LINKS TO ASTRONOMY AND OTHER NEAT SITES...

Some of my own web pages

Homepage of Kirk Korista

Links to the webpages of the astronomy courses I teach: Physics 1040, Physics 1060, Physics 3250

What's astronomy all about and what do astronomers do?

Careers in Astronomy from the American Astronomical Society
FAQs about being an Astronomer
61 FAQs about a career in Astronomy
          Careers in Astronomy, from "Curious about Astronomy"
So you want to be a professional astronomer! (from Mercury magazine, Spring 2008)

Astronomical Societies

American Astronomical Society Home Page
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific
The Planetary Society
International Astronomical Union Home Page
The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
The Astronomical League
The American Association of Variable Star Observers

The Space Telescope Science Institute (Hubble Space Telescope)

Hubble Space Telescope's Homepage
Hubble Site: News and Views from the Hubble Space Telescope
The European Space Agency's homepage of the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope's Pictures and more
The meaning behind color in astronomical images
The Hubble Gallery
Hubble Heritage Homepage - breath-taking images monthly!
The Hubble Space Telescope Data Archive
The Digital Sky Survey
Where is the HST (and other astronomical orbiting observatories) right now?

The James Webb Space Telescope

JWST's Homepage
JWST at the Space Telescope Science Institute

Other Orbiting Observatories

The Chandra X-ray Observatory
The  Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
Spitzer Space Telescope: the space infrared telescope facility
Archive for X-ray and Gamma-ray orbiting telescopes
FUSE: Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer
Hipparcos: mapper of the Galaxy (now retired)
Gravity Probe B: putting General Relativity to the test

NASA

NASA Homepage
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA Digital Images from all Manned Space Programs
NASA Origins Program

Earth-based Observatories

W.M. Keck Observatory: twin 10-meter telescopes
The Subaru (Pleaides) 8.2m Telescope Homepage
The Gemini 8.1m Telescopes Project
European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Array
The Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory
Mount Graham International Observatory
The Large Binocular Telescope
Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington: Las Campanas & Magellan telescopes
WIYN OBSERVATORY Home Page
Apache Point Observatory Home Page
Kitt Peak National Observatory
Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory Home Page
Steward Observatory
UCO/Lick Observatory
Mt. Palomar Observatories
National Radio Astronomical Observatories
National Optical Astronomical Observatories
National Solar Observatory, Solar Astronomy
Mt. Wilson Observatory Home Page
US Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department
National Undergraduate Research Observatory
Yerkes Observatory Home Page

Amateurs Observing at Professional Observatories

Kitt Peak's Advanced Observing Program (you need NO experience!)

Astronomy Departments

Astronomy Departments & Observatories Index
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Astronomy
Ohio State University Department of Astronomy Homepage
University of Kentucky Department of Physics and Astronomy
Western Michigan University Department of Physics Home Page
Ohio University Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Michigan State University Physics-Astronomy Home Page
The University of Michigan Astronomy Department
Penn State Astronomy & Astrophysics
The University of Wisconsin Astronomy Department
The University of Minnesota Astronomy Department
The Indiana University Astronomy Department
University of Iowa Astronomy Group: Home Page
The University of Chicago Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics
Steward Observatory & University of Arizona Dept. of Astronomy
University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
The University of Texas, McDonald Observatory
The University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, LA
The University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, San Diego
Caltech Astronomy Homepage
University of Washington
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
University of Massachusetts
Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University
ZEBU: University of Oregon Physics WEB Server
St. Andrews Astronomy Group Members
Cambridge Institute of Astronomy

Search for Extraterrestrial Life

The SETI Institute
A page linking to sites connected with the new science of AstroBiology

Astronomy Info Databases

AstroWeb: Astronomical Internet Index
Astroweb Category Listing
The NASA Astrophysics Data System Home Page
NASA/GSFC: the National Space Science Data Center
The Star*s Family of Astronomy and Related Resources
NED: NASA Extragalactic Database
Information on the constellations, also sky charts
Information on the Messier objects
Information on the NGC objects
Information on the NGC/IC objects
AMASE Welcome
NASA's Astronomical Data Center
Catalogues availables at CDS
SkyView: The Internet's virtual observatory
A catalogue of the brightest stars in the sky
The 88 brightest stars in the sky

Astro Utilities

Astronomy Software: freeware, shareware, public domain
Physical constants, ephemeri, etc for the solar system from JPL
Solar System Simulator
ConCam: continuous sky camera from observatories around the world
SkyView Virtual Observatory
Solar System Live: see our solar system at any time between 4713 B.C. and A.D. 8000.
Henry Buhl, Jr. Planetary Astronomical Calendar
A super sky chart generator
Create a map of the sky
Sky & Telescope's Interactive Sky Chart
A really nice guide to the Constellations: stories, maps, interesting objects
The Munich Archive Astromaps
All kinds of really neat stuff here, including an Orrery
A Map of the Sky for Kalamazoo, MI
Star Journey: The Heavens - Star Chart from National Geographic
See the advancing dawn or sunset on the Earth
US Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications
US Naval Observatory Data Online
US Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications site map
US Naval Observatory Time
StarDate's almanac of the night sky
Astronomical Sky Calendar
CFHT's Almanac of Sky
Abrahms Planetarium Skywatcher's Page
UIUC's Sky Calendar Index
Griffith Observatory Sky Info
SkyEye's guide to this month's celestial events
The latest on observable comets & meteor showers, plus other info on these "debris"
The home page of the Leonid Meteor Shower
Another good set of pages on the Leonids
The International Meteor Organization
NASA's Satellite Tracking
Find out when the ISS will be visible from your location
"Heavens Above" Satellite Tracking
The official US time from NIST

Learning Astronomy

Astro/Science Media

ASTRONOMY Magazine
SKY Online - Sky & Telescope
ASTRONOMY NOW, Britain's magazine
The Planetary Society
The Planetary Society: Australian Volunteer Coordinators
Earth & Sky
StarDate Online
Scientific American
the Universe Today: space & astronomy news from media sources
Space.Com: space & astronomy news from media sources
Astronomy & Physics news and information
NewScientist: science news from the U.K.

Astro & Science Education: places to go for learners and educators

Start here: the SEDS site - Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
And here: a web index on sites astronomical
And here: a Math, Biology, Physics, Chemistry & Astronomy web resource center
Educators can start here for a vast array of astronomy education resources
Astronomy's entries inside Wikipedia - a free, on-line encyclopedia - is also great place to get started
Astronomy Education Review - a free on-line journal in astronomy education
Curious about astronomy? Ask an astronomer at Cornell University, a great place to start with commonly asked questions and their answers

Now, here are many more.....
One of the best sets of webpages on astronomy and cosmos, by Nick Strobel (see also here)
Another excellent web book on astronomy and its history, From Stargazers to Starships, by retired NASA physicist David P. Stern.
Basic celestial phenomena....some really nice pages on basic astronomy
An index of web sites demonstrating scale model solar systems
All kinds of great information, simulations, computer/Java based learning
The Astronomy Cafe...NASA astronomer answers laypersons' questions
Bad Astronomy - where misconceptions and just plain bunk are set straight
How Things Work: a fantastic set of pages of questions and the right answers
Catching Bad Physics in the act, and the right answers
How Stuff Works: covering broad areas of science
On-line encyclopedia articles on astronomy and astrophysics
An Atlas of the Universe- really cool zoom-in/zoom-out views of what is known
Powers of 10: Quarks to Quasars
Another wonderful powers of 10 demonstration: protons to galaxies
Good all-around tutorials in astronomy, from CASS/UCSD
Astronomer Dick McCray's beginnners on-line course on Stars & Galaxies
Basics of Space Flight, from NASA/JPL
An on-line tutorial of space flight and orbital mechanics
The Astronomy Workshop: some really neat simulations for beginning and advanced students both!
The American Astronomical Society's pages on Educational Resources in Astronomy
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific's pages on Educational Resources in Astronomy

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) in physics and their answers
Dr. Matrix's World of Science
Ask a scientist: FAQs and their answers by the experts
Ask a science expert...
The Why? Files
Physical Sciences Information Gateway
Dr.Universe answers questions on science for the younger scientists
Eric Weisstein's Treasure Trove of Science

Great Debates in Astronomy
Science and Mathematics Education Resources
A Wormhole in the Cosmos: a place to learn about the cosmos
Violence in the Cosmos: Explosive Processes and the Evolution of the Universe
American Astronomical Society Teacher Resource Agent Program

Welcome to NASA's Education Program
NASA's Space Science News Page
Lots of NASA sponsored science/astronomy education links
Really cool NASA sponsored astro/science education pages (age 14 and up)
Another set of astro education pages for pre-teen children
NASA's Observatorium

STScI/HST Public Information
NASA K-12 Internet: Live from the Hubble Space Telescope
Educational activities from Hubble's STScI
More educational activities from Hubble's STScI
NOAO Outreach Programs Page
National Solar Observatory/Sacramento Peak Astronomy & Science Education Page

Tutorials on Stars and Galaxies
Exploratorium: ExploraNet
Science Information @The Exploratorium
Science Education Gate-Way
A great page to learn all about the "analemma"
Project ASTRO
Project CLEA home page: PC based simulations of telescopic observations
Marilyn (vos Savant) is Wrong! (even geniuses have off days...)
Pages devoted to bringing attention to misconceptions in science, but beware...some links get preachy and so lose sight of their purpose

Time-lapse animations of lunar and planetary motions (lunar phases, eclipses, etc)

Links to discussions of science, pseudoscience, and issues regarding science and faith...

Astro History

An index of history of astronomy sites
History of Astronomy
History of Space Exploration
A Brief History of Astronomy, from CASS/UCSD
History of Math and Science Topics Index
People in Astronomy
General biography search
Albert Einstein Online
Albert Einstein: Image and Impact
The Galileo Project, Homepage

The Solar System

The Nine Planets
Views of the Solar System
Welcome to the Planets
NASA's website on the solar system and the exploration thereof
Planetary Sciences at the National Space Science Data Center
A really cool site on the Moon: maps, photos, explanations, and even music!
The Comet Home Page (JPL)
Comet Shoemaker-Levy Home Page (JPL)
Comet Hale-Bopp Home Page (JPL)

Links to sites describing our star, the Sun

Links to Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Geophysics, & Space Sciences (including Aurorae)

Solar System Exploration

The Kennedy Space Center
Archive of photos from the Kennedy Space Center
The Apollo Moon Program
The Apollo Image Gallery
Exploring the Apollo Moon Landing Sites
The National Air & Space Museum's Apollo Program Exhibit
The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
Planetary Photojournal: NASA's Image Access Home Page
NASA/JPL solar system exploration  page
Cassini: Voyage to Saturn
Cassini Imaging Center
Galileo Home Page (JPL)
Galileo Solid State Imaging Full Data Releases
Mars Missions Homepage
SOHO - The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
TRACE - Transition Region & Coronal Explorer of our Sun
Stardust: mission to catch a comet's dust
Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous
NASA/JPL Planetary Image Atlas
New Horizons: A Pluto - Kuiper Belt Mission

Links to Solar & Lunar Eclipses

Links to Asteroid & Comet Encounters, Impacts

Search and Discovery of Extra-Solar Planets

Geoff Marcy's team at SFSU
Related links
The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia
A catalog of extra-solar planets
The California & Carnegie Planet Search

Links to On-Line Tutorials, FAQs on Light, Color and Atmospheric Optics

Planetaria

Abrams Planetarium Home Page
Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum Web Site
The Griffith Observatory and Planetarium Homepage

Astro college courses or tutorials on-line

Nick Strobel's College Astronomy HyperText Book - excellent!
An index to on-line college-level astronomy courses
Good all-around tutorials in astronomy, from CASS/UCSD
Jim Kaler's excellent set of pages all about stars and the sky
Ohio State University: The Sky & Solar System; Stars & Galaxies courses
Ohio State University: A wonderful layman's description of the birth, life, and death of our Sun
Ohio State University: Astro 161 - Intro to Solar System Astronomy
Ohio State University: Astro 162 - Introduction to Stellar, Galactic, & Extragalactic Astronomy
On-line textbook (Chaisson/McMillan)
University of Tennessee: The Solar System
University of Tennesee: Stars & Galaxies
Boston College: Astronomy 150
University of Oregon: Astronomy HyperText Book
University of Oregon: Astronomy & Physics Courses
University of Oregon: Cosmology and the Origin of Life
University of Oregon: The Formation and Evolution of the Solar System
University of Oregon: Honors Section: The Formation and Evolution of the Solar System
University of Oregon: Birth and Death of Stars
University of Oregon: Honors Section: Birth and Death of Stars
University of Oregon: Galaxies and the Expanding Universe
University of Oregon: Modern Observational Cosmology
Jeff Willick's cosmology course on-line
Dick McCray's Stars & Galaxies course on-line
University of Oregon: Introduction to Astrophysics
University of Washington astronomy courses
University of Washington astronomy labs, etc

An on-line course in high school physics
An on-line course on introductory spherical geometry

Some JAVA tutorials and interactive learning in astronomy & physics

Astronomy Workshops, and some great Java demos in planetary orbits
 Java demos of 3-body orbital motions
 Java demos of the phases of the Moon
Some nifty Java demos in astronomy
...and here are some more
...and some more Java demos in astronomy
University of Oregon: Physics & Astronomy Java workshops
University of Oregon: A few more Physics & Astronomy Java workshops
Java workshop on the twin paradox
Super java applets for astronomy simulations
Java applets for Physics
More Java applets for Physics
Good Java applets and demos for blackbody radiation
Java applets for simulating the colors of stars
Good Java applets and demos for light
Good Java applets for statistical mechanics
Java illustrated illusions on the web....really cool!
An excellent site on microscopy, optics, light and color

Links to Relativity, Black Holes, Neutron Stars, and the like

Links to Cosmology and Structure Evolution

Astronomy Textbook Auxillaries

Michael Seeds' Horizons: publisher's astronomy resource page
Jay Pasachoff's publishing web page
Kaufmann & Freedman's Universe web page
Chaisson & McMillan : A  Beginner's Guide to the Universe
Astronomy: Journey to the Cosmic Frontier
StarLinks Main Page - In Quest of the Universe, 2E
Foundations of Modern Cosmology
Modern Cosmological Observations and Problems
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics

Handbooks & Tables of Physics/Astrophysics

Martin Zombeck's Handbook on Space Astronomy and Astrophysics
The Periodic Table of Elements
The Periodic Table of the Elements
Another really cool Periodic Table of Elements
And yet another really cool Periodic Table of Elements
A chemistry-based Periodic Table of Elements
A super web site on visualizing electronic orbitals

General Astronomical Picture Sites

Astronomy Picture of the Day

CFHT's astronomy image of the month
Earth Science Picture of the Day
Search the web for images of your favorite objects
NASA's photo gallery
HubbleSite.org
The Sky Factory - really cool
National Optical Astronomy Observatory's image site

The Milky Way Galaxy as it appears across the electromagnetic spectrum
Virtual Reality Milky Way Panorama and a link to a VR multiwavelength view of our Galaxy
Multiwavelength astronomy, from the NASA IPAC facility
Our Universe at 2 microns: the 2MASS project
The Messier Objects as imaged in the the infrared
SEDS Messier Database
Digitial Sky Survey's images of Messier objects
Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies
Images of some non-Messier objects (mainly NGC)
Images from the picture gallery of the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey

The Web Nebula: Beauty in Cosmic Gas Clouds
Anglo-Australian Observatory Colour photographs
University of Oregon CCD Images of Galaxies and more
University of Oregon's Galaxy Gallery: Messier Objects

HST Images of Planetary Nebulae: Stellar Death Shrouds
more HST Images of Planetary Nebulae: Stellar Death Shrouds
Ground-based images of Planetary Nebulae: Stellar Death Shrouds
More ground-based images of stellar death shrouds...
Still more ground-based images of stellar death shrouds...
Orion Nebula, the nearest stellar nursery...
More on the Orion Nebula, the nearest stellar nursery...
Some nifty educational pages on the region of Orion

Local Astronomy

Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Homepage
Kalamazoo Astronomical Society electronic newsletter
Amateur Astronomer Richard Bell's Homepage
Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association Home Page
Fox Park Public Observatory, (near Lansing)
Michiana Astronomical Society (South Bend, IN)
The Columbus Astronomical Society (Ohio)
The wonderful, old, and historic Perkins Observatory in Deleware, OH
The Peoria Astronomical Society (Illinois)
The Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society

Amateur Astro, tips for backyard astronomers, buying telescopes, dealers, etc

Mark Miller's sage advice on choosing a telescope
more sage advice on choosing a telescope, etc, from the Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society
S&T page on "How to Start Right in Astronomy"
S&T page on tips for visual observing
S&T page on tips for choosing your first telescope
Celestron's homepage: lots of tips on telescopes, binoculars
Meade's homepage; some tips for the consumer here
Orion Telescope & Binoculars
TeleVue Optics
A description of the whats and hows of CCDs
A page that computes  signal-to-noise ratios for CCD photometry
A good set of pages on astrophotography

Where to buy telescopes, binoculars, and accessories in Michigan

Rider's Hobby Shops in MI
Enerdyne Corp.

Light Pollution & saving our dark skies

My personal page on the issue of light pollution
International Dark-Sky Association - Global Network of Astronomical Telescopes
Sky & Telescopes's page on light pollution
DarkSky - A WWW Tool for Stargazing
Mark Miller's Homepage of Michigan Chapter of IDA
Cal-IDA Home Page
Ohio Light Pollution Advisory Committee
Dark Sky Mailing List
Outdoor Lighting Control

Buying a Star (!?)

FAQs on buying a star...read this before doing that!
FAQs on buying a star...here is another site to read
and yet another site to read

Women in Science

Contributions of 20th century women to physics
More info: Women in Astronomy
the Woman Astronomer
Women in Science
4000 Years of Women in Science

Cosmic Literature

The musings of an amateur astronomer
An enjoyable short essay on cosmic beauty
An essay on building a star
An essay on time by Stephen Hawking
A wonderful on-line book: ``Science and the Human Prospect''

Didn't find it here? Here are some huge indeces of astronomy sites

Another large subject index of sites astronomical
Sky & Telescope's Astronomy & Space/Astronomy Links and Internet Resources
The KAS Astroweb yellow pages
Phil Plait's astro links page
the Universe Today's astro links page
Amara's Science Links

Environmental Stuff

The Kalamazoo Nature Center
Wolf Lake Fisheries Interpretive Center
University of Oregon: Environmental Science 202 course on-line
Biodiversity and Conservation, a hypertext book by Peter J. Bryant
Environmental Defense Fund
World Wildlife Fund
The Sierra Club
National Wildlife Federation
The Nature Conservancy
The US Census Bureau
World & US Populations, from the US Census Bureau
World Population
Welcome to IGES
The EnviroWeb, A Project of the EnviroLink Network
Global Change: the electronic edition
Your on-line source for sustainable energy information

Dictionaries, Thesauri, Encyclopedias, etc

A Web of On-line Dictionaries
Wikipedia: a free on-line  Encyclopedia
Encyclopaedia Brittanica on-line
World History on-line
Bibliofind: find/buy used/rare books

Kirk T. Korista
Professor of Astronomy
Department of Physics
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5252
email: kirk.korista@wmich.edu
last updated 10 June 2008