General Astronomy Resources

1. Amazing Space is a set of web-based activities primarily designed for classroom use, but made available for all to enjoy. Shockwave is required
2. The Animated Virtual Planetarium - simulations designed to be used in the classroom, or in the lab by students, as demonstrations of various aspects of planetary motions
3. Astronomy Magazine - Bookmark the online version of this popular astronomy publication and come back to it regularly. While you are there, go to Astro for Kids even if you are not a kid, and look at their imaginative "family portrait" of the solar system.
4. Astronomy Net - Astronomy articles, forums, listings, and other resources about Astronomy
5. The Astronomy Picture of the Day - great photos and an explanation each day. Their search feature returns thumbnail images of matches and their archive extends back to June 16, 1995.
6. Atlas of the Universe - nine main maps, each one approximately ten times the scale of the previous one
7. Bad Astronomy - the main Bad Pages; Bad Movies, Bad TV, Bad News, and Popular misconceptions
8. Big Bang Time Machine - go back in time to explore what the universe was like at various times
9. Canadian Astronomy Data Center - links to a large number of image archives.
10. Classroom-Ready Astronomy Lesson Plans - scroll one-third of the way down the page to Sky Paths
11. Constellation Quiz - see how well you know the night sky
12. Earth & Sky - a clear voice for science
13. Field Guide to the Universe - Astronomers
14. History of Astronomy - hosted by the University of Bonn
15. Hubble Space Telescope's greatest hits - some of the best images from 1990-1995, plus links to other Hubble images.
16. Life Beyond Earth: Are We Alone - excerpts from the PBS show
17. Mount Wilson Observatory - a virtual tour designed to give a visitor a feel for the observatory grounds and to present some of the history and heritage of Mount Wilson Observatory
18. Mount Wilson Observatory Association - The Mount Wilson Observatory Association (MWOA) is a volunteer organization supporting the Mount Wilson Observatory
19. Mysteries of Deep Space - from PBS Online
20. NASA - home page
21. National Science Foundation Division of Astronomical Sciences provides some useful links to astronomical on-line resources.
22. NOVA - an archive of past NOVA shows on the subject of space
23. Photo Gallery of the National Space Science Data Center
24. Plans for Building a Dobsonian Telescope - "If there were a million amateur astronomers with telescopes, and they were willing to let a few thousand people each look through their telescopes, there would be a chance for the people in the world who wanted to see to see." John Dobson
25. Plans for Building a Dobsonian Telescope - a 52 page document from San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers association
26. Sky & Telescope magazine - near the bottom of the page is a list of twelve interactive observing tools [free regsitration is required to use the tools]
27. Space Exploration History - There are things that are known and things that are unknown; in between is exploration. -Anonymous
28. Space Science Education Resource - from NASA
29. Space Telescope Science Institute - Astronomy resources, data archives and HST
30. StarChild - A Learning Center for Young Astronomers from NASA
31. Stargazing Guide - a handbook for night sky tour guides - four tours available; summer, autumn, winter and spring
32. Star Journey - based on National Geographic's popular map, "The Heavens"
33. Telescope Reviews - reviews of over 100 telescopes, eyepiece reviews, a beginner's advice column, feature articles, and lots more
34. Understanding the Universe - an exploration with the American Museum of Natural History at DiscoverySchool.com
35. Windows to the Universe - the site is written in three reading levels approximating elementary, middle school and high school reading levels - levels may be chosen by using the upper button bar of each page of the main site
36. Yahoo Astronomy Directory - Over three dozen sub directories are listed
37. Your Sky - the interactive planetarium of the Web - maps for any time and date, viewpoint, and observing location

Near Earth Astronomy

1. Analemma
   1. Analemma - Have you ever seen this figure-8 on a globe and wondered what it is? This set of pages will clear that up for you.
1. Analemma Project - description of a year long project to capture the analemma
2. Analemma Sundial Java Applet - interactive site
3. Earth Analemma from APOD
4. Figure Eight in the Sky - a new perspective on an old fascination
5. Martian Analemma from APOD
6. Paper Plate Education - description of how to conduct an analemma project
7. Sunrise Analemma from APOD
8. Viewing and Understanding the Analemma - from Stanford Solar Center
2. Asteroids: Deadly Impact - from National Geographic
3. Aurora
   1. The Aurora Page - Information, links and images about the "Northern Lights".
   2. Aurora Pictures - indexed by aurora seasons from 2000 to 2008
   3. Aurora: Shooting the Aurora Borealis - photography tips and some great pictures
   4. Auroral Activity Extrapolated from NOAA POES - The plots on this page show the current extent and position of the auroral oval at each pole
   5. Auroras: Paintings in the Sky - This site will show you what auroras look like from space and on Earth, explain how they are created, and show you where they can be found. Teach yourself using the "Self-Guided Lesson" button.
   6. Oklahoma aurora from APOD
   7. YouTube Videos -
4. Basics of Space Flight - This starts with the basics of the solar system and quickly moves on to physics. A recap feature is provided at the end of each section of this project.
5. Earth from Space - selected images from the NASA Space Shuttle Earth Observations Photography database of images
6. Earth's Seasons: Equinoxes and Solstices - four sun dial animations
7. Field Guide to the Universe - Spacecraft
8. Hours of Daylight - use this java applet to determine the number of hours of daylight for any location and date.
9. How long does each phase of the moon last? - from Dr. Marc at The Space Place from NASA
10. The Inconstant Moon - With Inconstant Moon as your nightly guide you can explore Earth's ever-changing companion, and discover some of its strange phenomena.
11. Leonid Meteor Shower estimator - enter your location and see an estimate of the peak time for your location.
12. Living in Space - design a space station
13. Meteor Showers - a listing of meteor showers
14. Meteorite Fragments - an exhibit from the Natural History Museum of London
    1. Virtual Wonders Exhibit - click and drag the image to rotate the meteorites Krasnojarsk meteorite | Stannern meteorite | Plainview meteorite | Henbury meteorite | Nakhla meteorite | Parnallee meteorite
15. Papercraft - from Canon's Bubble Jet Printer Creative Park
    1. Sundial
    2. Globe
16. Phases of the Moon - Shockwave simulation which clearly shows the reason for phases [relative distances are not to scale]
17. Phases of the Moon - This is one of the best animations for explaining moon phases. (from the Science Alberta Foundation)
18. Rise and Set Times for the Sun and Moon - To find today's Rise and Set Times for the Sun and Moon anywhere in the continental US, click on the map at the desired location.
19. Satellite Tracking and Prediction - find out when the space station, the space shuttle and many other satellites will be visible from your back yard
20. Seasons - find exactly when the seasons start for any year from 1902 to 2102 with this java applet
21. Six Millennium Catalog of Phases of the Moon - moon Phases from -1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 4000 CE) by Fred Espenak
22. Space Exploration History - There are things that are known and things that are unknown; in between is exploration. - Anonymous
23. Space Station - a rare inside view of the next frontier in space exploration (from PBS)

Solar System Resources

1. Amazing Space is a set of web-based activities primarily designed for classroom use, but made available for all to enjoy. Shockwave is required
2. The Astronomy Picture of the Day - great photos and an explanation each day. Their search feature returns thumbnail images of matches and their archive extends back to June 16, 1995.
3. Classroom-Ready Astronomy Lesson Plans - scroll one-third of the way down the page to Sky Paths
4. Eclipse sites
   1. Calgary Centre Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
   2. Eclipse Home Page at the NASA/GSFC Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum. This web site is continually expanding and strives to be the ultimate resource for online information about eclipses.
   3. Eclipse Chasers - Picture Gallery, Information, Photography, Stories, and more about Solar and Lunar Eclipses
   4. Eclipse Chaser home page - another site devoted to chasing the elusive eclipse
   5. Eclipse Shades™ - Safe Solar Glasses, Viewers & Filters. This is a commercial page where eclipse glasses can be purchased. However, there is quite a bit of free information provided by this site.
   6. Eclipses - students can manipulate the Sun, the Earth, and the moon into all of their phases as well as view the phases from a variety of different perspectives
   7. Hermit.org - eclipse page.
   8. Lunar Eclipse Finder - This site contains some very detailed eclipse graphics. Select a specific year to see them.
   9. Annular eclipse recorded with a foreground of palm trees during a 1992 annular eclipse (from APOD)
   10. Excellent animation of a lunar eclipse from APOD
   11. Photo Gallery - solar eclipse 1999
   12. Solar Eclipse: Stories from the path of totality - an Exploratorium site
   13. Solar Eclipses through Space and Time - this 41 slide show is filled with information, images and movies
5. Field Guide to the Universe - Solar System
6. NASA - home page
7. Photo Gallery of the National Space Science Data Center
8. Planets
   1. Daily Martian Weather Report - The Mars Global Surveyor Radio Science Team conducted a detailed study of the Martian atmosphere, and results from their study were presented on this site in the form of a daily weather report for the planet Mars. The site is not being updated any longer, but a large amount of Martian atmosphere/weather data is available.
   2. Exploring Planets in the Classroom - Hands-on Activities for Science Classes. More than 25 hands-on science activities are provided in classroom-ready pages for both teachers and students for exploring Earth, the planets, geology, and space sciences.
   3. Mars Exploration Rover Mission - Latest News From Spirit and Opportunity
   4. Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Image Gallery - Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) Image Gallery! This site contains the pictures of Mars acquired by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) orbiter through 31 January 2001. MOC is operated daily at Malin Space Science Systems. The company is responsible for archiving the camera data once they are received on Earth.
   5. Mars Today - current conditions on Mars and its relationship to Earth
   6. MSSS Viking Image Archive - This page provides access to a large fraction of the set of images taken by the Viking orbiters from 1976 to 1980.
   7. The Nine Eight Planets: A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System
   8. Planets of the solar system - Click on a planet to get a short bit of information about each one. [ relative sizes are not accurate]
   9. Planetary Orbits - Shockwave simulation showing planetary orbits
   10. Pluto demoted to dwarf planet - CNN report from 1:12 p.m. EDT, August 27, 2006
   11. Solar System - This real-time 3D simulation allows the student to inspect our solar system from any angle or vantage point as well as gain detailed information about each element.
   12. Solar System Live - Where are the planets right now. Go to this site to find. You can also reset the date for times in the past or future to see where the plants were, or will be. A view of the Inner planets is also available.
   13. Solar System Scale Model Page - Making scale models of the solar system is a useful way to learn about it. This page lists various related pages.
   14. Solar System: True to Scale - scroll forever to find the planets, and don't try to print this site (1487 pages almost all black!)
   15. Surface of Mars colored by height - click and drag the image to rotate the planet
   16. Views of the Solar System - This site presents a vivid multimedia adventure unfolding the splendor of the Sun, planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and more. Discover the latest scientific information, or study the history of space exploration, rocketry, early astronauts, space missions, spacecraft through a vast archive of photographs, scientific facts, text, graphics and videos. Views of the Solar System offers enhanced exploration and educational enjoyment of the solar system and beyond.
   17. Virtual Solar System by National Geographic - your chance to discover the wonders of our solar system in a spectacular 3-D environment. Take a fly-by tour of the sun and each planet in its orbit, observe close-up views of the planets, extraterrestrial weather patterns, and more.
   18. Welcome to Mars from the American Museum of Natural History
   19. Welcome to the Planets - This is a collection of many of the best images from NASA's planetary exploration program.
   20. What would you weigh on other planets? Enter your weight, select calculate and see what you would weigh on each of the other planets.
       1. See an Excel workbook that does the same thing. What would I weigh on...? - an interactive workbook which uses hyperlinks and protected cells. Calculate your weight on another planet.
   21. World's largest scale model of the Solar System - Welcome to the home of Jupiter, part of the world's largest scale model of the solar system
   22. World's largest scale model of the Solar System: Location Details - Peoria scale model - Roadside America article about the model
9. Retrograde Motion - Use this java applet to see retrograde motion involving Earth and Venus or Earth and Mars.
10. Solar Image - get the latest image of the sun in one of several formats.
11. Solar Images - from Mt. Wilson's 150-Foot Solar Tower
12. Solar Image - from the Big Bear Solar Observatory
13. Solar and Solar-Related links from the Mt Wilson Observatory
14. Space Environment Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration providing space weather alerts and warnings to the nation and the world for disturbances that can affect people and equipment working in space and on Earth
15. Space Weather - A complex series of events that begin deep inside the Sun, and extend throughout the solar system, carried by the solar wind.
16. Space Weather Today - current views of the sun and the aurora
17. Stanford SOLAR Center - Providing Solar On-Line Activity Resources for the joy of solar science exploration
18. The Sunspot Cycle - from the Science Directorate at Marshall Space Flight Center
19. Sunspot Numbers - raw data of the daily number of sunspots from 1818 to the present. Is there a project here? (You might also want to see how the numbers are determined) See also, How to get Solar data from NGDC

Stars, Nebulae, and Galaxies

1. 47.2 Light-Years Radius - Nearby Star Map - java applet that lets you rotate the nearby stars around Sol
2. Amazing Space - a set of web-based activities primarily designed for classroom use, but made available for all to enjoy. Shockwave is required.
3. The Animated Virtual Planetarium - simulations designed to be used in the classroom, or in the lab by students, as demonstrations of various aspects of planetary motions
4. The Astronomy Picture of the Day: great photos and an explanation each day. Their search feature returns thumbnail images of matches and their archive extends back to June 16, 1995.
   1. Excellent examples from the APOD archive : Orion's Horsehead Nebula || Andromeda Island Universe || Cone Nebula Close-Up || Saturn At Night || The Newly Expanded International Space Station || The Cat's Eye Nebula || Watch the Sky Rotate || 2001: A Total Lunar Eclipse || A Mercury Transit Sequence || What our Moon looks like during a complete lunar cycle || The View from Everest || Three views of Saturn from HST || Earth at Night || Moonrise Over Seattle || November's Lunar Eclipse (excellent animation) || Satellites that Surround Earth - Zoom in from geosynchronus satellites to the International Space Station || Sunrise by Season - three pictures showing the sunrise at the equinox and each solstice || NASA TV - use this link to access NASA TV || Identify the constellations - roll your mouse over the picture to see constellations named
5. Astronomy Resources - posted by the Space Telescope Science Institute
6. Atlas of the Universe - what our universe looks like - nine main maps on this page, each is approximately ten times the scale of the previous
7. Big Bang Time Machine - go back in time to explore what the universe was like at various times
8. Canadian Astronomy Data Center - links to a large number of image archives
9. Classroom-Ready Astronomy Lesson Plans - scroll one-third of the way down the page to Sky Paths
10. Common Names for Deep Sky Objects - This list only covers non-stellar deep sky objects (nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies)
11. Constellation Quiz - see how well you know the night sky
12. The Cosmic Distance Scale - This feature will give an impression of how immense our Universe is by employing a method used many times in "Power of 10" films - that is, starting with an image of the Earth and then zooming out to the furthest visible reaches of our Universe.
13. The Cosmic Distance Scale - a series of web-based exercises designed to take students on an interactive tour measuring cosmic distances
14. The Cosmic Distance Scale - a lecture with illustrations and images
15. Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) Images of IC Objects
16. Field Guide to the Universe - Astronomers
17. Galaxies
    1. Galaxy Index - photo index which leads to pages with more complete information
    2. Spiral Galaxy pictures - Alwyn Botha has posted this excellent set of galaxy pictures to assist those who want to take their own astro photographs, or those who simply want to see the beautiful pinwheel shapes of spiral galaxies. Thanks for all of the hard work Alwyn.
18. History of Astronomy - hosted by the University of Bonn
19. How many stars are there in the Universe? - an interesting article on how to make an estimate of the number of stars
20. Hubble Heritage Project - index to images from the Hubble Space Telescope
21. Hubble Space Telescope's greatest hits - some of the best images from 1990-1995, plus links to other Hubble images.
22. Interactive Sky Maps
    1. The Interactive NGC Catalog Online
    2. Interactive Sky Map - from Sky Map.org
    3. Interactive Star Chart - Weather Underground has a great star map - Click on a star, planet, sun or moon for more information.
    4. Interactive Star Chart - small java applet that allows you to quickly scroll through the entire sky
    5. Interactive Star Map - provided by the Hong Kong Space Museum - select location and features and then click the Submit button to see a star map for your location
    6. Mini-Astro Viewer - click on the Mini-Astro viewer button and use the Calendar button to select any date you want to see a star map for
    7. Your Sky - the interactive planetarium of the Web - You can produce maps in the forms described below for any time and date, viewpoint, and observing location.
    8. Interactive Sky Map - select an object to see a short video of the object
23. The Messier Catalog - links to images of the objects and information about the man and his catalog. There is also an index of Messier objects by object type: nebulae, clusters, galaxies, and other kinds of objects not under any major category.
24. Mount Wilson Observatory - a virtual tour designed to give a visitor a feel for the observatory grounds and to present some of the history and heritage of Mount Wilson Observatory
25. Mount Wilson Observatory Association - The Mount Wilson Observatory Association (MWOA) is a volunteer organization supporting the Mount Wilson Observatory
26. Mysteries of Deep Space - from PBS Online
27. National Science Foundation Division of Astronomical Sciences - useful links to astronomical on-line resources
28. NOVA - an archive of past NOVA shows on the subject of space
29. Papercraft: Rotating Star Chart (Planisphere) - from Canon's Bubble Jet Printer Creative Park
30. Photo Gallery of the National Space Science Data Center
31. Plans for Building a Dobsonian Telescope - "If there were a million amateur astronomers with telescopes, and they were willing to let a few thousand people each look through their telescopes, there would be a chance for the people in the world who wanted to see to see." John Dobson
32. Plans for Building a Dobsonian Telescope - a 52 page document from San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers association
33. Sky & Telescope magazine - near the bottom of the page is a list of twelve interactive observing tools [free regsitration is required to use the tools]
34. Space Telescope Science Institute - astronomy resources, data archives and HST
35. StarChild - A Learning Center for Young Astronomers from NASA
36. Stargazing Guide - a handbook for night sky tour guides - four tours available; summer, autumn, winter and spring
37. Star Journey - based on National Geographic's popular map, "The Heavens"
38. Stephen Hawking's Universe - from PBS
39. Telescope Reviews - reviews of over 100 telescopes, eyepiece reviews, a beginner's advice column, feature articles, and lots more
40. Understanding the Universe - an exploration with the American Museum of Natural History at DiscoverySchool.com
41. Windows to the Universe - the site is written in three reading levels approximating elementary, middle school and high school reading levels - levels may be chosen by using the upper button bar of each page of the main site
42. Yahoo Astronomy Directory - Over three dozen sub directories are listed
43. Your Sky - [the interactive planetarium of the Web] - produce maps for any time and date, viewpoint, and observing location from this site

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