Download Internet URLs

A130 BackYard Astronomy
fwk iupui 2/20/01
The Internet
There are an uncountable number of Internet sites on most any topic you can imagine. What follows is both
a basic list for astronomy and something of a personal favorites list. I'm generally trying to find information
and not just pretty pictures, so my list has a lot of bias.
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http://skytonight.com/
The web site for Sky and Telescope Magazine. This is one of my favorite web sites. This site is
excellent for late breaking news on what is visible in the sky; e.g. a new comet, or the next meteor
shower, and what is happening in both the amateur and professional astronomical community.
Excellent links to other sites. Sky Publishing Corporation carries an extensive line of good books
and star atlases. Their star atlases are the standard by which others are judged. Virtually no cookies.
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www.astronomy.com
The web site for Astronomy Magazine. This site seems to have gone commercial recently. Some
stuff appears to require a log in. It USED to be a good site. The jury is still out on this new site.
Zillions of cookies. Roughly speaking, Astronomy Magazine is for beginning amateurs and Sky and
Telescope (S&T) is for advanced amateurs
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http://www.iasindy.org/
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Info about the Indiana Astronomical Society; a group of amateur astronomers in central Indiana.
They have meetings at Butler University's Holcomb Observatory (open to everyone) and observing
sessions at Butler and at Gothe Link Observatory
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http://www.butler.edu/holcomb/index.html
Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium at Butler. Excellent star programs and telescope observing.
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http://www.childrensmuseum.org/themuseum/planetarium.htm
Find out about the current Space Quest Planetarium show at the Children's Museum.
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http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html
This site is an absolute must if you plan to chase any solar eclipses. It is maintained by NASA
scientist, Fred Espenak, who often writes eclipse articles for S&T and Astronomy.
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www.NASA.gov
You can of course, go to the main NASA site, but this is so big it is easy to get lost and never find
what you are looking for. I suggest the following two NASA sub-sites as potentially better jumping
off points: spacescience.nasa.gov and nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
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www.darksky.org
This site is a must. If you are interested in the stars, then you need to be concerned about keeping
our skies dark. Contains excellent info about keeping light on the ground where it helps you to see
at night time and OUT OF THE SKY where it prevents us all from seeing the stars. Has links to
many interesting astronomy sites on all topics. Indiana group = http://home.att.net/~icole/
printed 10/18/2006
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http://www.stsci.edu/institute/
The Space Telescope Science Institute (home of the Hubble Space Telescope). Hubble pictures
AND the complete Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS). This site calls it the Digitized Sky
Survey and it can be found by drilling down through the Science Resources button. At their specific
location: http://www.stsci.edu/resources/ links to a lot of good astronomy data.
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www.badastronomy.com
This would be where you would go to find out why the world in NOT going to end the next time the
planets line up. A good site which debunks a lot of myths.
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www.aas.org
This site is a little esoteric, but it is the web site of the American Astronomical Society; namely the
community of professional astronomers in North America. You can, for instance, find a listing of
current job openings in astronomy.
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http://www.solarviews.com/eng/sun.htm
Good site for Solar System Information and Pictures
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Good amateur sites with Equipment Reviews: Try one of these two sites: Ed Ting at
www.scopereviews.com/ or Todd Gross at www.weatherman.com/
Useful Commercial Sites:
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www.celestron.com and www.Meade.com
Celestron and Meade are major manufacturers of equipment for amateur astronomers. Lots of pretty
equipment to drool over here. Both sites contain helpful information for understanding telescope and
equipment basics and choosing equipment for a particular purpose. There are also many fine
examples of astrophotography by amateurs.
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www.telescope.com/
A.k.a. Orion Telescope and Binocular Center: Astronomy equipment superstore. Lots of useful
information about equipment and what all the terminology means. Prices are a tad higher here, but
this is a full service, no hassle store.
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XYZ_Camera_Co_New_York_City.com.crooks?
Many New York Camera Stores advertise in astronomy magazines. They all have great prices and
most are $%^#&* (oops, my lawyers made me remove that word). By near universal agreement the
best, and an honest one, is BHphotovideo.com. Their prices are a little higher, but they are reliable.
As a second choice, Adorama <www.adoramacamera.com> is okay most of the time too. None of
these stores will hold your hand and help you make choices. They offer reliability, good prices,
great selection, and nothing more. In Chicago, Shutan Camera <www.shutan.com> is a reliable
store with a good selection.
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www.aspsky.org
Web site of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Lots of useful information and also a good
place to shop for astronomy products like slides, pictures, books, charts, etc.
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www.amazon.com
Yes, they have seemingly every astronomy book ever written at discount prices.
Astronomy Newsgroups: Try <sci.astro.amateur>:
printed 10/18/2006