Resources for the Astronomy 110 Laboratory course.
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:
| Oahu South Shore Forecast | Current conditions and 7 day forecast |
| 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 | Composite radar image shows ongoing showers |
| Satellite Image Browser | Full-disk images and animations for the big picture |
| IfA Weather Links | Other weather-related resources |
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. |
| Heavens Above www.heavens-above.com |
Astronomy website with satellite predictions and other resources; this link is keyed to Honolulu. Useful if you want to watch the International Space Station or view Iridium flares. |
| 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. |
| 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 |
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. |
| 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. This software is only available for Windows systems, but it's so much fun that I keep a copy of Windows on my laptop so I can use it. Developed by Patrick Chevalley and Christian Legrand. |
| Cartes du Ciel
(Sky Charts) [www.stargazing.net/astropc/] |
Free software package useful in creating charts of the sky. Very high quality graphixs. Currently only for Windows, but a Linux version is in the works. Developed by Patrick Chevalley. |
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. |
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. |
Last modified: February 24, 2006
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/astrolab/index.html
