Reliable websites for Astronomical News and Information

The Sky at Night

• Your Sky !!! where you can get a star map personalized for where you are.
• Radio program and informative web site: Stardate
• StarTrak : news and monthly viewing tips for the night's sky

Planetarium/sky simulation software for your computer

• Star Finder - a program for beginners, free
• Starry Night - not free, but the basics for $25
• Voyager - a program originally only for Macs, one we use in our astronomy lab course.
• Stellarium - free open-source software, very high quality, used for our planetarium
  

Astronomy news sites and sources of specific information

• ESO On-Line Information System
• NASA Information Services and NASA news site
• Space Telescope Science Institute for Hubble images and news items.
• Time Service Department (formerly The Directorate of Time) of the U.S. Naval Observatory, has a real-time UTC clock. It also gives updates on important things like the introduction of leap-seconds. The US Naval Observatory is also where you can find reliable detailed information about the sky including upcoming eclipses, Moon phases, etc.
• The Ames Area Amateur Astronomers: A web site with resources and a regular program of meetings and star parties.

Astronomy-Related Organizations

• The American Astronomical Society
• International Astronomical Union
• The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, an organization emphasizing education in astronomy included resources for teachers.
• Space Telescope Science Institute for Hubble images and news items.
• Time Service Department (formerly The Directorate of Time) of the U.S. Naval Observatory, has a real-time UTC clock. It also gives updates on important things like the introduction of leap-seconds. The US Naval Observatory is also where you can find reliable detailed information about the sky including upcoming eclipses, Moon phases, etc.
• The Ames Area Amateur Astronomers: A web site with resources and a regular program of meetings and star parties.
  

Popular Journals and Magazine

• Scientific American
• Sky and Telescope magazine
• Astronomy Magazine
  

Telescopes and Observatories

• The World's Largest Optical Telescopes
• Mount Wilson Observatory's website has more than just resources for observers. Their site includes history, outreach, services, and lots more.
• National Optical Astronomy Observatories includes Kitt Peak in Arizona, Cerro Tololo in Chile.
• National Solar Observatory
• Gemini Observatory - twin telescopes in Hawaii and Chile
• National Radio Astronomy Observatory
• A Ground-based Solar and Astrophysical Observatory Guide is maintained by Gordon Johnston of NASA's Office of Space Access and Technology.
• Gordon Johnston's Instrument and Sensing Technology Space Mission Acronym List and Hyperlink Guide

• The Science Center of Iowa in Des Moines
• The Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul
• Chicago's Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum
• The American Museum of Natural History in New York

Additional Resources

• Nine Planets, a site focusing on solar system science
• The Cambridge University Press online Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics.
• SkyView Image Retrieval Facility, "The Internet's Virtual Telescope"
  
• Public Television's NOVA program
• Cosmos in a Computer
• NASA's Asteroid and Comet Impact Hazards page about a scary possibility and what may be done about it.
• Messier Objects, all 103 (+7) of them. (Messier objects are things that appear fuzzy in a small telescope and that might, therefore, confuse an observer who is looking to discover a comet.)
• Astronomy Notes from a course, including some material (in "Astronomy without a telescope") that overlaps material in Astro 102.