Astronomy 102, Fall, 2006

Interesting Astronomy on the Web

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Here's where to get those background screens for your computer. Each day there's a new cool astronomy picture, with text at the bottom that gives you some idea what it is that you're looking at.

astronomynotes.com

A complete online introductory astronomy textbook by Nick Strobel.

An Atlas of the Universe

A neat site that starts with stars near the Sun, and zooms out to the scale of the whole Universe. A good way to get a sense of how far apart things are from each other. Created by Richard Powell.

Digital Universe

Really cool software from the Hayden Planetarium that lets you zoom around the Milky Way or around the Universe. I will use this in class occasionally. The interface is a little obtuse to learn, but is functional once you learn it.

Stellarium

Free (GPL) planetarium software for Linux, Windows, and Mac. This lets you see what the night sky would look like if you were outside on a dark night. It lets you identify the constellations and stars, and see what the sky would look like at different places on Earth and at different times of the day, year, and throughout history.

Sky & Telescope

Sky & Telescope is a magazine for amateur astronomy, but it is also a great reference for this course. You can find copies of the magazine down in the science library, where you can read both about what's going on in the sky and about current discoveries in astronomy. The website has a regularly updated mix of similar things.

Astrocapella

Astronomy songs by the group The Chromatics, some of which I've played in class. Some of the lyrics are online as well.

Bad Astronomy

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, is a faculty member at Sonoma State in California. He has a website dedicated to debunking much of the bunk that is out there in astronomy. He often reviews movies, pointing out the astronomical flaws they made.