Astronomy

Home |

Cambridge Academic Links

| About ?

Astronomy

Topics are listed as:

Reference, Objects, Fixed Charts
Night Sky Observing
Orreries, Interactive Maps

Reference, Objects, Fixed Charts

Picture of the Day (NASA)
Etymological Dictionary (Paris: English, French, Persian)
History of Astronomy (links on this site)

Sixty Symbols

: Planets, Deep Sky (Nottingham: Brady Haran)

Planets and Moons: Names (USGS), Full Moons (Wikipedia)
Nine Planets (Bill Arnett: information, with NASA links)
Planets, Moons, Asteroids, Comets (Solar System guide and news: NASA)

CURRENT MOON

Full & New & Calendar

Lunar Photo of the Day (with indexes, glossaries)
Lunar Maps (historical index), Elger: The Moon (1895, classic gazetteer: large PDF)
Photo Maps: Detailed, HD, Geological, 3D Image
Lunar Orbiter Moon Map (144 quadrants)
Lunar Map Catalogue (other maps)
NASA Lunar Science

(each day the moon rises 50 min later, as it moves 12⁰ east:
leftwards in NH relative to the heavens moving west, rightwards)

Stars (Jim Kaler, Illinois: 745 stars by name, number, constellation)
Star Names: their Lore and Meaning (RH Allen, 1899: digitised by Bill Thayer)
Star Tales (Ian Ridpath: constellations, plus links)
- Mag-7 Star Atlas (Andrew Johnson)
  (20-part global star charts, down to mag. 7: ideal for reference.)
- 4-part Global Chart (SFA Observatory: major stars down to 5)
- Sky Charts (by latitude, month, time: Hawaiian Astronomical Society)
- USN Navigational Chart
  - Finding Astronomical Objects:
  - Astronomy LookUP (returns coordinates and large colour DSS sky maps: Stuart Lowe)
  - Heavens Above (planets, major stars by constellation, some comets & minor planets)
  - Professional: CDS (Strasbourg Data Center)
    - Aladin (zoomable colour Finder Charts with graphic overlays, Download )
    - Simbad (basic astronomical data, with small finder chart)
    - VizieR (survey catalogue data)
  - SkyView (NASA: false-colour small-area digital photos: e.g. set survey DSS, size 3.00, colour Stern Special)

Night Sky Observing

Looking Up Now: Day & Night (Sun, Moon, Moon Phase, Calendar), Cloud, Rain, Pressure
UK Weather Webcams (links by county)

All Sky Cameras: Bourn (Cambs.), Camb. IOA, Oxford, Hertfordshire University
Twin Pines (CAL: with anomaly record), CFHT (Mauna Kea, UH 2.2)
iTelescope Network (Mayhill NM, Nerpio ES, Siding Spring AU)
Auroras: Abisko (SE), Tromso (NO), Porjus (SE), Yellowknife (NWT: live), THEMIS (Canada)

Heavens Above (real-time chart of stars, planets, moon, from UK: set B/W, size 800, time)

Monthly Hemisphere Charts (helpful because they show the horizon):
Orion (for 40 N: stars to 5, nebulae, planets. Click 'Printer Friendly')
Skymaps (N, S, or Equatorial: constellations down to 4, with nebulae, planets)
Astronomy Now (interactive for UK: constellations, planets, sun; some stars to 5)
TAU Club (for 32 N: stars to 5, coloured by magnitude and temperature)
Society for Popular Astronomy (mid-month moon & planets, plus future charts)

Looking Ahead

This Year: Space Calendar (next 12 months: JPL)
Eclipses & Transits (Fred Espenak, Goddard)
Small Body Database Browser (JPL: search by name or number)
Meteor Calendar (by month: Gary Kronk)
Cometography (reference: Gary Kronk), Current Comets
Future Visual Comets (Seiichi Yoshida)
Note: perihelion 17/4/13 for C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and 29/11/13 for C/2012 S1 (ISON)
- Bimonthly Sky Diary (PDF, Society for Popular Astronomy)
- Sky and Telescope (introductory PDF, with 6 bi-monthly star charts, plus clear moon map)

This Month: Jodrell Bank (RSS, with highlights, planets, stars, Jodcast )
Summaries & small map: Telegraph, Guardian
Brief summaries, with : JPL, Hubblesite
Sky Events Calendar (Fred Espenak,Goddard: moon, planets, meteors)
Binocular Observing Notes (Phil Harrington, with spotting charts:
BBC Sky At Night (viewable for one week after broadcast, Vodcast )

This Week: Sky and Telescope (US, highlights for each night, with )
(Times in EDT or EST, both 5 hours behind UK time. From Europe,
the moon will be more to the west: rightwards, relative to the stars)
US Navy (elegantly-written summary, single image)
One feature per night: Stardate (Texas), EarthSky
American Meteor Society (sightings)
Comets (Seiichi Yoshida, with spotting charts)
Remanzacco Observatory (Udine: comets, NEOs)
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog (Traverse City, Michigan)

Fast Movers: ISS (tracker on small world map), Heavens Above
N2YO (real-time satellite tracking, automatic location: ISS)
Google Earth Satellite Tracker (downloadable scripts)
Space Weather (sun-earth environment, satellite data)
NOAA Space Weather (solar activity alerts: storms, auroras)
Worldwide Meteor News (blog with links to networks)
Meteors, Auroras, Flares (Andy Smith: alerts)
See also Sky Cameras above.

Non-Movers: Satbeams (geo-stationary satellites: positions and footprints)

Almanacs
UK Nautical Almanac Office
USN Observatory (sun, moon, planets)
Heavens Above (plus comets, current positions of satellites, ISS: set for UK)
Jodrell Bank Almanac (sun, moon, planets, nebulae, clusters, 50 major stars)

Orreries, Interactive Maps

Orreries: Dynamic Diagrams (clear, pretty; also with geocentric setting)
Gunn Astrotour (highly-controllable: planets revolving clockwise, as if seen from south)
Sky View Cafe (for manual movt., highlight clock 'ten' digit, click 'up' keyboard arrow)
- Interactive Maps: WikiSky
- YourSky (from Fourmilab: make low-resolution skymap for any location and time)
- Chromoscope (Stuart Lowe's multi-spectrum sky map: press Help for control keys)
- Aim and Look (zoomable narrow-focus sky chart): Starry Night (automatic location setting)
- DIY Star Wheels (Stars with exoplanets)
Downloads : Stellarium (location-specific planetarium software)
World Wide Telescope (planetarium software: pan & zoom into HD images)
Digital Universe (Hayden Planetarium: atlas)
- Lookup: Solar System Snapshots (JPL: spacecrafts, planet closeups, NEOs)

Surveys and Object Catalogues

Messier Catalogue Index (Charles Messier)
Observing Deep-Sky Objects (Benjamin Crowell: binocular observing)
Fourmilab (John Walker: object catalogues, Deep-Sky Object Icons)

News, Astrophotographs

Space News: Portal to the Universe (aggregator: ESA, NASA, & others)
Universe Today (astronomy & space: Nancy Atkinson & others,
- with weekly Astronomy Cast, and transcripts: Fraser Cain & Pamela Gay)
NASA (Future Launches, Missions, TV, HD , Blogs)
In-Depth: NASA SpaceFlight.com (articles on missions, including Russian, Chinese: Chris Bergen & others)
- SpaceRef (news organised by topic, Keith Cowing: ISS, Future Events)
- The Space Review (articles on US policy & finance: Jeff Foust & others)
- Russian Space Web (Anatoly Zac)
Blogs: BBC (Jonathan Amos, with links to latest news stories)
Planetary Society (Emily Lakdawalla & others)
The Spacewriter (Carolyn Petersen)
- Observational Astronomy
- Tom's Astronomy Blog (Tom Dumont, Vermont US: images, riddles)
- Astronomy (aggregator: Claudio Marchesin, Brazil)
- Skymania (Paul Sutherland: Kent, UK)
- Recycled Electrons (high-octane weekly podcast , Chris Lintott & Robert Simpson)
  - Orbiting Frog (Robert Simpson: with news of the Zooniverse)
- Astronotes (Colin Johnston & others, Armagh Planetarium)
- Astroblog (Ian Musgrave, Adelaide, with Southern Hemisphere sky)
- RAS (with Space and Astronomy Digest, for upcoming events)
- Dark Sky Diary (Steve Owens, UK)
- Bad Astronomy (Phil Plait, US)
- NASA Science, Watch the Skies (occasional blog)
- SpaceBuzz (astronomy posts from 247 blogs: Stuart Lowe, LCOGT, Topics)
- BBC Space Resources
  - Astronaut Photography of Earth (huge archive: NASA)
  - The World At Night (images & videos: nightscapes by 35 photographers)
  - Thierry Legault (transits, eclipses, planets, galaxies)
  - Terrastro (dramatic images & videos: Alex Cherney, Melbourne)
  - André van der Hoeven (especially deep sky)
  - Night Sky Hunter (Martin McKenna: comets, atmospheric phenomena)
  - Lights in the Dark (image aggregator: Jason Major, US)
  - Will Gater (varied images)
  - Damian Peach (solar system)
  - Nik Szymanek (deep sky, CCD)
  - Astrofan80 (Andreas Schnabel )

Astronomers Writing

Blogs: In the Dark (Peter Coles, Sussex)
eAstronomer (Andy Lawrence, Edinburgh)
Supernova Condensate (Markus Hammonds, Nottingham)
Leaves on the Line (Andrew Jaffe, ICL)
We are All in the Gutter (group research blog, UK & Hawaii)
Astronomy Blog (Stuart Lowe, LCOGT: occasional)
Hoggs Research (David Hogg, NYU), Hoggs Teaching
Starts With a Bang (Ethan Siegel, Portland: astronomy & astrophysics)
The Astronomist (Alexander Fry, Washington: astrophysics)
Astropixie (Amanda Bauer, Sydney)
- Papers : arXiv Preprints
- Astrophysics Data System (journal abstracts: also articles )
- Astrobites (digests of astronomical papers, for undergrads, written by postgrads)
  - For Departments, see Ground-Based Telescopes & Research
  - UK Astronomy Funding (links to news stories: Paul Crowther, Sheffield)

Space: Missions & Research

Jonathan's Space Report (what's up: J McDowell,
with Space HomePage archive of spaceflight data)
Go for Launch! (future non-US launches & and in-orbit events: Robert Christy)

Notable Missions

NASA: Voyager (1977, twin craft: Jupiter 1979, Neptune 1989, power loss c.2025)
Visible Wavelengths (also near-IR & UV): Hubble (RSS, 1990)
Other Wavelengths: Chandra (1993, XR: gas clouds)
Wilkinson Anisotropy Probe (2001, microwave: CMB)
Spitzer (2003 earth-trailing, IR: star and galaxy formation)
Sun: SOHO (1995, heliospheric, comets), STEREO (2006, twin craft)
Planets: Cassini (1997, Saturn), Kepler (2009, photometer: exoplanets)
Mars Rovers (2003, 2012)
- Russian SpaceWeb: Spaceflight (by topic), Origins, 20th Century, 21st Century
- MirCorp (1999-2003: an early experiment in privatisation)
  - International Space Station (1998, decommissioning perhaps 2020)
    - ESA (past & present missions)

Space Agencies & Missions

NASA: Launches, All Missions, Spinoff (FAQs), Tech Briefs
JPL (Missions, Blog), Goddard (Missions,
- Russian SpaceWeb (Anatoly Zak)
- NASA SpaceFlight.com (current Russian missions)
- Energia (Russian manufacturer)
- Roscosmos (Russian Space Agency: latest news in Russian)
  - International Space Station (current news)
European Space Agency (News), Missions (Missions by Type)
Science & Tech, Cosmic Vision (long-term planning)
EADS Astrium (manufacturing)
German Aerospace Centre (blogs)
Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana

ISRO (Satellites, Space Missions, Facilities)
JAXA (themes and missions)
( for China, see NASA SpaceFlight.com)
- Innovation, Commercial Space Science
- NASA Challenges, Spaceward Foundation (space elevator)
- Commercial Spaceflight (links: Wikipedia)
  - UK Space Agency, Rutherford Appleton
  - Rocketeers (Duncan Law-Green: news of commercial projects)
  - Rocketry: A Vertical Empire (1950-1971), UK Rocketry Association

Ground-Based Telescopes & Research

Observatories Past & Present (Wikipedia)
Observatory Location Data (QUB)
- AURA (ATST, GSMT, JWST, LSST)
- ESO: VLT, E-ELT, ALMA (submillimetre: science)
- 30m Telescope (Mauna Kea: US, CA)
- Large Binocular Telescope (Arizona: US, IT, DE)
- SOFIA (airborne infrared observatory: US, DE)
- Radio: LOw Frequency ARray (NL, DE, SE)
- Square Kilometre Array ( NZ)
AURA, NOAO (Kitt Peak, Gemini)
Pacific Telescopes: Weather (WebCams)
Apache Point (Sloan Digital Sky Survey III)
Mt Palomar (Blog), Mt Wilson
Mauna Kea (19⁰ N, 155⁰ W; 4200m. WebCams, Weather, Keck Telescope)
Radio: NRAO (Green Bank, VLA / EVLA, VLBA), Arecibo
- Research: Arizona, Berkeley, Caltech, Chicago, Florida
- Goddard, Harvard, Hawaii, Princeton, Texas, UCLA, Yale
- American Astronomical Society (links to departments)
ENO (Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos,
La Palma. 28⁰ N, 18⁰ W: 2400m. Ten countries: GTC)
ESO (La Silla [old] Paranal [VLT] Chajnantor [radio],
Telescopes (RAS), UK ATC (Edinburgh)
VISTA [near-IR, ESO: UK reduced usage from 2012]
ING [ENO: UK funding now continues]
Mauna Kea: JAC (Blog): JCMT (submillimetre, funded to 2014),
UKIRT (IR, funded to October 2013): For Sale (update)
UK has now left Gemini.
- Radio: Cambridge (Cavendish), Experimental Astrophysics (under construction)
- Jodrell Bank (e-MERLIN, Telescope Status)
- LOFAR UK
  - Institutes & Departments: Armagh (Meteors), Birmingham, Bristol
  - Cambridge (IOA: Seminars, Lucky Imaging, CUAS, ), Cardiff, Durham
  - Edinburgh, Exeter, Hertford, Keele, Leicester, Liverpool JM, Nottingham
  - Open, Oxford, QMUL, QUB, Sheffield, Sussex, UCL (Mullard Space Science)
Siding Spring Observatory (31⁰ S, 149⁰ E: 1160m)
Australian Astronomical Observatory (with astronomical images )
Australia Telescope National Facility (radio telescopes, including Parkes)
Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (archived pages)
National Astronomical Observatories
Beihang University (Aeronautics and Astronautics)
Sternberg Astronomical Institute (Moscow)
Special Astrophysical Observatory (Northern Caucasus: 2070m)
SALT (32⁰ S, 20⁰ E; 1800m)

Astroparticle & Gravity Wave Detectors

Astroparticles: UCLA, NESTOR (undersea: neutrinos)
Underground (neutrinos, WIMPS): Boulby (WIMPS), Gran Sasso (CRESST, WIMPS)
Soudan (neutrinos, WIMPS), Sudbury (neutrinos) Ice Cube (South Pole: neutrinos)
Air Fluorescence Detectors (cosmic rays): Telescope Array (Utah)
Pierre Auger Observatory (Argentina & Colorado)
Magnetic Spectrometer: AMS-02 (proton & helium nuclei detector on the ISS)
- Gravity Wave Detectors: LIGO, GEO600 (Links)

Astrophysics, Astrochemistry, Astrobiology

Theoretical Astrophysics (see also Cosmology, astronomy departments above)
Kavli (Beijing, Cambridge, Chicago, MIT, Stanford), Stanford
Max Planck, Garching (Links), IMPRS-HD (Research School, Heidelberg)
Cambridge, Durham, Imperial, Oxford, Portsmouth
- Astrochemistry: The Astrochymist (Illinois), Astrochemistry (Leiden: links)
  - Astrogeology (USGS)
  - Asteroseismology
    - Astrobiology: NASA, New Scientist
    - UK Centre for Astrobiology (Edinburgh)
    - Astrobiology Magazine (aggregator)
    - Cosmic Ancestry (links to articles on panspermia)

Citizen Science (mostly astronomy)

British Astronomical Association (amateur atronomy)
BOINC (Berkeley: network computing)
Challenge.gov (US: public-interest projects)
Grid Republic (US: public-interest projects)
NASA (solar-system projects)
Zooniverse (Oxford: Podcast , Blogs: Zooniverse, Galaxy Zoo,
and other projects, including Snapshot Serengeti, Ancient Lives)
- Educational Robotic Telescopes
- Bradford Robotic Telescope (Tenerife , Sky Camera )
- LCOGT (Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network,
  (US and UK, with Faulkes robotic telescopes, image archive , and Webcams )
- Liverpool Telescope (La Palma: science and education)
- SLOOH Space Camera (Tenerife, Chile, Australia , TV events )
- GLORIA Project (EU, in development )
  - Amateur Equipment
  - Choosing: Sky and Telescope, Astronomy
  - Jodrell Bank, Solent Astronomers
  - Telescope Making (Stellafane, Vermont)
  - STAR Astronomy (NJ: telescope making)
  - Ice in Space (Australia)
  - Eyepiece design
    - Reviews: Cloudy Nights
      (or search via Google, citing 'cloudy nights'.
      Also check US Amazon customer reviews)
    - Excelsis, The Binocular Site, Gary Seronik
    - London Sales: Microglobe, Astrofest
    - Telescope House (on-line), University Optics (US)

(Mostly Atmospheric) Optics

Optics Resources (Three Rivers College, CT)
Optical Society of America (research news)
Optics and Photonics News (OSA)
Atmospheric Optics (Les Cowley: )
Cloud Appreciation Society ()
Green Flashes, Mirages, Refraction (Andrew Young: San Diego)
Optics Confidential (Pablo Artal: blog)
Optics of an eyeglass prescription
Rainbows (USNA, MIT : Walter Lewin)