There
is an opinion accepted my many, that astronomy is in a golden age when robotic
spacecraft and ultra hi-tech telescopes are allowing us to explore planets while
the new telescopes look deep into space almost (using new measures) to the start
of the universe.
These findings are helping scientists to revise the story of the universe..with
more evidence on how it might have begun with a Big Bang, and a new scenario
for the far future when galaxies run away and where the light of stars will
dwindle.
There is also a search for mysterious dark matter, and the even stranger dark
energy; the latter a theorized force that could accelerate the fate of the universe.
Spitzer Telescope
A new orbiting telescope is providing new perspectives quite literally within
certain objects, using the infra red range of the spectrum. The instrument is
named Spitzer. www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/science.shtml
Planetary Exploration
Also
in recent years, rockets with highly sophisticated robotic probes are going
to the planets where they orbit and in some cases land or both. These mechanisms
gather enormous amounts of data that are sent back to Earth and each have also
sent back large collections of scientific images.
Cassini-Huygens Home Page
Jet Propulsion Labratory at Caltech Pasadena http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
Cassini is the latest and most comprehensive robotic examination of Saturn,
one of the gas giants in our solar system. Jet Propulsion Labratory is the center
where scientists design and then 'fly' the robotic probes that have given us
so much of the information gathered about the solar system.
Jet Propulsion Labs and the exploration of Mars
It may be safe to say one mission to Mars has provided results beyond the wildest
dreams of the design team. This is the saga of the rovers Opportunity and Spirit.
NASA provides a site with interactive technologies to describe the mission. www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/mer-yr2/
There is also a more conventional Web page summarizing the mission. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
There is a new mission underway where a spacecraft is now in orbit around Mars
to take highly refined pictures of the surface. The Mars Recconaissance Orbiter
was inserted into orbit in early March and controllers will modify the orbit for
another six months so the instruments will be in good position.
More on planet research is available further down in this guide, including
discoveries of so-called "extreme" planets.
Astronomy
Picture of the Day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod
If you watch for breaking news, one site to watch is NASA's Astronomy Picture
of the Day. It graphically provides a peg for current developments ranging across
the board from NASA missions and from astronomers. Occasionaly they drop in
different sciences describing processes on Earth such as weather and climate.
There may be a compelling image every day but it's important to note there are
interactive links to find out much more about any of the daily topics. Some
of the pathways lead to scholarly articles.
Getting
to Know the Night Sky
As for a basic appreciation for astronomy, one can start by
learning the star groupings, a process aided by the centuries old tradition
of dividing the night sky into constellations to aid recognition and assist
memory.
Sky and Telescope 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 zip code. When that is filled in,
you will see a chart of the night sky that is correct for 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.
Sky and Telescope's site also provides astronomical events for each month. Also
valuable are news summaries, product reviews, and basic observing tips.
Astronomy Magazine www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=ps&id=6
Astronomy is another major U.S. publication for general readers and backyard
astronomers. This page provides more information for beginners. The online magazine
also has links to news of discoveries and research. There is also a free email
newsletter available one can sign up for.
The Astronomical Society of New Haven. www.asnh.org
For any new observer getting started it's important to get viewing aids that
fit the mission. Some recommend 10 x 50 power binoculars or a small scope 3
inches for beginners. There are clubs in Connecticut and across the nation that
can provide events such as star parties where a group of people get together
and observe.
The Society is a non-profit organization, and meetings are open to the public.
Clear Sky Page cleardarksky.com//csk/prov/Connecticut_clocks.html
A major assist is being provided to clubs by a Web resource that provides the
weather conditions as they relate to observing. Knowing conditions is a key
step that professional astronomers take while planning their routine for a night
with a major observatory. The forecasts are prepared with data from the Canadian
Meteorological Centre by Allan Rahill with Web assistance from Atilla Danko.
One can choose the clock for the closest location in the state. This resource
is also available for many places in the U.S. and Canada. cleardarksky.com//csk/index.html#clock_list
Moving
to More Advanced Sites with Instruction
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific http:/www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/educsites.html
This organization offers authoritative resources. There is a link to publications
where excerpts from the magazine Mercury are available, which are written to be
accessible by the general reader. The highlight on the site are materials for
teachers and students (the link is for college education)o. Look for a listing
of teaching guides and syllabi for introductory astronomy.
NASA's Imagine the Universe http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/ask_an_astronomer.html
This is a resource directory for students and teachers on most all levels. This
page provides a list of topics. Take time to check other resources with links
at the bottom of the page. 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 information resource named MAP, an acronym for Microwave
Anisotropy Probe. Anisotropy refers to tiny fluctuations discovered in the background
microwave temperature of the Universe. Questions being asked include how did
the Universe form, and what can be learned from what is left from the Big Bang.
A glossary is included.
Messier Objects www.seds.org/messier/data3.html
This is a good way to become familiar with the family of deep sky objects, learning
the members of the the Messier Catalog and find where they are in the sky. It's
also a "marathon" project for amateur astronomers to undertake with a good telescope.
A group at the University of Arizona has organized an excellent interactive
listing.
The Galaxy
Catalog http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~frei/galaxy_catalog.html
Princeton University is host for another index of galaxies, that includes 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, James
Ref QB 65 .O44 1998
Each of the 110 objects discovered by Messier is profiled, with photographs,
and locator 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 the orientation as 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
These are yielding exciting findings and discoveries. The highest
profile instrument driving the research in the past 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.
Subaru Telescope www.naoj.org/Introduction/index.html
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is operating this state of the
art instrument high atop Mauna Kea. It uses a main mirror that flexes and
has two focul points for different kinds of instruments for a range of observations.
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory http://www.ctio.noao.edu
There are a variety of instruments atop a Chilaen mountain including a 4 meter
telescope and the southern half of the Gemini project (see below). The 4 meter
Blanco telescope and others can be fitted with several spectrometers.
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 to allow coverage of the entire
sky.
Higher Level Research
Scholarly astronomy on the Internet is plentiful, but it takes reading and effort
to appreciate the many aspects of the science. is important to be familiar with
some of the math that is used and phenomena it describes, as well as the vocabulary
and symbols used to express measurements of luminosity, speed, size, and mass.
AstroWeb http://www.stsci.edu/astroweb/astronomy.html
The Space Telescope Institute and other key sites have assembled a meta- 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
anywhere they are found 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 and
so far goes undected even with our sophisticated instruments. 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 3 million records
in four major files. 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 but Citations and abstracts are available
for the latest issues. A simple key word search can be used, or an
advanced search form is available.
arXiv Pre
Print Service http://arxiv.org
This is a powerful tool to search for scholarly papers outlining cutting edge
research. The papers are meant to be shared by scientists and are archived at
this moderated site.
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 with records
going 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. Objects named
in the texts are hyperlinked to a database where more can be found about the
object often including images. 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.
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 1987Companion work
to the Catalog above. This plots local galaxy clusters 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.
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 flown
past the planets. Its referred to as the "deep archive"
Kuiper Belt Objects
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/kb.html
There is much attention focused now on objects beyond Pluto and one of its'
satellites Charon. New observations with powerful telescopes have yielded claims
for two more satellites for Pluto. KBOs could be slightly larger or smaller
than Pluto. They inhabit the Kuiper Belt and some could turn out to be the most
distant objects in our solar system. They are also believed exotic in composition
with ice and dust gathered in the very early formation of the solar system,
and so they could also be among the oldest solid objects.
Kuiper Belt Electronic Newsletter www.boulder.swri.edu/ekonews/
This is a publication which can be rendered in HTML or PDF and compiles the
observations coming in on various objects in this expanding field of study.
The newsletter is subtitled "Distant EKOs" which stands for Edgeworth-Kuiper
Object and explains some of the observations and deliberations about what the
objects actually are. Many objects slip inside the orbits of Pluto or Neptune
during their very long revolutions around the sun.
EKO Glossary www.boulder.swri.edu/ekonews/glossary.html
Every field has its own technical language and so does research into Kuiper
Belt objects. Much is resolved by this glossary, which also delves into some
of the orbital and ephemeris information which is vital for classification.
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia www.obspm.fr/encycl/encycl.html
In the past several years scientists have determined our solar system is 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 inother solar systems has provided surprises. Visitors
can find links to various teams of astronomers trying to detect planets 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 planets to 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 is planning a search to try and identify extrasolar planets
with Earth-like conditions.There would be new space-based telescopes orbiting
Earth a different points and all focusing on a candidate world to better resolve
a single image. One goal is detection of a planet with a spectrum showing the
presence of " life-friendly " elements.
Astronomy Thesaurus msowww.anu.edu.au/library/thesaurus/english
Here is a resource available 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.
