Astronomy Links

[Astronuc]

Here's an interesting site about constellations and stars

http://walt.stcloudstate.edu/Dome/

Constellation list

http://einstein.stcloudstate.edu/Dome/clicks/constlist.html

Star List

http://einstein.stcloudstate.edu/Dome/clicks/alphalist.html

It covers the main stars (usually 1 or 2 brightest) in each constellation.

[Astronuc]

I'll be headed to San Diego for a week, so I might try to get up to Mt. Palomar.  The site is run by Caltech, and they still do some interesting work, even with the Hubble and all the new advanced telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.  The observatory is just northeast of Escondido, off highway (Interstate 15).

http://www.astro.caltech.edu/observatories/palomar/

The website has links to other Caltech Observatories.  They were affiliated with the Keck observatory, which is now run by a different institution through Univ. of Hawaii for the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/geninfo/about.html

The University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy manages an 11,600-acre science reserve surrounding the summit. In the year 2000, a dozen major research teams occupied this reserve, representing a capital investment of more than $500 million and employment for hundreds of Big Island residents.

[Astronuc]

GARY  W. KRONK ' S page ( http://comets.amsmeteors.org/ )

[Astronuc]

http://hubble.nasa.gov/image-gallery/astronomy-images.html

Aurora on Jupiter - talk about northern lights!  How cool would it be to see this in person.

[Astronuc]

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch black clouds of cold gas laced with dust. These are called reflection nebulae.

This ghostly apparition is actually an interstellar cloud caught in the process of destruction by strong radiation from a nearby hot star. This haunting picture, snapped by the Hubble telescope, shows a cloud illuminated by light from the bright star Merope. Located in the Pleiades star cluster, the cloud is called IC 349 or Barnard's Merope Nebula.

STScI-PRC2000-36 (http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2000/36/)

[njnightsky]

Here is my astronomy site

NJ Night Sky

[Astronuc]

Department of Astronomy/Steward Observatory
933 N Cherry Ave., Rm. N204
Tucson AZ 85721-0065

http://www.as.arizona.edu/

[Astronuc]

StarDate (http://stardate.org/) is the public education and outreach arm of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. Our English and Spanish radio programs air daily on more than 500 stations. And our popular bimonthly astronomy magazine is the perfect skywatching companion for amateur astronomers or anyone interested in celestial events and space exploration. We also offer astronomy resources to teachers, the media, and the public.

Send mail to:
StarDate
1 University Station A2100
Austin, TX 78712

Phone: 512-471-5285 (better to just go on-line)

McDonald Observatory - http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/

McDonald Observatory, a research unit of The University of Texas at Austin, is one of the world's leading centers for astronomical research, teaching, and public education and outreach. Observatory facilities are located atop Mount Locke and Mount Fowlkes in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, which offer some of the darkest night skies in the continental United States. The Observatory's administrative offices are on the UT-Austin campus. The Observatory works with the University's Department of Astronomy on both research and teaching. McDonald's principal research telescopes are:

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope
With its 9.2-meter (433-inch) mirror, the HET is one of the world's largest optical telescopes. It's optimized for spectroscopy, the decoding of light from stars and galaxies to study their properties. This makes it ideal for searching for planets around other stars, and studying distant galaxies, exploding stars, black holes, and more. The HET, dedicated in 1997, is a joint project of The University of Texas at Austin, The Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

The Harlan J. Smith Telescope
Constructed 1966-68, the Smith Telescope has a 2.7-meter (107-inch) mirror, which was the third largest in the world when built. The telecope is used every clear night of the year.

The Otto Struve Telescope
Constructed 1933-39, the Struve Telescope was the first major telescope to be built at McDonald Observatory. Its 2.1-meter (82-inch) mirror was the second largest in the world at the time. The telescope is still in use today.

Other Telescopes
McDonald also operates a 0.8-meter (30-inch) telescope, and a laser system that measures the distance between Earth and the Moon and tracks the drift of Earth's continents.

Check this place for "Star Parties".

Visitors Center
To hear a recorded message detailing hours, prices, and other information about visiting the Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas, call toll-free 877-984-7827. For other inquiries, call 432-426-3640 or send email to info@mcdonaldobservatory.org.

[Astronuc]

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/light/absorption.html

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/spectra.html

http://jersey.uoregon.edu/elements/Elements.html (click on the element on this page to see its emission or absorption spectrum in the visible portion - 4000 to 7500 angstroms (or 400-750 nm))

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/ems3.html (good overview of electromagnetic spectrum from infrared to gamma-rays)

http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/allen/spectral_classification.html

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

http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/ASS_Atlas/frames.html

http://ggebhard.bene-net.de/aspec.html

[Astronuc]

CERRO TOLOLO INTER-AMERICAN OBSERVATORY

http://www.ctio.noao.edu/

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) is a complex of astronomical telescopes and instruments located approximately 80 km to the East of La Serena, Chile at an altitude of 2200 Meters. From USA, phone (011)-56-51-205200.

[Astronuc]

Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), supports the most diverse collection of astronomical observatories on Earth for nighttime optical and infrared astronomy and daytime study of the Sun. Founded in 1958, KPNO operates three major nighttime telescopes, shares site responsibilities with the National Solar Observatory and hosts the facilities of consortia which operate 19 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes. (See the Tenant Observatories list.) Kitt Peak is located 56 miles southwest of Tucson, AZ, and has a Visitor Center open daily to the public.

http://www.noao.edu/kpno/

http://www.noao.edu/

[Astronuc]

http://www.ls.eso.org/index.html

La Silla is a 2400-m mountain, bordering the southern extremity of the Atacama desert in Chile. It is located about 160 Km north of La Serena. Its geographical coordinates are: Latitude 29º 15' south & Longitude 70º 44' west.

Originally known as Cinchado, the mountain was renamed La Silla (the saddle) after its shape. It rises quite isolated and remote from any artificial light and dust sources (astronomy's worst enemies). La Silla was the first ESO observatory built in Chile. Its history is full of optimism and disappointments, ups and downs, since its beginnings in the 50's until the middle of the 70's when the observatory became a reality.

http://www.ls.eso.org/site/AboutLSO.htm

[Astronuc]

WMAP Mission Overview

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) is named after Dr. David Wilkinson, a member of the science team and pioneer in the study of cosmic background radiation. The science goals of the WMAP broadly dictate that the relative CMB temperature be measured accurately over the full sky with high angular resolution and sensitivity. The overriding priority in the design was the need to control systematic errors in the final maps. The specific goal of WMAP is to map the relative CMB temperature over the full sky with an angular resolution of at least 0.3°, a sensitivity of 20 µK per 0.3° square pixel, with systematic artifacts limited to 5 µK per pixel.

To achieve these goals, WMAP uses differential microwave radiometers that measure temperature differences between two points on the sky. WMAP observes the sky from an orbit about the L2 Sun-Earth Lagrange point, 1.5 million km from Earth. This vantage point offers an exceptionally stable environment for observing since the observatory can always point away from the Sun, Earth and Moon while maintaining an unobstructed view to deep space. WMAP scans the sky in such a way as to cover ~30% of the sky each day and as the L2 point follows the Earth around the Sun WMAP observes the full sky every six months. To facilitate rejection of foreground signals from our own Galaxy, WMAP uses five separate frequency bands from 22 to 90 GHz.

(Source: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_mm/ob_tech1.html)

[remcook]

General relativity explained with pictures

http://scholar.uwinnipeg.ca/courses/38/4500.6-001/Cosmology/space_and_time.htm

[Astronuc]

http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/

This is a collection of many of the best images from NASA's planetary exploration program. The collection has been extracted from the interactive program "Welcome to the Planets" which was distributed on the Planetary Data System Educational CD-ROM Version 1.5 in December 1995. It has also been updated with the addition of more recent images.

This collection replaces the former on-line version of Welcome to the Planets. Internal links within this site are not identical to the old site, so please adjust any links to this site accordingly.