Astronomy
Astronomy
One nice thing about working at night is the fact that I can pursue
my hobby when not on a call, however, it's not real often that we are NOT
on call. It's hard to find a dark place, but my trusty binoculars go to work
with me every shift. I also have a 10" LX-200 SCT
which I do my off
work observing with. I enjoy observing the planets more than I enjoy deep
sky objects. The great thing about astronomy is that you don't need any equipment
at all to enjoy it. All you really need is a pair of working eyes and a spot
away from direct light.
I have found that most people have an interest in astronomy. You don't have to be a math wiz to look in the sky and enjoy the things that you can see. It is sometimes hard to make a difficult concept easy to understand. I have always tried to explain things using everyday objects. If you're interested in Astronomy at all, check out some of these links, and if you have ANY questions send me some E-mail at matthew@tampabay.rr.com and I'll be happy to answer them for you.
Click on the planet name below for a planetary camping trip. If you don't look at anything else on this entire page, look at the picture of the earth!
Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto
Galaxies Nebula Comets (coming soon) Asteroids (coming soon) Black Holes (coming soon)
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The Nine Planets Anything you want to know about our solar system can be found here!
Hubble Space Telescope The greatest telescope in history, and you can access it here.
Galileo Probe Home Page See what Galileo is doing today as it studies Jupiter.
Satellite Ephemeris See what satellites are going to pass overhead tonight, then go watch them!
Etakguide You need to know your location in latitude & longitude for some things, you can find them here.
Mars Exploration Program Complete archives of Pathfiner images, MGS stuff, and information on the 1998 missions to the red planet.
Astronomy Picture of the Day The name says it all.
Skywatcher's Diary Check here to see what's happening in the sky this month.
The Astronomy Calculator A really great tool, want to know what phase the moon will be in on any given day? When the next meteor shower is? Where the planets are? Then go here!
Comets and Meteor Showers Full of info on all showers and comets.
Shuttle Page Wondering when the next launch is? Find it here.
Mars Meteorites Did Mars once harbor life?
The Constellations Comprehensive list of all constellations, very informative.
The Dionysus Occultation Page We know the asteroid Ida has a moon, Dionysus may also.
The Space Calendar Anything happening during 1998? You can find it here.
Lunar Prospector This probe has found water-ice on the moon. You can watch some great movies on the apollo program here in the archive section.
Iridium Flares These satellites can get REALLY bright, see if one goes over your house tonight.
Nasa TV If you don't get it where you live, you can watch it here.
The International Astronomical Union When you find a new comet, report it here.
Cassini Cassini is on its way to Saturn.
Bradford Robotic Telescope Don't have a scope? Use Theirs!
NASA Homepage for NASA
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