Astronomy 110 Laboratory

Resources for the Astronomy 110 Laboratory course.

COURSE WEB PAGES

Each version of this course has a home page:

LASER POINTERS

Honolulu ordinances allow laser pointers to be used by people 18 or older. Do not point a laser at a person, building, or vehicle, and please use common sense at all times!

WEATHER

The weather in Hawaii is often hard to predict; conditions earlier in the day are not always a good guide. The links below are helpful in planning observing sessions:

Kapiolani Park Forecast	Current conditions and 7 day prediction
Synoptic Discussion	General discussion of unfolding weather patterns
Satellite Interpretation	Discussion of satellite images, emphasizing cloud cover
Oahu to N. Hawaii	Close-up visible-light animation
Main Hawaiian Islands	Wide-field IR-light animation
Weather Service Radar	Radar images show ongoing showers
Satellite Image Browser	Full-disk images and animations for the big picture
IfA Weather Links	Other weather-related resources

WEBSITES

These external websites are useful resources for current and upcoming astronomical events.

Your Sky from Honolulu [www.fourmilab.to/yoursky]
An interactive planetarium, set up to show the sky now above Honolulu. You can chose other dates and times, select other viewing sites, and zoom in on selected areas. Created by John Walker.
Solar System Simulator [space.jpl.nasa.gov]
NASA web page which generates accurate, high-quality images of planets and satellites as seen from elsewhere in the Solar System.
Heavens Above [www.heavens-above.com]
Astronomy website for satellite predictions and other resources — useful if you want to see the International Space Station [ISS]. This link is keyed to Honolulu.
Sky and Telescope [SkyandTelescope.com]
The gold standard for astronomy magazines, read by amateur stargazers and professionals alike. On-line pages have many useful links and features.
Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers [www.lpl.arizona.edu/alpo]
A resource for observers of planets. Slightly frustrating if your link and computer are not the fastest.
International Occultation Timing Association [www.lunar-occultations.com/iota]
Provides information on upcoming occultations by the Moon, planets, and asteroids.
American Association of Variable Star Observers [www.aavso.org]
Resources for variable stars observers. Has information on specific stars, including recent observations.

REPORTS

These pages describe results of some observing activities in earlier Astronomy 110L classes.

An Eclipse in the Trapezium	On the night of February 26th, 2003, one of the stars in the Trapezium cluster had an eclipse. I observed this event and took some images.
Summary: Shape of Lunar Orbit	In March and April 2003 we measured the Moon's apparent diameter and used the results to study the shape of the Moon's orbit.
Report: Shape of the Moon's Orbit	In October and November 2003 we measured the Moon's apparent diameter and used the results to study the shape of the Moon's orbit.
Viewing Stellar Spectra	Examples of stars with spectral features easily seen using the Rainbow Optics stellar spectrascope.

SOFTWARE & DATA

Code for generating still images and animations which may be useful in Astronomy 110L. Software packages run under unix or linux.

One Year Animation (code)	Makefiles to generate animation showing change in sky over course of one year.
Finding Charts (data)	Finding charts for deep sky objects. Printed at 100dpi, these charts have a scale of 1° = 2cm.
Finding Charts (code)	Makefile used to generate finding charts. Easily extended to produce charts of other objects.
Moon Animation (data)	Animations showing appearance of the Moon over one semester.
Moon Animation (code)	Makefile used to produce above animation.

OTHER SOFTWARE

Stellarium [www.stellarium.org]
Free software to simulate the appearance of the sky. Very powerful yet easy to use. Available for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux.
Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts) [www.stargazing.net/astropc/]
Free software package useful in creating charts of the sky. Very high quality graphics. Primarily for Windows, but Mac/Linux versions are available. Developed by Patrick Chevalley.
Virtual Moon Atlas [www.astrosurf.com/avl/UK_index.html]
Free software which simulates the appearance of the Moon at any time. You can zoom in, scan across the surface for interesting formations, and click on specific features to display names and other information. Only available for Windows. Developed by Patrick Chevalley and Christian Legrand.

Joshua E. Barnes (barnes at ifa.hawaii.edu)

Updated: 21 September 2008
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/astrolab/index.html