During a B-SIG meeting I was asked if I could post the sheet of web links that I include with new MAS member letters, just to be sure the links are available to everyone. Here is a pretty decent list of Internet resources for stargazing and amateur astronomy. If anyone wants to add their favorites to those displayed in this post, feel free to add!
http://www.skymaps.com – Monthly customized maps of the sky depicting what can be seen by eye, with binoculars and with a telescope. Download and view or print the specific map for the northern hemisphere each month.
http://www.heavens-above.com – Want to know when the International Space Station will be visible overhead? Wonder what is an Iridium Flare? Want to identify the satellites you see in the sky? Heavens Above is the best site for tracking earth orbiting satellites. Enter your location for detailed personalized data for your area and time.
http://www.universetoday.com/ - Universe Today has daily articles on space and astronomy. Sign up for their email newsletter and be informed on a daily basis.
http://www.space.com/ - Space.Com is a good source for news related to space exploration and astronomy, although they are a bit heavy on advertising and graphics that slow the web site down.
http://365daysofastronomy.org/ – An IYA 2009 project. Daily podcasts through the entire years of 2009 through 2012 entertained and informed you about various astronomical topics ranging from astronomical history, amateur astronomy, professional observatories, constellation mythology, the solar system, space travel, cosmology, stargazing and much more. They had a pause after the December 31, 2012 podcast, but started up again as a service of a new organization, CosmoQuest, and continue into 2020 and hopefully beyond!
http://www.astronomycast.com/ - Astronomy Cast podcast. A half-hour podcast by Dr. Pamela Gay and Fraser Cain. For the first two hundred or so episodes the podcast was updated weekly, but then they tapered off for a year or so. Starting again in the last half of 2011 Pamela and Fraser have gotten back to a regular weekly schedule. Both the current episodes and the extensive library of back episodes will give you plenty of opportunity to learn about a wide range of astronomy and space related topics presented in an entertaining and informative manner.
http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-messier.html - The SEDS site (
http://www.seds.org/messier) used to be one of the best concise references for the Messier list, but SEDS has recently removed their Messier reference. The Sea & Sky site appears to be a good alternate - Charles Messier was an astronomer in Paris in the late 1700’s who concentrated on hunting comets. He created a catalog of 110 objects commonly mistaken for comets. Fortunately for us, those 110 objects are some of the most beautiful objects in the sky. He cataloged globular star clusters, open star clusters, nebulae, supernova remnants and galaxies. This site outlines Messier’s history and lists all his cataloged objects graphically and with full descriptions. It’s a great resource to find out what’s out there to see!
http://www.astroleague.org – The Astronomical League is the parent organization of hundreds of astronomical clubs and societies throughout the US. This includes the MAS, whose members are automatically members of the Astronomical League and receive the quarterly Reflector newsletter. The AL site has advice and observing projects to get you started. Visit any club’s star parties! The amateur astronomers there are willing to help you!
http://rasc.ca/ - the Royal Astronomy Society of Canada - Just as the Astronomical League has great information for US amateur astronomers, the RASC web site also features many observing lists and projects, in addition to publications that may be purchased and additional information.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html – Astronomy Picture of the Day. An armchair astronomer’s paradise! Best to bookmark it right away and visit the site every day.
http://www.stellarium.org – Stellarium is an excellent graphical view planetarium program – and it’s a free download. There are versions available for Windows, Mac and Linux PCs.
http://www.ap-i.net/skychart/ - Cartes du Ciel – French for "Sky Charts". A very good free planetarium program containing detailed star catalogs and deep sky object catalogs for planning stargazing sessions, controlling telescopes or just learning what is there to see in the night sky. Cartes Du Ciel also is available in versions for Windows, Mac and Linux.
https://www.imo.net/ - International Meteor Organization - A web site dedicated to information about meteors and meteor showers. For up to date information on these periodic events, check here!
http://www.clearskies.eu/ - Clear Skies Observing Guides (CSOG) - Clear Skies Observing Guides is a for-purchase digital publication, helping observers to find all deep sky objects and carbon stars visible to their telescope, intended for scopes up to 12 inches. It is a combination of observing guides and software. The guides can be printed, or viewed on a tablet, e-reader or computer.
http://www.skyhound.com/ - SkyTools 4 includes a complete set of software tools for observation planning, charting, and logging. The SkyTools 4 Professional Edition adds unique and powerful tools for imaging and an unprecedented database of stars to 20th magnitude over the entire sky. A Starter Edition, Standard Edition and Pro Edition are available for purchase. It is intended to be used at the telescope and includes telescope control.
http://www.lynchandthestars.com – Twin Cities meteorologist and stargazing enthusiast Mike Lynch hosts stargazing classes in the Minneapolis/St. Paul and surrounding area. Also check out his Starwatch Minnesota and other books. The four large truss style Dobsonian telescopes shown on his web site and that he uses for his stargazing classes are Starmaster telescopes, now considered to be "classic" as Rick Singmaster, the owner of Starmaster has passed away.
http://www.clearoutside.com - Clear Outside is a newer astronomical weather prediction site, and provides a very good at-a-glance look at sky conditions for your favorite site from today out through the next week. The summary is provided for each day and night, and you can expand the prediction out to get the details of high level, medium, and low level cloud cover, as well as wind speed, temperature, humidity and more.
http://www.cleardarksky.com – Want to know if it’s going to be clear tonight? Maintained by Atilla Danko in Canada, Clear Sky Charts predict cloud cover, atmospheric transparency and turbulence (called “seeing”) for thousands of locations across North America.
https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/G ... sector=umv - The NOAA is the source of the satellite images for North America. This site shows you 24 hour loops of the Midwest weather from the GOES East satellite, in both a color overview, and in many specific bands.
http://www.astronomyboy.com/eq/ - Astronomy Boy. If you are new to using an equatorial mount and are stuck wondering, "Why does this thing move at all these weird angles, and how should I be setting it up and how should I be using it correctly?", Jeff DeTray provides a good animated tutorial on how Equatorial (EQ) mounts move, and how to point it in the various directions. Hover over the picture to activate the animation. Elsewhere in his site he provides maintenance instructions for CG-5 and LX 70 EQ mounts and other advice, much of which can be applied to other mounts as well.
Hooked on stargazing and want to buy a telescope? Please do not go to a discount or department store! Also be very wary of eBay and Amazon and even large photo sites like B&H Photo unless (or until) you have the experience to separate the wheat from the chaff. The best bet is to visit these sites for retailers who specialize in quality telescopes – including ones at economical prices.
Long term MAS members and astronomy enthusiasts are aware that on September 11, 2018 Dan Fish announced his retirement and and the closing of his Radio City amateur radio and telescope store at the end of 2018. We wish Dan and Maline the best in their retirement. Unfortunately for the rest of us that means there are no longer any dedicated telescope stores in the area. Aside from items like spotting scopes at Cabela's or other small scopes at various stores and used items on the MAS' own equipment forum and Craig's List and Facebook Marketplace, we are now dependent on Internet retailers.
http://www.telescope.com – Orion Telescope and Binocular – An Internet telescope and binocular retailer known for good starter, intermediate and advanced level telescopes and excellent customer service.
https://starizona.com - Starizona, predictably based in Arizona, is a great retailer, concentrating on astro photography, but you can also shop there if you are a visual observer. They have great customer service and can provide advice on a wide range of astronomy topics. Oh, by the way, they are also the manufacturers of the highly-praised Hyperstar optical adapter allowing SCT's to image around an f/2 to f2.5 focal ratio.
http://www.highpointscientific.com - High Point Scientific has a great selection and excellent customer service. Incidentally, the MAS Board usually goes first to High Point Scientific for our own purchases.
http://www.buytelescopes.com – Anacortes Telescope and Wild Bird – An excellent national telescope retailer.
http://www.agenaastro.com - Agena Astro has taken over OPT's (Oceanside Photo and Telescope) business when OPT went bankrupt. Agena Astro has a good range of equipment to choose from.
http://www.astronomics.com – Astronomics – One of the best known telescope retailers on the Internet.
http://www.obsessiontelescopes.com/ - Obsession Telescopes are among the best large truss tube Dobsonians. From 12.5 to 20 inch, Classic or Ultra Compact styles, these are telescopes for the truly obsessed observer. The MAS has a 20" Obsession at Eagle Lake Observatory and both 25" and 30" Obsessions at LLCC. Are we obsessed?
https://www.astrogoods.com - AstroGoods is a maker of wooden Dobsonian bases for retrofitting commercial Dob scopes whose particleboard bases have seen better days. They also sell other amateur telescope making (and repair or retrofitting) material and supplies.
http://www.webstertelescopes.com/ - As if Obsessions and Starmasters aren't big enough, Webster Telescopes has truss Dobs up to 32 inches! They also sell many of the semi-custom parts needed to make your own large truss style Dobsonian telescope.
http://www.loptics.com/starmaster/index.htm - Rick Singmaster passed away in April of 2020. But before he retired, he manufactured wonderful large truss tube Dobsonian telescopes. His web site still exists in order to archive information about Starmaster telescopes. For an example of his scopes, you can check out the "BAD" ("Big Aperture Dobsonian") at our Cherry Grove Observatory, which is a 24 inch Starmaster. It was the MAS' very first large scale truss Dob.
http://www.astromart.com – Telescope and accessories classified ads. Considered to be the best place to look for reputable used telescope and accessory sales. The site is associated with Anacortes Telescope and Wild Bird.
A few of the myriad of telescope manufacturer web sites:
http://www.televue.com/ - Televue scopes and eyepieces set the standard. Don't ever look through a Nagler, Panoptic, Ethos or Delos eyepiece unless you want to get spoiled against all the others!
https://www.astronomics.com/b/astro-tech.html - Astronomy Technologies (Astro-Tech) is owned by Astronomics, and manufactures some very nice refractors and also a range of accessories.
http://www.stellarvue.com/ - Stellarvue makes some very nice apochromatic refractors
http://www.takahashiamerica.com/ - Takahashi telescopes. Beautiful refractors and mounts
http://www.bisque.com/sc/ - Software Bisque. Home of TheSky planetarium and scope control program and of Paramount robotic mounts. To see some examples of their impressive mounts, visit our Eagle Lake Observatory and look at our Visual and Imaging rigs.
http://www.meade.com/ - Meade Instruments. One of the most well known manufacturers of amateur telescopes
http://www.celestron.com/ - Celestron. Another of the most well known manufacturers of amateur telescopes
Additional equipment information. Equipment reviews, parts and accessories, and amateur telescope making. Modifying and accessorizing telescopes can become a major part of the hobby for the “equipment obsessed”.
http://www.cloudynights.com – Cloudy Nights is “the” telescope review site. Cloudy Nights also has very good observing information and forums for discussion of stargazing activities and equipment.
Parts and accessories - sometimes you just have to have some parts!
http://astronomy-mall.com – Hmm... This site used to be a good starting point to finding additional amateur astronomy retailers. When I checked on it in May 2022 it appears that it is just a directory listing that leads to a couple other sites, including one that sells equatorial platforms for Dobs. I'll leave this here as a marker until I see what is up with this site.
http://www.scopestuff.com – Need a part, widget or upgrade for your telescope? You’ll usually find it here. The site itself is very spartan (well, ok, "ugly") but his selection of widgets and his customer service is very good!
https://farpointastro.com/ – Farpoint Astronomy has a range of astronomy products, having acquired the inventory from JMI when they ceased business, in addition to Lumicon filters, Lunt telescopes and more.
http://www.astrosystems.biz – Astrosystems sells accessories, parts, kits and completed Truss Dobsonian scopes.
http://www.fpi-protostar.com - Protostar sells very good spiders and secondary mirrors, telescope tubes and flocking. Please note that there has been some discussion on the Cloudy Nights forums that Protostar may be slow to respond to inquiries and slow to deliver on some orders.
http://www.focuser.com - Moonlite aluminum color anodized Crayford focusers and more for refractors, SCTs and Newtonians.
If you are into ATM'ing, or you are trying to repair or upgrade an older telescope and keep the cost down, these two sites may be useful.
http://www.1800destiny.com/ - 1-800-Destiny.com features curved Newtonian spiders (and straight ones too), secondary mirrors, focusers and more.
http://www.amsky.com/yellowpages - Exactly what its name implies – a Yellow Pages of astronomical suppliers.
Additional astronomical information, observing lists and resources.
https://oneminuteastronomer.com/ - Long on interest in astronomy but short on cash? The One Minute Astronomer is for you. This site has 25 tips and resources that are almost entirely free to help you enjoy astronomy on a tight budget.
https://www.cnmoc.usff.navy.mil/usno/ – US Naval Observatory site. Want to know the moon phase, sunrise and sunset times, twilight times? This is the source.
http://www.midnightkite.com/software.html - A listing of astronomy software, all available on the web. The message at the bottom of the web page states that there are 270 links to other sites!
http://www.astro-tom.com/messier/messie ... r_maps.htm - Astro Tom - Good, straightforward printable finder maps for all the Messier objects.
https://www.saguaroastro.org/observing- ... -programs/ - The Saguaro Astronomy Club in Phoenix has several extensive lists of objects to observe, ranging from bright objects to the faintest. After all, they have clear dark skies in the desert!
http://www.dibonsmith.com/stars.htm - The Constellations - A great compilation of both astronomical data and mythological information on each of the constellations, as well as a map of each constellation. The author also includes a Binocular and Naked Eye guide to the constellations. The author used to sell The Constellations Pocket Guide and the Binocular and Naked Eye guide books, which now have been discontinued. But all the info that was in the books is available for you on the web site.
http://sciastro.astronomy.net/sci.astro.html - Sci.astro is a newsgroup devoted to the discussion of all aspects of astronomy. As such its content ranges from the Earth to the farthest reaches of the Universe.
http://stardate.org/ - StarDate is the public education and outreach arm of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. They have a popular bimonthly astronomy magazine which is a great skywatching companion for amateur astronomers or anyone interested in celestial events and space exploration. They also offer astronomy resources to teachers, the media, and the public.
http://astronomy-mall.com/Adventures.In ... index.html - "Adventures in Deep Space" - Observing projects for amateur astronomers.
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/ - List of Stars, the Constellations, Messier objects and more, with lots of detail.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/LM - Lunar charts for detail investigation of the Moon.
http://www.astronautix.com/ - A wide range of miscellaneous articles on astronomy and space travel, both current and historical.
http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/contents.htm - Ian Ridpath's Star tales - Myths and legends of the Constellations. Not listed here, but you may also want to check out our own Dave Falkner's books, "The Mythology of the Night Sky" and "Stories of Astronomers and Their Stars", both available on Amazon.
http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/st ... rwheel.pdf - If you want to make your own planisphere, here is a link to Uncle Al's Star Wheel planisphere.
If you don't like Uncle Al's Star wheel, here are several others that are available.
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/seeds/strchrt.htm - Home made planisphere from the State of New Jersey
http://in-the-sky.org/planisphere/ - Another home made planisphere. These are customizable for your latitude, in 5 degree increments all the way from 85 degrees South latitude to 85 degrees north latitude!
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1052 – Mag 7 Star Atlas. Excellent set of star charts for free. There are both black & white and color versions available, but use the black ones - some legends are printed in red in the color version, and red print disappears under your red light used while observing. You can print them on an inkjet printer, but for best resolution try to find a laser printer. The only thing bad about the Mag 7 Star Atlas is it doesn't include an index. But good news, I have one attached here!
Mag 7 Star Atlas Index.zip
I have attached an Excel spreadsheet containing several lists combined into one: The Caldwell list, the Messier list and the RASC "Finest NGC" list. It has tabs with the list sorted by various parameters: by constellation, by magnitude, by RA, etc. It also has a list of the constellations in the first tab. You can use this as a resource to create and track your own observing projects if you'd like.
All_Finest_Objects_Messier_Caldwell_RASC-Finest-NGC_Constellastions_Various_Sort.xlsx
Astro-Tom is the source for these 15 printable Messier Finder Charts with the link appearing elsewhere in this post, but here is a single zipped file containing them. This is a set of 15 Messier finder maps plus an index. All are .pdf documents and individually printable.
messiercharts.zip
https://allans-stuff.com/triatlas/ - The TriAtlas Project - If you want to go beyond the Mag 7 Star Atlas at Cloudy Nights, check out these three sets of star atlases available ranging from 9th to 11th magnitude, all the way to 13th magnitude. Be aware if you begin printing them out, there are a lot of pages! But the great news is, they are all free to download and print yourself. It appears it is also available on this site:
https://www.uv.es/jrtorres/
In a post in the Observing forum in May 2015, Kenneth Kerrick (Forum ID Krontab) said: I was digging for charts online the other day and came across this gem from The Custer Institute and Observatory:
Map and Constellation Key to Messier Objects for TELRAD Finders
http://www.custerobservatory.org/docs/messier2.pdf
And another piece of good news, this set of Messier finder charts includes an index!
http://tucsonastronomy.org/about-taaa/b ... rvinglogs/ - The Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association has created a number of observing log form templates. Check them out for logging your observations. You can also web search for "astronomy log templates" and find a few other resources you may like.
Magazines and magazine web sites. There are many magazines devoted to astronomy, physics and space. Below are a number of the most well known magazine sites, all of which provide additional information online.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com – Sky and Telescope. As a MAS member, you’re entitled to a $11 discount from their normal annual subscription price. Instructions for subscribing (or renewing) are available on the MAS web site, and the links are provided in your welcome letter or renewal acknowledgement letter. If you have any questions, you can send a PM to me and I will help direct you.
http://www.astronomy.com – Astronomy magazine. As a MAS member, you’re also entitled to an approximately $10 annual discount on your subscription. As with S&T, the instructions are on the MAS web site, and links are provided when you join or renew your membership.
http://www.astronomytechnologytoday.com – Astronomy Technology Today – An electronic publication which contains reviews and information regarding all forms of astronomy equipment for those interested in the hardware of our hobby.
http://www.amateurastronomy.com – Amateur Astronomy – A magazine published for amateur astronomers quarterly. On their web page they state:
"What is Amateur Astronomy Magazine About? We are a printed forum of the activities relating to Amateur Astronomers around the world. Our magazine is written by amateur astronomers, for amateur astronomers. Over the course of the past 28 years, we have covered telescopes, large and small, amateur telescope making (ATM), mirror grinding, collimation tips, observing techniques, astronomical equipment reviews, home observatories, professional observatories, observing lists, profiles of amateur astronomers, star parties, dark sites, imaging tips and techniques, observing logs, astronomical travel logs, astronomy businesses and their owners, DIY astronomical projects, cosmology, science and astronomy outreach. In short, we are about all the things and people that make this hobby special."
... and of course, the most important web link of all:
http://www.mnastro.org - the web site for our very own Minnesota Astronomical Society (as if you needed that link
)