Astronomy, galaxies, stars, space, universe, cosmology, outer space
ASTRONOMY IN GENERAL
Scobee Education Center The Challenger Learning Center and Planetarium was rebuilt in 2014-2015. The Planetarium offers many popular programs, for small fees. Teachers are offered workshops for mssion contents and classroom activities.
NASA Official web site of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Features News, Missions, Multimedia, Image of the Day, and lots of information about NASA.
McDonald Observatory The University of Texas at Austin is responsible for this Observatory. A team of their astronomers discovered an ancient solar system with five earth-sized planets in 2015. They also publish StarDate, a radio program that runs daily on almost 300 sections and a StarDate magazine.
Royal Observatory From the site: The Royal Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian line, is one of the most important historic scientific sites in the world. It was founded by Charles II in 1675 and is, by international decree, the official starting point for each new day, year and millennium (at the stroke of midnight GMT as measured from the Prime Meridian). The Observatory is now part of the National Maritime Museum and is one of the most famous features of Maritime Greenwich – since 1997 a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visitors to the Observatory can stand in both the eastern and western hemispheres simultaneously by placing their feet either side of the Prime Meridian – the centre of world time and space.
Sky-Map.org An awesome map, which you can browse in normal mode (which shows you constellations) or in SDSS mode (Sloan Digital Sky Survey), plus articles, photos, forums, blogs, and FAQ.
Sky & Telescope The web site is based on the magazine, which was founded in 1941. It has the largest, most experienced staff of any astronomy magazine in the world. Essential for the earnest astronomer.
Beginnings of Astronomy The first observatories were created to address the problem of when to plant crops--a problem because none of the relations between months and the years were exact.
The Constellations Each constellation lists the myth behind the name, the star makeup of the constellation, and a map in the Binocular Menu.
History of the Calendar "The sky is the most mysterious part of our everyday experience....Two great objects travel through it, one hot and constant, the other cold and changeable. In the daytime it is moody; there may be blazing sun, or racing clouds, or darkness followed by thunder and lightning. And yet on a clear night the sky is the very opposite - predictable, if you look hard enough, with recognizable groups of stars moving in a slow but reliable manner....The only simple yet accurate way of measuring a year is in relation to the stars." In case you were wondering why calendar history is included in this Astronomy LibGuide!
HubbleSite Includes a Gallery, videos, archives, and information on the James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble's future successor.
International Space Station Facts from this site: The International Space Station marked its 10th anniversary of continuous human occupation on Nov. 2, 2010. Since Expedition 1, which launched Oct. 31, 2000, and docked Nov. 2, the space station has been visited by 215 individuals.
At the time of the anniversary, the station’s odometer read more than 1.5 billion statute miles (the equivalent of eight round trips to the Sun), over the course of 57,361 orbits around the Earth. The International Space Station is not only an orbiting laboratory, but also a space port for a variety of international spacecraft. As of November 2014, there have been:
•100 Russian launches
•37 Space Shuttle launches
•1 test flight and 3 operational flights by SpaceX’s Dragon
•1 test flight and 2 operational flight by Orbital Science’s Cygnus
•4 Japanese HTVs
•5 European ATVs
A total of 184 spacewalks have been conducted in support of space station assembly totaling over 1,152 hours, or approximately 48 days.
Pictures in the Sky: Constellations Gives you constellations by month, as well as an alphabetic constellation listing. Each constellation includes Pronunciation, Abbreviation, Genitive, Right Ascension, Declination, Area in Square Degrees, and the date it crosses meridian. Nah, I don't know what any of that means.
San Antonio College Library, 1819 Main Ave., San Antonio, TX 78212 Located in the Moody Learning Center (MLC) building, floors 2 - 5 Reference Desk: (210) 486-0554 * Send Email Library interior & exterior photos by: Leonard Ziegler, SAC photographer