Scholar's Net: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Reference Desk

• Asantha Cooray's Complete Guide to Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, La Palma, (Spain)
• Gipsy Manual - Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, The Netherlands Today's Space Weather Eta_Carina1 Image Catalog
• The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT). " CBAT issues the IAU Circulars (IAUCs) and runs an on-line computer service. These services are provided to subscribers only, but information about the services can be obtained via this link. (You can also get information about the Minor Planet Center (MPC))."
• The International Comet Quarterly (ICQ) and the Comet Handbook
• The archive for visual comet observations for the past 16 years has been the ICQ. The Comet Handbook, put out by the ICQ, provides ephemeridies for known (periodic) comets."
• Minor Planet Circulars "(MPCs) (also known as Minor Planets and Comets) are published generally on the date of each full moon. The Circulars contain astrometric observations, orbits and ephemerides of both minor planets and comets. New numberings and namings of minor planets, as well as numberings of periodic comets, are announced in the Circulars. An average batch of MPCs runs to over 150 two-column pages and contains over 7000 minor-planet observations. There are no page charges for publishing in the MPCs."
• International Astronomical Union Circulars " are a series of postcard notices giving information about astronomical phenomena requiring prompt dissemination, particularly the discovery and follow-up of novae, supernovae and comets. The IAUCs are also available in electronic form via e-mail or through the CBAT/MPC Computer Service."
• Recent News and Observations
• Comet Definitions
• Geophysics Gopher
• The Radio Optical Reference Frame (RORF)
• Planet Earth Virtual Library
• Scatterometry
• Coordinate conversion and Coordinates in Astrophysics.
• Astronomy-related Newsgroups Resources

Collections

• Astronomy Collections - Hansen Planetarium - University of Utah (Astronomy Collection)
• Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Home Page
• Robert Lentz's Astronomy Resources
• The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment
• Comet Light Curves. "The plots given here represent the total integrated brightness of the coma (or head) of the comet as a function of time or distance to the Sun. Unless otherwise noted, these light curves have been prepared by Charles S. Morris/JPL. These plots are all .gif files."
• Comet Ephemerides
• Comet Observation Home Page
• JPL Imaging radar Home Page
• Planetary Data System PDS "archives and distributes digital data from past and present NASA planetary missions, astronomical observations, and laboratory measurements. The PDS is sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Science to ensure the long-term usability of data, to stimulate research, to facilitate data access, and to support correlative analysis."
• Astronomy (BUBL)
• Astronomy (UC Irvine)
• Astronomy (UTK)
• Astronomy (Whole Internet Catalog)
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics (AMI)
• Astronomy and Astrophysics (NCSU)
• Astronomy and Astrophysics (Rice)
• Astronomy and Astrophysics (T A&M)
• Astronomy and Astrophysics (VT)
• Astronomy and Space Sciences (USC)
• Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Research
• Astrophysics (UChicago)
• Astrophysics Data System Catalog Service
• Atlas of Mars and Viking Orbiter image-finder
• Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (Region IV, Chile)
• Charge-coupled devices(CCDs) for Material Scientists
• Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 Impact Home Page
• Comet Shoemaker-Levy Home Page (JPL)
• European Southern Observatory and Space Telescope - European Coordinating Facility Archive
• Index of Starlink Newsgroups Archive
• International Astronomy Meetings
• Library of Congress Electronic Library
• Malin Space Science Systems, Inc. - Viking Image Archive
• NASA
• NASA RP 1301: Annular Solar Eclipse of 10 May 1994
• National Science Foundation
• National Space Science Data Center
• Overview -- Space (G.M. Roeber - Cern)
• Space Telescope Electronic Information System (Gopher)
• Space Telescope Electronic Information System (Web)
• The Gemini 8m Telescopes Project - An International Project
• The Northern Lights Planetarium, Norway
• The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment
• The Simbad Astronomical Database
• Weather, Astronomy, Navigation
• Planetology Resources
• Lunar Exploration Inc.
• NASA Space Information (Master Directory)
• NASA News

Organizations and Home Pages

• Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Groningen, The Netherlands
• Compton Gamma Ray Observatory Science Support Center
• Astronomical Image Processing System (National Radio Astronomy Observatory)
• Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory points of interest
• The International GPS Service for Geodynamics (IGS) "supports researchers who use satellites in the U.S. Defense Department's Global Positioning System (GPS) for studies in geodynamics."
• World Data Center-A for Solar-Terrestrial Physics
• The World Data Center A for Solid Earth Geophysics
• Geomagnetism Group (British Geological Survey) "The Geomagnetism Group of BGS runs 3 permanent magnetic observatories in the UK, conducts the UK magnetic survey, and operates magnetometers at sites overseas. "
• World Data Centre C1 for Solar-Terrestrial Physics
• Planet Earth Home Page
• SETI Institute, "serving the World Wide Web with information about scientific research in the general field of Life in the Universe with an emphasis on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence."
• Large Scale Phenomenon Network of the International Halley Watch
• The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) is a long term observational program with the main goal to search for dark, unseen matter using the microlensing phenomena.
• American Astronomical Society
• Canadian Radio Observatory
• CDS, Strasbourg (Centre de Donnes astronomiques de Strasbourg)
• European Space Information System
• Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories (Australia)
• Mount Wilson Observatory
• National Radio Astronomy Observatory
• National Solar Observatory
• The AstroWeb Consortium
• The NASA Astrophysics Data System

Academic Organizations

• Harvard University, Optical and Infrared Astronomy Division
• U of Calgary Radio Astronomy Laboratory Home Page
• UMass Astronomy Home Document
• X-Ray Group Public Page - Cambridge
• MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
• Astronomical Institute, University of Amsterdam
• Astronomical Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
• Astronomy, Queen Mary College, London
• Bologna Astronomical Observatory
• Cambridge Astronomy
• Colorado Space Grant College, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder
• Department of Astronomy, Cornell University
• Georgia State University, Astronomy
• Millstone Hill Observatory (Westford Massachusetts)
• National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory, Cornell Univ.
• New Mexico State University, Department of Astronomy
• Northwestern University Astronomy
• Queen's University Astronomy Research Group (QUARG)
• Saint Mary's University Department of Astronomy and Physics
• SUNY Stony Brook Astronomy Group Home Page
• The University of Washington Astronomy Department
• University of Rochester's Near Infrared Astronomy Group
• University of Texas at Austin Department of Astronomy
• University of Western Ontario, Department of Astronomy
• Vassar College Department of Physics and Astronomy
• Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory
• Williams College Astronomy Department

• NASA Home Page
• Galileo Navigation Team Home Page
• National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) "manages environmental data in the fields of solar-terrestrial physics, solid earth geophysics, marine geology and geophysics, paleoclimatology, and glaciology (snow and ice). In each of these fields it also operates a World Data Center (WDCA) discipline center."
• The National Earth Orientation Service (NEOS). "(NEOS) is a joint venture of the U. S. Naval Observatory (USNO) and the Geosciences Laboratory (GL), of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NEOS was organized to coordinate, collect, analyze, and distribute data from the various operational U. S. programs that monitor variations in the orientation of the Earth.
• Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC)
• NASA Planetary Data System Microwave Subnode
• Space Environment Laboratory Non-profit Organizations
  • GEA - Grup d'Estudis Astronomics
  • SETI Institute (The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)
  • Space Remote Sensing Center
  • Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Univ. of Arizona
  • The Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science (Canada)
  • UK/Canada/Netherlands Joint Astronomy Centre, Hilo, Hawaii

Observatories

• Falkland Islands
• Ife Ife
• Ascension
• The Three UK Geomagnetic Observatories
• Millstone Hill Observatory
• Haystack Observatory
• List of Operational Incoherent Scatter Radars
• EISCAT Tromsø!. The EISCAT Scientific Association is an international research organisation operating two geophysical research Incoherent Scatter Radar systems in Northern Scandinavia."
• Automated telescopes
• Isaac Newton group of Telescopes, La Palma, (Spain)
• Anglo-Australian Observatory
• Arecibo Observatory
• Australian National Telescope Facility
• Big Bear Solar Observatory
• Canada France Hawaii Telescope
• Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO) Gopher
• Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
• High Altitude Observatory
• Kitt Peak National Observatory
• Lowell Observatory
• National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO)
• Nordic Optical Telescope
• Steward Observatory
• Wilcox Solar Observatory (Stanford University)
• Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO)

Information

• The Sky this month
• This month in history
• General Astronomy Information Leaflets from the Royal Greenwich Observatory
• FAQ of the sci.space newsgroup and Astro/Space frequently seen acronyms
  Also the Cosmology/Astrophysics portion of the sci.physics FAQ
• ATM Resources and Software (ATM = Amateur Telescope Making)
• Purchasing Amateur Telescopes FAQ (Postscript version is also available: Part I and Part II.)
• Astronomy-related Newsgroups Resources
• Automated Telescopes
• The most excellent Earth Viewer
• MarsToday: "contains daily conditions on Mars and its relationship to Earth"
• Comets Observation Home Page
• The Ascending Node, the SEDS newsletter
• Nightime images of Earth showing the extent of light pollution.
• Occultations by Solar System Objects
• StarDate radio show (script) from McDonald Observatory. (Astronomical viewing and research reports.)
• Earth and Sky mailing list of transcripts from the radio show. Also an archive.
• The SETI Institute and the SETI League (SETI = Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence)
• NASA Eclipse Bulletins
• Astronomy Camps run by the University of Arizona Alumni Association
• "Origin of the Universe" (text of Hawking speech)
• "Baby Universes, Children of Blackholes" (text of Hawking speech)
• Coordinate Conversion and Coordinates in Astrophysics.
• Book reviews from the newsletter of the Ames (Iowa) Area Amateur Astronomers.
• Ansel Adams photographs of Hat Creek radio astronomy observatory and Lick Observatory
• Large Scale Phenomenon Network of the International Halley Watch
• MWO Online Stargazer Map

Tours/Encyclopedic Documents

• The Nine Planets: An excellent WWW reference to our Solar System (Also an European mirror.)
• Views of the Solar System
• Messier Catalog
• The Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis
• Earth and Universe, an HTMLization of the CD-ROM.
• MIT Flow Visualization Laboratory. "We study the atmospheric dynamics of the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). Atmospheric dynamics addresses questions like what kinds of weather systems will develop in an atmosphere with certain characteristics, how storm systems interact with each other and with prevailing planetary winds, and how an atmosphere will respond to certain perturbations."
• Comet Shoemaker-Levy Impact Simulation
• Occultations by Solar System Objects

• Datasets
  • Face of Venus: "Learn about the surface of the planet Venus through hypertext documents and the interactive databases of craters and coronae."
  • Star Catalogs and constellation boundaries. (For the SAC, you will need an UnZIP program
  • Atlas of Mars and Viking Orbiter image-finder
  • The PDS microwave subnode provides a browser for Magellan images of Venus.
  • Planeraty Maps FAQ
  • NSSDC Planetary FAQ and PDS (NSSDC = National Space Science Data Center; PDS = Planetary Data System)
  • Infrared Processing & Analysis Center

Interest Groups

• Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• Ames (Iowa) Area Amateur Astronomers
• The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA)
• Space Telescope Electronic Information System (STEIS)

Image Archives

• HST - Hubble Space Telescope Archive (username = guest, password = archive)
• NSSDC Photo Gallery includes the famous Family Portrait (NSSDC = Nation Space Science Data Center)
• Clementine image browser is now available!
• The infamous Explorer, look in GIF and JPEG. Holds a lot of other good stuff too.
• The CNAM archive in France
• Anglo-Australian Observatory
• Animations from STScI
• Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
• Galileo Probe
• USGS (Viking) Mars Color Mosaics and Viking Image Archive (USGS = United States Geologic Survey)
• GOES Image Sequences of Solar Eclipse on May 10, 1994.
• Someone's solar eclipse images
• Astro FTP list
• Comet Images
• The Shuttle Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C)
• TOPSAT (Topographic Mapping Satellite) is a proposed mission to map the topography of the earth.
• Nightime Images of Earth
• Solar Eclipse Images
• NASA Images (GIF - primarily Voyager/Neptune)
• NASA Space Images (GIF - general)
• NASA Space Images (JPEG - primarily Magellan/Venus)
• NASA Space Images (VICAR - primarily Magellan/Venus)

Software

• Macintosh
  • MoonTool 1.01

  • MacAstro 1.6

  • SkyChart 2000 2.1

  • MAIA 2.1b, "an image enhancement and analysis program, designed espeically for analyzing astronomical images. It requires a Mac with a 68020 or higher processor, a math coprocessor, and 16- or 256-color display. The shareware fee is $20.00 (US)."

  • See also Exploration in Education

• Unix
  • Xsky, "an interactive sky atlas for the X Window System."

  • Xephem

  • "Skymap is an interactive astronomical display program which draws a map of the sky on any Tektronix-compatible graphics terminal, such as xterm."

  • XEarth, see the world turning on your desktop!

• Windows
  • HomePlanet

  • SkyMap

Directories