Astronomy is in a golden age when ultra hi-tech telescopes and robotic spacecraft are allowing us to see the shape and structure of celestial objects as never before. Increasingly, the evidence gathered has a direct bearing on underlying theories old and new. It is especially revising or rewriting cosmology, which is the study of the Universe and how it began and evolved.
As for a basic appreciation for astronomy, one can start with learning the star groupings, a process aided by the centuries old tradition of dividing the night sky into constellations to aid recognition and memory.
Sky and Telescope Star Maps
Link for interactive skychart
skyandtelescope.com
scroll town and select the 'view sky chart' button for the star maps. You will get a screen that will ask for your city and zipcode..When that is filled in you will see a section of the night sky at your location on the globe. On the right is the whole sky map for the default time which is 9pm. This is an interactive map so you can change the type of information displayed..and the section of sky being viewed at the selected hour and direction. This works very well. Sky and Telescope's site also provides astronomical events for each week for amatuer observers. There are also news summaries, product reviews, basic observing information.
Astronomy Magazine's Index Page
http://www.astronomy.com/home.asp
Astronomy is another major U.S. publication for general readers and backyard astronomers. Users must register (free) to access The Sky Online, a sophisticated star map that can be customized for location, hour, and direction of viewing . There is also a zoom feature which allows closer examination of constellations. The help information is well written with illustrations. There are levels geared to amount of experience observers have.
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific
http:www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/educsites.html
This organization offers a range of authoritative resources. There is access here to selected features from the magazine Mercury, which is designed for the general public, and a great deal of material for teachers and students.This page is a listing of teaching guides and syllabi for introductory astronomy for college students. By choosing "Astronomy Education at the ASP" the user is met with a menu that includes several bibliographies, including one for education, and one on psuedo-science.
NASA's Imagine the Universe
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/mysteries_l1/origin_destiny.htm This is a resource directory for students and teachers on most levels.This page is about the nature of the Universe. Use the site map or bottom navigation bar and click "Imagine Science" for other topics in astronomy. All offer concise explanations without complex scientific language, although more advanced articles are available.. The site is also searchable.
MAP Concepts
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni.html
A number of basic concepts are discussed in the Introduction to Cosmology section. It's part of a NASA component which has the name MAP, an acronym for Microwave Anisotropy Probe. Anisotropy refers to fluctuations discovered on the background microwave temperature of the Universe.Questions being asked include how did the Universe form, and will it remain the same, expand forever, or collapse. A glossary of technical terms is included.
Messier Objects
http://www.seds.org/messier/data3.html
A good way to become familiar with the family of deep sky objects is by learning the members of the the Messier Catalog and where they are in the sky. Its also a great project for amatuer astronomers to undertake with a good telescope.. A group at the University of Arizona has organized an excellent interactive listing.
The Galaxy Page
http://www.seds.org/messier/galaxy.html
The same group that provides the Messier online, the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, or SEDS, offers additonal information on galaxies that
are easier to see with small scopes. There is also some basic information on
galaxies which organize the stars and play host to their life cycles.
The Galaxy Catalog
http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~frei/galaxy_catalog.html
Princeton University is host for another index of galaxies, with photography and data. This display is part of a larger study in conjunction with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Selected Print Resources at Buley Library
Norton's 2000, Ridpath, Ian. Ref QB 65.N7 1989.
A good book to begin learning the night sky and the major star associations that are part of the constellations.
Deep Sky Companions; Messier Objects, O'Meera, Sephen James
Ref QB 65 .O44 1998
Each of the 110 objects discovered by Messier is profiled, with photographs, and maps. Objects include galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, globular clusters, and more.
Hatfield Photographic Lunar Atlas. Cook, Jeremy. Ref QB 595 .C66 1999
This is a facinating close up introduction to our moon, with surface features shown with different angles of illumination from the sun. Photographs are displayed with orientation seen with a telescope.
Chronological Encyclopedia of Discoveries in Space. Zimmerman, Robert.Ref QB 595 .C66 1999
A comprehesive listing of space probes and the planets and satellites observed.
Encyclopedia of the Solar System. Weissman, Paul et al ed. Ref QB 501 .E53 1999
New Technology Observatories are yielding new findings and discoveries. The highest profile instrument driving the research in the previous decade is the Hubble Space Telescope.- Space Telescope Science Institute
http://www.stsci.edu/resources
This is the home of the Hubble Space Telescope. Many of the Hubble photographs and news releases and related background material are posted on the Institute Web Site. There are also links to more complex papers and information. Other links provide photographs from the HST archives and papers explaining major areas of research including the Hubble Deep Field study. - Keck Observatories on Mauna Kea
http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu:3636/realpublic/gen_info/kiosk/index.html
Twin giant telescopes act in concert to collect high definition data on distant galaxies. - CERRO TOLOLO INTER-AMERICAN OBSERVATORY
http://www.ctio.noao.edu/
- The Gemini Telescopes
www.noao.edu/usgp/outreach/intro.html
Gemini is an international effort to do astronomy with new instruments in both the northern and southern hemispheres in order to cover the entire sky.
Advanced Resources
Scholarly astronomy on the Internet is plentiful, but it takes some time to learn enough to enjoy it. It is important to be familiar with some of the math that is used and what it describes, as well as the vocabulary and symbols used to express measurements of luminosity, speed, size, and mass.Galaxy Classification
http://www.astro.soton.ac.uk/PH308/galaxies/classification.html
How are galaxies classified? Galaxies come in many shapes with almost infinite variation...but they are placed in basic categories of spiral, elliptical, and irregular..with subcategories.This page at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom presents these types and their scientific labels, using small photographs to illustrate them. Students will encounter this diagram of the " tuning fork " and designations frequently in texts and in other Web pages.
AstroWeb
http://www.stsci.edu/astroweb/astronomy.html
The Space Telescope Institute and other key sites have assembled a mega directory of links for the many provinces of astronomical research. Selected sites are international in scope and include universities and observatories as well as government agencies. All are worth exploring.
DIRECT - Determining the Distances to Nearby Galaxies
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~kstanek/DIRECT/
This is a project of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, or CfA. This group is examining the"standard candles" that are used in an effort to establish distance measurements to galaxies. Some of the measurements are based on the theory that certain objects generate a characteristic amount of light no matter where they are in the Universe.
Dark Matter
http://cdms.berkeley.edu/Education/
This is a site at University of California, Berkeley. Astronomers and cosmologists believe the vast majority of the matter in the Universe is unaccounted for. The visible matter, that which shows up because it emits or reflects light, isn't nearly enough to satisfy calculations.
ADS abstract database (NASA)
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/article_service.html
This is one of the largest databases in the world with more than 2 million records. For all the technical information it makes available, it's among the easier online databases to use. Abstracts are available from most of the major astronomy journals and full text articles are made available with a chronological 'moving wall' that is different for various journals. The wall may be set to 2 or more years in the past. Citations and abstracts are available for the latest issues. A simple key word search can be used, or an advanced search form is available.
ARIBIB Astronomy Index
www.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/cgi-bin/aribib/aribib
Maintained by Astronomisches Rechen-Institut in Heidelberg Germany and free thus far.This is an online service based on Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts. Searching for citations produces a broad range of international publications.Another striking feature of this resource is its historical quality. Records go back to 1880 and beyond with the editors drawing on scholarly bibliographies. Abstracts are not available in ARIBIB.
Level 5 at IPAC
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/
This is a collection of online books and articles on deep sky astronomy, including galaxies and cosmology. The supplied link brings up the main page. For starters, use Table of Contents or Author Index to get an overall appreciation of the available texts.The TOC arranges materials by subject headings. In 'Author Index' a vistor can choose from several dozen titles. Level 5 is a joint venture of NASA, its Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Caltech, Carnegie Institution, and others.
Biographies of Astronomers
www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/hist_astr/ha_pers.html
Articles and links to materials about prominent astronomers and their contributions to science.
NASA collection of formulae
www.ksc.nasa.gov/facts/faq04.html
This is a directory of formulae for astronomical and space science (this is rocket science!).
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/
There is much information here on gamma ray, and x-ray data collection projects using satellites.. The Max Planck Institute is exploring space with a variety of orbiting observatories including ROSAT. Overviews of results are available under the various project headings.
Additional Print Resources for Astronomy
Nearby Galaxy Catalog, Tully, R. Brent. QB 857 .T853 1988
Tables with values for almost 2,400 galaxies with a redshift of no more than 3000 km/sec. Explantions for the values given are provided in the first pages.
Nearby Galaxies Atlas. Tully, R.B; Fisher, J.R. Ref QB 857 .T85 1987 Companion work to the Catalog above. This plots local galaxy clusters in 2 and then attempts to model them in 3 dimensions. It shows groups of galaxies arrayed along a different plane that is part of an immense supercluster.
Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Murdin, Paul ed. Ref QB 14 .E534 20014 vols. Articles arranged A to Z according to topic provide detailed coverage that includes some of the most recent findings.
Source Book in Astronomy Ref QB 51 .S67 A collection of some important research papers marking landmarks in the history of the field.
Planetary Science
National Space Science Data Center
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/
A sizable collection of planetary photos are available at this site.This branch of NASA maintains a library of images collected by spacecraft that have explored the planets. Its referred to as the "deep archive".
Astronomy Thesaurus
msowww.anu.edu.au/library/thesaurus/english/
Here is a resource in five languages. It uses broader term, narrow term, and related terms. This work was compiled by Robyn M. Shobbrook - Anglo-Australian Observatory, and Robert R. Shobbrook - Sydney University, School of Physics. It's maintained by the Australian
NASA Mars Global Surveyor
mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs
Provides photos and articles describing the mission with extensive samples of all it collected.
NASA Photojournal interactive directory
photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov
This provides a graphical representation of the members of the solar system.Click on a planet and the user will be taken to a page with images of that planet and links to other authoritative sites providing more information and images. Best bet is to choose 'JPL Welcome to the Planets' for faster loading images.
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia
www.obspm.fr/encycl/encycl.html
In the past several years scientists have determined our solar systemis not unique. Other planets have been detected circling other stars, and as techniques improve, the list of planets could get longer. While other solar systems exist, the pattern of planets in other solar systems has provided surprises. Visitors can find links to various teams of astronomers trying to detec tplanets orbiting other stars.
Exoplanets Encyclopedia
http://exoplanets.org/news.html
What are all the extrasolar planets discovered thus far?this directory is keeping track and compares the planetsto each other and to those in our own solar system. It is maintained by scientists very much involved in the hunt.
NASA's Project ORIGINS
origins.jpl.nasa.gov/whatis/whatis.html
The space agency isplanning a search to try and identify extrasolar planetswith Earth-like conditions.There would be new space-based telescopes orbiting Earth atdifferent points and all focusing on a candidate worldto better resolve collected data. One goal is detection of a planet with a spectrum showing the presence of "life-friendly" elements.
Physics Resources · Return to Top
Net Advance of Physics from MIT
web.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/r/e/redingtn/www/netadv/welcome.html#table
physics encyclopedia from MIT providing entries on principles and theories and arranged alphabetically. WebElements page.
http://www.webelements.com/
Interactive information on all known elements and their make up. This is a classic site for information.
Particle Adventure
http://particleadventure.org/particleadventure/
From the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their Particle Physics Group. It's a collection of pages and news about elementary particles in atoms. There are also discussions on broad concepts such as the nature of matter and anti-matter..
NIST Standards online
www.nist.gov/srd/online.htm
The U.S. government maintains this site with various tables with primary reference information and formulae from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.
Physics Web
physicsweb.org/resources/edbytop.phtm
Information available here is keyed by category and is similar to familiar website portals . It provides access to presentations of concepts with illustrations and explanations.
Hyperphysics interactive instruction by Rod Nave
hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hphys.html.
Prof Rod Nave at Georgia State University and his team have been working to create this domain. . This is far more than any interactive tutorial. This is a fully developed method of instruction in many areas of physics and some astrophysics. Navigation is made easy by following the subject branches arrayed like spokes in a wheel.
Physics 2000
www.Colorado.EDU/physics/2000/index.pl
This is a similar project to the one described above, but takes a different approach. It too, explains many aspects of complex physics such as quantum mechanics, but does so as a dialog between life like cartoon figures representing professors and students.. This may put off some readers at first, but the writing is compelling, and the experience is vividly augmented by the java annimated demonstrations. The writing and demonstrations are formulated so that anyone can get a lot from it..from high school on up.
American Physical Society Online Journals
prb.aps.org
Indexing of scholarly journals from the American Physical Society. APS Physical Review A through D, Reviews of Modern Physics, and Virtual Journals in Sci Tech. The Physical Review titles provide free table of contents and abstracts. Users can get citations and reference linking information to other articles from the Institute for Science Information. There is also a provision to buy articles individually which can be downloaded in PDF (Adobe Acrobat).
Physical Review
focus.aps.org
Physical Review provides a free news service with summaries that explain many of the technical articles and research. This site is browsable, and has a search engine.The search engine has a simple form which works well, but the advanced search option was somewhat difficult. All summaries have links to the articles they are based on. It is one more way for new students to learn about concepts and new research.
Physics News Updates
www.aip.org/physnews/update
Physics News Updates from the American Institute of Physics providesshort spot summaries of leading research efforts. There are browsable archivesgoing back to 1990,or if you prefer, the site has a search engine.
Physics Today
www.aip.org/pt
This is a well organized site with feature articles and departments that include "Issues and Events" and book reviews. It too has a browsable archive back to 1995. Note that earlier issues may not have the full contents available.
Physics Web
physicsweb.org/toc
This online material is from the International Organization of Physics. Thisis a great site with articles on various topical aspects of physics and science. It hasa search engine and browsable archive .Also at this site is an extensive and rich set of links to websites and resources on the Internet.
Preprints from the Los Alamos National Library
http://xxx.lanl.gov/
The preprints at Los Alamos National Labratory provide a wealth of primary research in various categories of physics, as well as mathematics, nonlinear science, and computer science. The site can be browsed from the opening page. For example, on the same line with Astrophysics, looking to the right it says astro-ph, then there are selectors for "new" and "recent". . Clicking on one of these will bring up a list of articles with their titles. "Abs" requires you to enter an accession number to obtain the article, and "find" leads to a search engine. Most all articles can be downloaded in PDF (Adobe Acrobat).
CERN the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
http://library.cern.ch/
The extensive preprint resources at CERN can be accessed in a number of ways. Advanced search forms are available, and so are browsing options. There are also tutorials and tours for the general public at public.web.cern.ch/Public Even more information about high energy physics or HEP is available from the UK page at CERN
National Science Foundation resources online
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/4917.html
On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research is one of the books that can be read online at no charge. The National Academy Press has a number of pamphlets and books ready to be called up and read .Or, for a fee, they can be ordered on- demand for special printing. · Return to Top
Selected Print Resources for Physics at Buley Library.
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 81st ed. Ref QD 65 .H3 2001
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Physics . Rigden, John ed. Ref QC5 .M15 1996 4 vols.
Encyclopedia of Spectroscopy and Spectrometry. Lindon, John et al ed.Ref QC 61 .C65 1996. 3 vols.
Encyclopedia of Physics, 3rd ed. Besancon, Rob. Ref QC 5 .E546 1985.
Q is for Quantum . Encyclopedia of Particle Physics. Gribbin, John.Ref QC 793.2 .G747 1999.
