JeffPo's Favorite Astronomy Links
Last update: 02/16/23
Clubs:
http://www.raleighastro.org Raleigh Astronomy Club. Contains information on the Raleigh Astronomy Club, meeting times/places, club events, plus a variety of other topics.
https://www.facebook.com/raleighastro Raleigh Astronomy Club FaceBook page.
http://chaosastro.org/ Chapel Hill Astronomical And Observational Society. This is a local club in the Chapel Hill area. I haven't been to any of their meetings yet, but they seem quite active.
Magazines:
https://skyandtelescope.org Sky & Telescope Magazine. This is a great site with current news and articles. Sky Publishing also has a lot of astro goodies you can order.
http://www.astronomy.com Astronomy Magazine. Great articles and reviews.
Software and Star charts:
https://stellarium.org/ Stellarium. Free, open source star chart. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
https://stellarium-web.org/ Stellarium Web. This is the online version of Stellarium, a free, open source star chart. They also have a version for your smart phone on Apple's App Store.
http://www.bisque.com This is the web site of Software Bisque, makers of TheSky astronomy software.
Equipment:
http://www.astronomics.com Astronomics. This is another company that gets a lot of praise. I have purchased a few items from them including my Meade LX100 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. They have good service.
http://www.telescope.com Orion Telescope & Binocular Center. Great company that has tons of astronomical items. They have an awesome color catalog, that is also available on-line. The catalog also contains informative advice on how to choose astronomical equipment and also diagrams how they work.
http://www.handsonoptics.com Hands On Optics. Astronomical equipment business run by Gary Hand. I've met him at star parties and while he comes across as a polished salesman, I think he's trustworthy, has good products, and will stand by their quality. He has what appears to be clones of the Orion dobsonian scopes but with better features and a lower price. Broken link.
http://www.buytelescopes.com Anacortes Telescope & Wild Bird. Although I haven't dealt with this company personally, I see a lot of praise for it.
http://www.meade.com Meade Instruments Corporation. Great information on all the products that Meade sells.
http://www.celestron.com Celestron. Information on the products that Celestron sells.
http://www.crazyedoptical.com Crazy Ed Optical. He sells a limited number of astronomical goodies. He sells telescope making items, charts, reflex sites, and a number of other items. NOTE: Broken link. He's gone out of business, but I'm leaving this here in case he comes back.
http://telescope-warehouse.com The Telescope Warehouse Inc. This is the web site of William Vorce. He sells tons of used astronomy equipment and various parts that may be hard to find. Other listed pages: http://shop.telescope-warehouse.com and http://stores.ebay.com/Telescope-Warehouse and http://www.amazon.com/gp/shops/storefront/index.html?ie=UTF8&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sellerID=AF3L9V34DN6N5
http://www.scopestuff.com Scope Stuff web site. They sell screws and electronic stuff. Lot's of parts.
Information/Resource:
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses Solar Eclipses. Plots solar eclipses on maps similar to Google Maps. Excellent travel planning tool for eclipses!
http://obs.nineplanets.org/obs/obslist.html Amateur Astronomical Observatories. Lists quite a few links to amateur observatories. Great resource of information for those planning on building one.
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/measuring-the-sky-by-hand.html A Handy Guide to Measuring the Sky using your hand and fingers.
http://minorplanetcenter.org/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/index.html Observable Comets. This site provides tons of information on current comets in the sky. They give orbital elements, observations reports, plus a variety of other information.
http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/CometDiscovery.html Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. This is the place to report your comet discovery.
http://www.shallowsky.com/moon The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Moon. This is a pretty good site about the Moon and its features.
http://stdatu.stsci.edu/dss/dss_form.html Space Telescope Science Institute's Digitized Sky Survey. If you want a real picture of a certain part of the sky, this is the place to go. You just enter the coordinates, and how big a window you want around it and you get an image. It at least goes past 15th magnitude. As an example of what you can do, you can create a finder chart to help you locate Pluto in a crowded star field, or help you determine if that fuzzy spot you are seeing is a known galaxy or the next "comet of the century".
http://www2.austin.cc.tx.us/astro-ES/AstroDesigns/MAPUG/ArhvList.htm Meade Advanced Products Users Group archives. Tons of good info on Meade products. Broken link.
http://www.astronomysite.com/mapug-archive Meade Advanced Products Users Group. This is an alternative site and method of navigating the information on Meade products.
http://astronomy-resources.com/mapug/ragreiner/index.html Doc G's Info Site. Lots of information on Meade LX200 telescopes and related items.
http://www.iau.org/public/themes/buying_star_names An article from the International Astronomical Union on the subject of buying/naming stars. For the record, you can't officially buy or name a star. It's nothing but a novelty item. I've also written my own article titled: Can I Buy/Name a Star?
MeadeLX100.pdf This is the manual for the Meade LX100 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. It's a rare bird telescope, so I doubt many out there need it, but I scanned it for someone else so I thought I should make it available just in case. It's a big file at 32mb.
MeadeLX200_Classic_Manual.pdf Manual for the classic Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.
NexStar11GPS_11053.pdf Manual for the Celestron 11" NexStar GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.
NexStarHandControlVersion4UsersGuide.pdf Celestron NexStar Hand Control Version 4 User's Guide by Michael W. Swanson
NexStar Resource Site Website dedicated to the use of Celestron NexStar telescopes.
Classifieds:
https://www.cloudynights.com/classifieds Classifieds section on the Cloudy Nights website.
http://www.astromart.com Astro-Mart site. This is a great site to buy, sell, and trade used astronomy equipment. It use to be free, but now they charge a registration fee.
http://astronomy-mall.com Astronomy-Mall.com. Listing of lots of dealers and has a classified section.
Places:
http://moreheadplanetarium.org/ This is the web site for the Morehead Planetarium, on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC. The planetarium is a great place to visit. It has a top quality projector and great programs. There's also a nice gift shop and a neat museum.
http://www.aao.gov.au/ This is the web page for the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO). LOTS of cool pictures can be found here.
People:
https://astrobackyard.com/ This is the website of Trevor Jones. Excellent website with tutorials on astrophotography. He gives techniques and steps on stacking and software usage.
http://mlastro.coffeecup.com This is the astrophotography website of Raleigh club member Mark Lang.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93339456@N00 Flickr images of Raleigh club member Joe Pedit.
http://www.astropix.com/INDEX.HTM This is the web site of Jerry Lodriguss. Lots and lots of very good astrophotography stuff at this site. Great articles and guides. Excellent resource. Broken link.
http://panther-observatory.com This is the web site of Johannes Schedler. He has some awesome planetary and deep sky images taken with a webcam and a digital camera (Nikon Coolpix 995).
http://uncle-rods.blogspot.com and http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland Websites of Rod Mollise. He has an excellent article on buying a used, older Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. He has written a couple of books and gives all around good advice regarding astronomy.
http://www.darklightimagery.net This is the web site of Chris Anderson. He has a Celestron 8" SCT (Fastar) and a Pixcel 237 CCD camera. He has some excellent astrophotography images as well as some detailed pictures of his observatory. He also has cool nature and cave pictures.
http://www.simcoeskies.com Web page of an amateur astronomer in Ontario, Canada. Has an article, and link on dew heater for a Telrad, plus rotating rings for a Newtonian.
Reviews:
http://www.scopereviews.com The Telescope Review Web Site. This is the web site of Ed Ting. He has tons of good product reviews.
http://www.cloudynights.com Cloudy Nights Telescope Reviews. This is a web site that has some pretty good reviews of telescopes, binoculars, and other astronomical equipment. Also has a classified section, and forums.
Other Astronomy Links:
Other Astronomy Links (latest update: 11/21/01) This link brings up a page with links to other sites that are astronomy related. Although I don't have them listed as my "favorite", I do visit them from time to time and consider them a great source of information. Besides, how can every site be a favorite. :)