The Villanova University
ASTRONOMY INFORMATION PAGE

The World Wide Web contains a wealth of information: data, images, ideas. To get you started, here are a few links:

• Sky Publishing Corporation produces a magazine named "Sky and Telescope". It may be found on most newsstands. Its WWW site is unusually comprehensive and current. I can particularly recommend their SkyWatch 2003 book.
  
  
• "Astronomy" magazine is also a popular newsstand publication. They also maintain a comprehensive and current website. If you are contemplating the purchase of a telescope or binoculars, look at their discussion and tips.
  
  
• Learning the constellations is a wonderful experience for the family to share. It is an adventure into astronomy, history, and mythology. An excellent first book is "Glow in the Dark Constellations, a Field Guide for Young Stargazers". Although not currently in print, many libraries have it. Detailed descriptions and images of the astronomical constellations are held at this University of Wisconsin site.
  
  
• Plan to spend some time at the Messier Page at the University of Arizona. Charles Messier (1730 - 1817) compiled a list of objects NOT to be confused as comets, and in doing so, inadvertently created a list of objects ideally suited for investigation with binoculars or a small telescope. These objects [star clusters, exploded stars, nebulae, and galaxies] are readily seen even in urban areas.
  
  
• Comet watching can be fun, too. These dusty iceballs from space are really important fossils from the early days (millennia) of our solar system. The Comet Information page at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has complete information about comets. Other space travelers, called meteoroids, occasionally have significant "close encounters" with Earth. You can investigate them by linking to Comets and Meteor Showers page sponsored by the American Meteor Society.
  
  
• The Earth's Moon reveals a wealth of detail even to binoculars. The Face of the Moon: Galileo to Apollo is an historical tour you can take on-line. Also, there are images (zillions!), movies, and audio clips of the lunar exporations untaken by the Europeans, Japanese, Soviets, and Americans at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
  
  
• Everything you ever wanted to know about the planets and their satellites can be found at the The Nine Planets (maybe eight?) page, also at the University of Arizona. The National Optical Astronomy Observatory has images, links, educational programs, data archives, and projects. The Space Telescope Science Institute has an entire page for the public with all the latest and greatest from our Eye in the Sky.
  
  
• One of the best space-related pages is, of course, at NASA.
  
  
• The whole family can visit a planetarium and observatory.
  
  

  The observatory at Villanova University is open Monday through Thursday, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM EST (8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT) whenever university classes are in session.
  
  

  The observatory and planetarium at Eastern University are particularly well-suited for the public.
  
  

  The Franklin Institute offers a wide variety of programs and facilities. Their inner-city location hampers nighttime observing, however.
  
  

• As you plan for an event, watch the weather forecast. The infrared image is particularly useful at night, when the companion visible light image cannot be used.
  
  

GOES-8 VIS

GOES-8 IR

RADAR

WEATHER.COM

• Computer planetarium/simulation packages are invaluable for understanding the appearance of the sky and the motions of the Moon, Sun, and planets. They can help you plan an observing session, and they can also keep you busy on cloudy nights. There are many packages available, both for purchase at a software outlet, or via shareware on the Internet. For IBM-PC and compatible computers, here are a few that you may download and play with immediately. Just run the .exe file and it will self-extract into the component files. (Skyglobe 2.02 is the zipped windows version, and there is also Skyglobe 4 for DOS. Version 4 contains a windows version executable, but it appears to work only in Windows 3.11 and earlier. Use SG4DOS.EXE in a DOS window.) Also, for a large listing of software and suppliers, for a wide variety of operating systems (PC, Mac, OS/2, X-Windows) look at the Astrosoftware Page at the University of Arizona.
  
  

SKYGLOBE 2.02 (zipped)	SKYMAP PRO 5
MOONCALC 5.0	MYSTARS
EARTH WATCH	GEO CLOCK

• The Astronomical Society of the Pacific sponsors Project ASTRO. Particularly useful for teachers in the grades 3-12 is their major publication "The Universe At Your Fingertips, An Astronomy Activity And Resource Notebook". It is a 2-inch high stack of ideas, activities, resources, and strategies for bringing astronomy into the classroom.