to southern California and Arizona including a star party at Mt. Wilson using the 60-inch telescope. It’s not too early to plan those spring and summer astronomical vacations!
We will ring in the new year by noting the “first light” from a new orbiting observatory. Go to the European Space Agency’s International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral) web site at http://sci.esa.int/integral/ where you will find details on the Integral spacecraft and its mission. The site contains a news and image archive (including the first-light images), descriptions of the spacecraft and its instruments, and a good discussion of gamma rays and how they are produced in the universe. Of special note is a page that features an interactive chart of the electromagnetic spectrum. When you position your mouse pointer over a band of the spectrum, an image of the sky in a representative wavelength in that band appears!
The graphics power of home computers has increased to the point that sophisticated animations and complex virtualization software can run smoothly on most current home PCs and Macs. A good place to start exploring the world of astronomical visualization is the web site at http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/hp/vo/index.html, which is the National Virtual Observatory (NVO) node hosted by New York’s Hayden Planetarium and the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. Click on the Partiview link and you can download free software that allows you to cruise through the Milky Way. Lesson plans on a wide variety of astronomical topics are available via the Educational Resources link. Movies and animations of many things astronomical can be found in the site’s Astrophysics Visualization Archive. If you want to dig into the numbers behind the visualizations, check out the Astrophysics Data Portal. With so much to explore at the NVO, you may find that you spend more time on your computer than on watching television!
Would you like to take a field trip to Mars or go on a planetary scavenger hunt? If so, the Kid’s Cosmos web site at http://www.kidscosmos.org/kid-stuff.html is just the place for you. As part of a general science education web site, Kid’s Cosmos has a number of fun learning activities. You can learn about time and how to calculate lunar phases and eclipses, explore near-earth objects and estimate the damage that would result from an impact, and check your knowledge of scientific notation and astronomical constants. Educators can view sample lesson plan ideas and explore numerous resource links. You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy Kid’s Cosmos!
If you are interested in space science and related fields, take a look at SpaceRef.com. This web site at http://www.spaceref.com is a portal designed as an online space technology resource for students, professionals, and novice space buffs.
SpaceRef.com has status reports on all major space missions; online guides to the International Space Station, Mars, and astrobiology; directories for special subjects such as microgravity science; and links to space-related webcasts. For those who like to speculate about the future of humankind in space, the space colonies link in SpaceRef.com’s photo gallery will give you plenty to consider. Although it contains some astronomy and astrophysics content, SpaceRef.com is very strong in space science; it should be one of the first sites visited by anyone seeking current information on what many believe will be our ultimate destiny.
Even though most schools opened in August this year, I still consider September the back-to-school month, and so it is fitting that our September 2002 AstroWeb site is located at a famous institution of higher education. The Hands-On UniverseTM(HOU) web site at http://hou.lbl.gov offers much to delight students, teachers, and amateur astronomers.
HOU is a student-centered research and K-12 curriculum development program of the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California at Berkeley. HOU has developed and pilot tested an educational program that enables high school students to request their own observations from professional observatories. Students download telescope images to their classroom computers and use the powerful HOU image processing software to visualize and analyze their data. A high school curriculum developed by HOU integrates many of the science and math topics and skills outlined in national standards into open-ended astronomical investigations.
The web site has astronomy news and activities, telescope images, student research results, and teacher resources. The online activities include studying binary stars and star colors, making a lunar mosaic, and downloading a planisphere. Although some of the site’s links are out of date, HOU provides a fun way to learn astronomy and participate in research.
A new “breed” of scientific specialist is taking a prominent role in the effort to find extraterrestrial life: the astrobiologist. To learn more about this discipline, visit the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) web site at http://nai.arc.nasa.gov. The NAI, headquartered at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, coordinates research on the fundamental questions that astrobiology seeks to answer: How does life begin and evolve? Is there life elsewhere in the universe? What is the future of life on earth and beyond?
The web site has sections designed for students, teachers, researchers, and the general public. There is an “Ask the Astrobiologist” page where you can get answers to frequently asked questions and submit your own posers to a member of the NAI staff. There are also plenty of links to research papers, news articles, publications, and research facilities.
On July 3, NASA launched the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft, the latest in the agency’s “Discovery” program of lower-budget missions. The CONTOUR spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with Comet Encke in November 2003 and Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 in June 2006, gathering data from both at a distance of about 100 kilometers. The CONTOUR spacecraft is also designed so that it can be re-targeted to an unexpected comet visiting our neck of the solar system. The CONTOUR web site is located at http://www.contour2002.org where you will find video interviews with the launch team, loads of information about comets, and a downloadable template for building your own CONTOUR spacecraft.
A new astronomy portal has started operation. Mathew Marulla and his team based in Nashua, NH have introduced AstronomyDaily.com at http://www.astronomydaily.com. Once you register your location, the home page gives you a list of upcoming sky events in local time, sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset details, and links to local weather information. You also will find star charts, M-object local visibility details, and links to various articles on telescopes and related accessories. Although it is not as complete as the more established astronomy portals, AstronomyDaily.com bears watching; it already merits a spot on your favorites list.
If you are fascinated by supercomputer simulations of cosmological events (or if you like reading about some of the world’s fastest computers), visit the Grand Challenge Cosmology Consortium (GC3) web site at http://zeus.ncsa.uiuc.edu:8080/GC3_Home_Page.html. The GC3 is a project designed to harness the power of parallel computers to study the formation of large-scale structures in the universe. Its site features “Hot Buttons” links to a number of animations depicting simulations of long timescale events such as galaxy collisions and galaxy group formation. Although some links lead to restricted web pages, you’ll find a lot of very interesting graphics and MPEG movies at the GC3 site.
The 2002 Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) will be held at Rockland Community College in mid-May. NEAF is co-sponsored by Sky & Telescope and hosted by the Rockland Astronomy Club (RAC). The RAC, which draws its membership from Rockland County (NY) and Bergen County (NJ), has a good web site at http://www.rocklandastronomy.com. The colorful home page leads to an entry page that features Java applets displaying the current phase of earth’s moon and the configuration of the Galilean moons of Jupiter. The site also contains articles for beginning amateur astronomers, a newsletter archive, member astrophotographs, and a classifieds section.
In keeping with the springtime theme of rebirth, the Sky & Telescope magazine web site has undergone a complete facelift. You can check out the results at http://skyandtelescope.com. In addition to the astronomy news and reference resources that we have come to expect from Sky & Telescope, the new site displays an almanac with details on sunrise/sunset/moonrise/moonset times as well as International Space Station visibility information. However, the coolest new feature is Sky & Telescope’s Java-based Interactive Sky Chart which can simulate a naked-eye view of the sky from any location on earth, at any time of day or night, on any date from 1600 to 2400. Portions of the site, such as the almanac and sky chart, will be customized to your location if you choose to register it. (A local “cookie” will be set on your PC to allow the site to “remember” your location on subsequent visits.)
Cosmiverse is an internet portal site that has considerable space, technology, and astronomy content. Although the site (at http://www.cosmiverse.com) targets a broader audience with news sections devoted to general science, science fiction, and paranormal activities, there is much here for the amateur astronomer to explore from the “Your Sky Tonight!” link. You can even send virtual postcards with cool astronomy or science fiction images and music.
To celebrate the Discovery Museum's current exhibit, Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe, the first AstroWeb column of 2002 pays a visit to one of the web sites operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute. The Space Telescope Science Institute, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is responsible for the scientific operation of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). During the summer of 1996, the Institute was set abuzz by the invasion of ten science teachers. These teachers teamed up with scientists and engineers from the Institute and staff members from its Office of Public Outreach to develop interactive lessons for the World Wide Web. The result is called Amazing Space: Education On-Line from the Hubble Space Telescope at http://amazing-space.stsci.edu. At this site, students can explore the Hubble Deep Fields from a statistical point of view, whip up a batch of comets, fall into one of the eeriest celestial phenomena in "The Truth about Black Holes", find out what light and color can tell you about stars, and train to be scientists by enrolling in the Hubble Deep Field Academy. Spectacular images from the HST illustrate all of these interactive lessons. There is also a teacher's section where educators can print activity materials in case internet access is not available to their students.
By the way, be sure to check out the Discovery Museum's web site at http://www.discoverymuseum.org . The HST exhibit will be at the Discovery Museum until February 24, 2002.
From the "time flies" department: Jack Horkheimer, Executive Director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium (and the original "Star Hustler"), has been on PBS television for twenty-five years! Every week he talks about something everyone can see in the sky during his five-minute naked-eye astronomy show (now called Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer). From the show’s web site at http://www.jackstargazer.com, you can download and view any of the last year’s program segments, check out Jack’s favorite links, and read the cartoon series that he authors for Odyssey magazine. As a very generous gesture in this increasingly commercial and proprietary world, Mr. Horkheimer grants everyone free and unrestricted use of his television show.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) claims to be the most ambitious astronomical survey project ever undertaken. The sky server for the SDSS is available on the web at http://skyserver.fnal.gov/en/. This web site has a cool scrolling-stars background and links to SDSS project information, general astronomy and cosmology pages, a range on science projects, games, and contests, and tools to navigate and search the images and data that have been collected to date. The SDSS will become a key astronomy and cosmology reference database for many years to come.
The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is a major NASA initiative with the objective of finding earth-sized life-bearing planets around nearby stars. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to develop a fairly complete list of all stars in our solar system's neighborhood. The Nearby Stars (Nstars) Database Project at NASA-Ames was established in 1998 to develop that list. The Nstars database is available on the web at http://nstars.arc.nasa.gov/. This utilitarian web site has Nstars project background and reference pages, as well as an easy-to-use search facility, so anyone can get complete data about any star known to be within 25 parsecs of the sun.
Continuing our Canadian connection (and recognizing that it’s back-to-school time) this month, it was the summer of 1995 when Anton Skorucak, an undergraduate physics student at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, decided to create a web site to promote education and research in physics and related sciences. In less than a year, PhysLINK was born, and since then it has evolved into PhysLINK.com, a very attractive site at http://www.physlink.com/. There are links to the latest physics and astronomy news releases, a science reference section, an "ask an expert" page, scientific software reviews, discussion groups and forums, and lists of college physics departments, science jobs, journals, societies, and books on PhysLINK. Educators can qualify for the PhysLINK.com Teacher’s Club and get access to additional resources and materials. And there is a "physics fun" section when you are in the mood for some "lighter" scientific fare.
This month we’ll head north to find a cool AstroWeb site: the University of Calgary’s Radio Astronomy Laboratory at http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/. The Radio Astronomy Laboratory is involved in three major projects. The Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS) is an effort to generate a high-resolution map of the interstellar matter in the Milky Way. The Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry (SVLBI) effort outlines the Radio Astronomy Laboratory’s role in the Japanese-led VLBI Space Observatory Program (VSOP) which has launched a radio telescope into a highly elliptical earth orbit. This space telescope can baseline with various ground radio telescopes to achieve a baseline about three times the size of the largest interferometer on earth. The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is a proposal to build 30 interferometric antenna stations with a total collecting area of one square kilometer.
The Radio Astronomy Laboratory’s web site also contains links to other radio astronomy resources on the web. You can even get access to some of their radio astronomy data and download Karma, a free program that provides 3D visualization of scientific data.
The Planetary Science Institute is a not-for-profit research and educational institute with locations in San Juan Capistrano, California and Tucson, Arizona. Their web site’s URL is http://www.sji.org where you will find information about their research projects (including Mars landing site studies, the origin of the Moon, and building planets) and education resources. They sponsor field trips in southern California, educational videoconferences, and high school internships. Check out Bill Hartmann’s Painting Gallery for some top-notch astronomical art.
Our kids’ club, WAS... The Next Generation (TNG), will portray the life of astronomer Percival Lowell this month. Since Mars will be at opposition this month, and Lowell spent a good portion of his adult life observing and studying the red planet, and Tom Zelenak, one of the TNG adult moderators and frequent "star" in their productions, is a meteorite collector, it is fitting that this month’s web site is the JPL Mars Meteorite Home Page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/index.html. Maintained by veteran meteorite collector Ron Baalke, this site contains anything you might want to know about these rare stones. Baalke includes photographs (some from Connecticut-based Bethany Sciences) and descriptions of all known Mars meteorites, as well as Mars meteorite news, links to other Mars meteorite pages, and links to current Mars exploration missions.
Solar activity has been in the news recently, as our sun celebrates its passage through this latest solar maximum with an impressive series of flares, sunspots, and mass coronal ejections (MCEs). On June 7, 2001, NASA plans to launch the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI), a spacecraft that will investigate the physics of particle acceleration and energy release in solar flares by observing X-ray and gamma-ray emissions with an unprecedented combination of high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy. The University of California at Berkeley is the Prime Contractor of the mission, and their HESSI web site at http://hessi.ssl.berkeley.edu/ provides a wealth of information on the details of the spacecraft and the mission, as well as its scientific underpinnings. Of special note are the links to the other major contractors: the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, responsible for the imaging devices; Spectrum Astro which provided the design and development of the spacecraft bus; and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich), developer of the data management systems for HESSI. All have attractive web pages dedicated to the HESSI mission.
Did you ever have a tough astronomy question that you wished to pose to a professional astronomer? Do you wonder what it takes to have a career in astronomy? If you answered yes to either question, pay a visit to the Astronomy Cafe at http://www.theastronomycafe.net/. This site is managed by Sten Odenwald, an astronomer with Raytheon ITSS (a NASA contractor and the site sponsor), who is the education and public outreach manager for the NASA IMAGE satellite program. There are no fewer than 3001 frequently asked questions (FAQs) on astronomy and space available via the "Ask the Astronomer" and "Ask the Space Scientist" links. You will also find links to astronomy articles, Big Bang cosmology, the infrared universe, space movies, space sounds, and astronomy career information. If you have an astronomy question that is not answered on this site, you are encouraged to submit it to Odenwald for an answer and possible inclusion in one of the FAQs areas.
While you are surfing the internet, pay a visit to WAS member Susan Delaney’s astronomy web page at http://delaneys.home.att.net/astronomy/. Using easy-to-navigate pages, Susan describes her astronomy projects and activities, provides links to astronomy sites and discussion groups, and records her observations. All in all, a very nice web site.
March is the prime month for Messier Marathons and so we feature the Messier Marathon Homepage at http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/xtra/marathon/marathon.html. This site has the history, search sequences, tips, result compilations, and links related to the annual amateur quest to observe all 110 Messier objects in one session. The site also outlines extended marathons such as the Photographic Messier Marathon, the Messier Plus Marathon, and the mind-boggling Messier Memory Marathon (where you are allowed to use only the search-order list of M-objects; that’s right, no charts and no notes!).
As an additional item this month, I wish to note that the Westport Astronomical Society has a web presence on the American Town Network. You will find WAS on the "Clubs and Organizations" channel at http://www.westport.americantowns.com/. Be sure to check it out.
This month’s AstroWeb site is Phil Harrington’s "STAR WARE (and More!)" home page at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pharrington/homepage.htm. Phil, a life member of WAS, is an outstanding observer, speaker, and author on all topics astronomical. His home page features an audio greeting that invites you to explore the site. You will find links to pages for each of Phil’s astronomy books: Star Ware, Eclipse!, Astronomy for All Ages (co-authored with Ed Pascuzzi), Touring the Universe through Binoculars (and a companion CD star atlas), and The Deep Sky: An Introduction. Phil’s site also includes a Dark-Sky Observing Site Directory. This section, a winner of the "Star Award" from the Griffith Observatory, makes it easy to locate good observing sites in many states and Canadian provinces. If you are interested in promoting dark skies, Phil’s Master’s thesis on light pollution is available for download. Whether you are a novice or expert, armchair astronomer or active observer, Phil’s "STAR WARE (and More!)" web site has much to offer.
In commemoration of the Cassini spacecraft’s flyby of Jupiter on its way to Saturn, this month’s AstroWeb site is http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/. This Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) site contains links to the press releases, still images, and videos of the Cassini-Huygens mission to the planet Saturn. The videos of Jupiter are striking: you can watch the differential movement of the zonal bands in Jupiter’s atmosphere, or the circular swirls of the Great Red Spot and its nearby storms. You can also listen to the sounds of Jupiter derived from waves resulting from the interaction of Jupiter’s magnetic field with the solar wind.
To welcome the new year, you may also want to visit The 2001 Principle web site at http://www.2001principle.net/. This is a web site devoted to the cosmological and philosophical underpinnings of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
To visit the site that has the best handle on the real start of the new millennium, point your web browser to http://www.usno.navy.mil. This is the official site of the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO), arguably the world’s most authoritative timekeeper. You can find anything on the topic of precision timekeeping here, as well as information on the telescopes operated by the USNO, the USNO’s mission, publications, science projects, and public tours. You can get the most accurate time available, and they have a special section on the new millennium. The USNO is one of Washington’s unheralded jewels; its excellent web site deserves to be included in everyone’s browser favorites.
For WAS members interested in astrophotography, check out "Catching the Light: Astrophotography by Jerry Lodriguss" at http://www.astropix.com/INDEX.HTM. This site has some excellent astrophotos, comprehensive articles on astrophotography and digital photo enhancement techniques, stories, observations, and humor. Be aware that the images on this site are copyrighted and digitally watermarked; if you want to use them, Lodriguss will be happy to quote licensing fees or sell you prints.
The October AstroWeb site is a first-class web portal for people (like us) who are interested in space science and astronomy. A web portal is a site that is designed to be your first (and perhaps only) stop on the internet. SPACE.COM has implemented a portal at http://www.space.com/ that is rich in content and features. You can keep abreast of space mission and astronomy news, check out stock prices for space-related businesses, experience a broad range of multimedia including a virtual space tour and "Space TV", and play a variety of games (some of which are educational). You can also get a free email account (such as calpowell@space.com), contribute astronomy and space lesson plans, and explore shopping, kids, entertainment, and science fiction areas.
September is the traditional "back to school" month, and the web can be an invaluable tool allowing anyone to check out university programs, facilities, and faculties. An impressive portal to West Coast astronomy can be found at http://www.ucolick.org/. This site contains links to the Lick and Keck observatories, astronomy programs at all branches of the University of California system, the Center for Adaptive Optics, and the Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Labs. The observatory web pages contain observing schedules (so you can see who is on each telescope and when), online instrument manuals, and observing time request forms.
We have passed the halfway mark of the year 2000 and perhaps it is a good time reflect on our terrestrial point of reference: the Prime Meridian. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich boasts an attractive web site at http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk. You can check up on current exhibits such as "John Harrison and the Longitude Problem", "The Story of Time", and "The Herschels and the Royal Observatory". They also host an astronomy information service containing pamphlets or "leaflets" on a number of astronomical topics. If you plan to visit the London area, you may wish to sign up for an observing session on their 28-inch telescope.
News about liquid water on the surface of Mars is heating up these days. If you wish to study the visual evidence for yourself, point your web browser to the Mars Global Surveyor - Mars Orbiter Camera web site at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/june2000. Here you will find many high-resolution images of Martian water channels as well as a link to the recently published article on the analysis of these images in Science magazine. Additional research announcements on the Martian water front can be found in the news section of Sky & Telescope’s web site at http://www.skypub.com.
How do you catch a neutrino? With an underground observatory, of course! The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), located near Sudbury, Ontario and operated by Queens University in Kingston, is nestled more than a mile underground. Take a look at the SNO web site at http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca and discover how these ghostly particles are detected. The site contains photos of the observatory construction, images of detected neutrino events, and links to other neutrino and high-energy physics sites.
Did you ever wish that you could get advance warning of significant auroral displays such as the one this past April 6? Your wishes have been answered at the Space Weather Bureau web site at http://www.spaceweather.com. This attractive site displays the current sunspot and solar wind conditions and can provide alerts for solar flare activity. There are plenty of links to other solar, auroral, and geomagnetic web sites.
I am indebted to Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson for bringing the Space Weather Bureau to my attention.
The ThinkSpace web site at http://library.thinkquest.org/26220/ was designed by three high school students to teach people about astronomy and space. The site has five main sections: Solar System, Stars, Galaxies, Universe, and Astronomers. Each section contains explanatory narratives and links. There are additional interactive sections where visitors can submit pictures and text. The web site is supplemented by a pop-up glossary, search engine, guest book, message board, and chat program. ThinkSpace is a neat web site for astronomy enthusiasts of all ages.
Thanks to Charles Scovil for bringing ThinkSpace to our attention.
Even though it is buffeted by the intense radiation from Jupiter, the Galileo spacecraft continues to operate and provide terrific images and data on the giant planet and its moons. The attractive Galileo web site, conveniently located at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/, keeps the visitor up to date on the latest press releases, photos, and animations from the missions project team. Especially interesting is a page that provides updated diagrams of the current positions of the Galileo spacecraft in relation to the earth, sun, Jupiter, and the Galilean moons, as well as graphics of the spacecraft’s current view of Jupiter and Io.
If you’ve ever wondered why the moon and sun appear larger when near the horizon, just pay a visit to http://www.research.ibm.com/news/detail/moon_illusion.html and wonder no more. This site reports the findings of a father-and-son research team that astronomical objects appear larger when near the horizon due to the "apparent distance" illusion, an effect related to the Ponzo perspective illusion. The proof is illustrated with an animated stereogram.
Now that this Y2K stuff is over with, let’s start the new year with visions of the future. Astronomical art is alive and well at http://www.spaceart.org. Featured artists include Lynette Cook (who paints extrasolar solar systems based on the latest discoveries), B. E. Johnson (who depicts spacecraft and space travel), and Joy Day (who employs a reverse glass technique). The site contains links to publications, resources, museums, and the International Association of Astronomical Artists, the latter site containing links to the web pages of many of its members.
For this last AstroWeb column of the 1900s (and the 1000s!), it seems fitting to visit a site that honors the past. Point your web browser to http://www1.tecs.com/oldscope/ and visit the Antique Telescope Society (ATS). This site contains photographs and descriptions of old telescopes and other optical instruments, tips and techniques for collectors and restorers, and links to biographies and other research resources. You will also find a link to the Virtual Museum of the History of the Telescope, much of which (unfortunately) is under construction. The ATS offers membership to anyone interested in antique instruments; their quarterly journal is the primary benefit.
As the nights grow longer and the chilly autumn winds whisper that winter is not far away, we can perhaps forestall the inevitable with dreams of this month’s AstroWeb site. Located in the 50th state, http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/ will transport you to the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA). Here you will find links to all the telescopes on Mauna Kea and Haleakala, including the new Subaru telescope. The IfA site includes an image gallery, virtual reality tours, research program information, press releases, and academic preprints. You can warm up the coldest day by watching your friends’ reactions when you tell them that you were just "surfing" in Hawaii!
NASA’s latest Mars setback should not stop us f