This is an extensive list on the various texts and websites for learning about Astronomy.
There
are thousands of books throughout the history of Astronomy that have been
published on the subject. These subjects range from basic celestial events like
learning about the various constellations that can be seen in the night sky to
topics as complex as Geometric physics. In following descriptions below is an
array of various texts that cover a wide range of subjects along with a variety
of websites that can be found or looked for via the various search finders you
would prefer.
Note to the browser: In this age of the internet it is more likely for you and many other
people to learn more about Astronomy then simply going to the public library or
to a bookstore to read in – depth about the subject. However, I would recommend
to all who are interested in Astronomy and wish to go further into the subject
should visit at least your local library and learn more about Astronomy. A
combination of browsing the interest to obtain live multimedia approaches to
understanding Astronomy and reading an array of books is the best approach.
Websites: Various Subjects in relation to Astronomy.
Topics of good interest – Astronomers
Cosmology
Astrophysics
Astrophotography
Deep Sky Observations
Radio Astronomy
Light Pollution
Auroras
Extra – Solar Planets
X – ray Astronomy
Texts and
Magazines: Various Subjects in
relation to Astronomy
Astronomers: To get an understanding of
how Astronomy developed one should learn about the individuals behind the
development of Astronomy, especially within the last several hundred years.
Some
simple terminology-
Astronomers:
A person
who studies the stars by observations and the recording of celestial objects
and events in the night sky. These individuals use an instrument called a
telescope to observe celestial objects up close and apply other instruments
such as spectrographs, light filters, CCDs, etc. to study these images.
Astrophysics:
A branch of
Astronomy that applies all the various aspects of the Electromagnetic spectrum
beyond visible light to study the physics of celestial objects in space and
investigate the properties of these objects.
Cosmology:
The study
of large - scale structures within the Universe and how they form and develop
over time. Also the application and use of the mechanics of time to see how the
Cosmos (Universe) was created, how it will progress and die as well as the
possibilities of other Universes and the nature of superstrings and the cosmic
vacuum.
Auroras: Patterns of colored light
that are a form of visible light due to friction occurring between ionic
material coming from the Sun and chemicals of the upper atmosphere that
produces energy due to friction between such species.
Astrophotography:
The application of photography in astronomy
to obtain still images of celestial objects and celestial structures within the
Universe.
CCD’s: Charged Coupled Devices,
which are used for better exposure of space images with a shorter time of
exposure that what is required from standard photographic film.
Deep
Sky: A term
referring to objects that are far from Earth (galaxies, globular clusters,
nebulas, etc) that require telescopes ranging from medium size telescopes to
large size telescopes in see these objects.
Comets: Objects composed of dirty ice-like crystal
substances combined with dust that orbit the Sun and appear as streaks of light
that span across the night sky.
Asteriods:
Objects composed of metallic or semi-metallic
substances that orbit around the Sun and reflect very little light to be seen
from Earth. Usually these images require large size telescopes or time-lapse
photography to see such objects.
The
Solar System: An
arrangement of nine planets, some 60+ moons, a large number and variety of
comets and asteroids that move in elliptical orbits around a whitish, main
–sequence star called the Sun.
Night
Sky: The
appearance of the sky without the presence of the Sun in which the stars, our
Moon, and all of the planets with the exception of the Earth, along with an
variety of other objects are visible without the interference of light from the
Sun.
Celestial:
A term that
is used for objects that are seen from Earth and are located in Space. For
instance the Moon can be referred to as a celestial object because it is
located outside of the Earth’s atmosphere and is located in Space.
Extra
– Solar Planets: Planets that orbit around stars other than our own Sun or worlds that
do not exist within our own Solar System.
Interferometry:
A technique in observational Astronomy in
which a large number of scopes of a small diameter are assembled together along
radial (straight) paths across a vast distance for the purpose of functioning
like a scope of a much larger size. This allows Astronomers to gather much more
light and combine the data and/or images that is equivalent to a scope with a
diameter equivalent to length that the smaller scopes are laid out from end to
end.
Websites of some famous
Astronomers:
Carl Sagan (1934 – 1996):
Carl Sagan is one of the most famous astronomers of
the later half of the 20th century who is famous for many of his
books. His carrier has involved in a
series of various projects such as the Voyager program which was based on the
launch of two spacecraft each named Voyager that explored the planets of the
outer solar system. His involvement of the program was related to the creation
of a laser disc that was titled Sounds of the Earth that includes a
greeting on behalf of the people of the planet Earth. Such a greeting has been
recorded on the disc from a large array of the various types of languages
spoken by the majority of the world’s population. On the disc contains a large
catalogue of the various types of sounds that are common here on Earth as well
as different types of music played and listened to here on Earth. His works
have included many famous books such as the Cosmos, Comets, First Contact, and
well as various other works. He was a strong supporter of the development of a
Space – faring civilization up to his death in 1996 and was a co – founder of
the Planetary Society.
1)
www.sciam.com/explorations/010697Sagan/010697explorations.html
2)
home.pacific.net.hk/~paulichui/Sagan.html
3)
www.users.qwest.com/~subodeon/Sagan/Sagan.html
Johannes Kepler (1571 –
1630):
Johannes Kepler is famous for his work on the understanding of the
motions of the planets and developed his three laws of planetary motion based
on the detailed records of observations done by another astronomer, Tycho
Brahe. This work on the development of laws for planetary motion has been a
contributor to better understanding of the mathematics of ellipses. He was the
first to show that the planets by his analysis of Brahe’s observations that the
planets move in elliptical orbits around the Sun. To learn more about Kepler
and his work visit the following websites listed below.
Recommendations:
Visit the first
website listed below since it contains the following information -
Knowledge
about the 3 laws of planetary motion he developed.
This
website contains the programming code of each simulation that one can download
and tinker around with.
1)
Observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/education/reference/orbits/orbit_sim.html
2)
Www.physics.grnu.edu/classinfo/astro103/CourseNotes/mtn_kelp.htm
A
class called Astronomy 103 that has terminology referring to Kepler’s laws of
planetary motion.
It
has information on Ellipses and Kepler’s laws of planetary motion in greater
detail.
It
contains examples of Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.
3)
Zebu.uoregon.edu/textbook/planets.html
Edwin Hubble (1889 – 1953):
Edwin Hubble was a great astronomer
who lived in the early half of the 20th century and made his life
devoted to understanding the nature of the Cosmos outside of our own
galaxy. He exploited the use of the
redshift to determine the there were other galaxies other than our own and he
was the first to release that the Universe was expanding in every direction.
Determining the rate at which the Universe was expanding came to be known as
the Hubble Constant, which was named in his honor. The world’s first optical
space telescope built as a joint project by both NASA and the European Space
Agency was named after him. To learn more about him and his work visit the
following websites listed below.
It
has the history of the carrier of Edwin Hubble and a small amount of good
information on the Hubble constant and the concept of the redshift.
The next website contains a vast amount of information on the history of Edwin Hubble’s life with additional references on other sources about Hubble.
1)
Physics.hallym.ac.kr/education/stellar/hst/hubble/Edwin.html
2)
Antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/1996/sandage_hubble.html
Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601):
Brahe is known for his vast array of
celestial recordings from his observatory during the 16th century.
It was his records that allowed one of his associates, Johannes Kepler to
create the laws of planetary motion, which is the foundation of celestial
mechanics of our solar system. Born of an aristocratic, Danish family that was
of great wealth, Tycho used such funds to develop and built his own observatory
with the latest in observing technology that was available in his time. Since
knowledge of the telescope was unknown in his time all of his observations were
done by the naked eye in an era in which there was virtually no air pollution
and very – little light pollution. His observatory was built on an island in
Switzerland along with his home, which was financed by his home country.
The
first website contains a history on the life of this Danish astronomer and well as his fascination with Ptolemy and
his work in alchemy.
This
website also has some historical illustrations of his observatory.
1)
Www.phys.Virginia.edu/classes/109N/1995/lectures/tychob.html
2)
Es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/brahe.html
Note: To learn
more about the life and work of Tycho Brahe visit the previous website which
also contains many of his achievements, (most of this link is pure text).
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 –
1543):
This famous Polish astronomer was one of the first to develop the
heliocentric model of the Solar System in which all of the planets revolved
around the Sun where as previously it was normal to believe in Ptolemy’s model.
Ptolemy’s model was course based on the assumption that all of the planets
including the Sun revolved around the Earth. His work dealt with the nature of
epicycles, which explained the movement of the planets in the night sky during
certain period of the year. These epicycles according to Copernicus where
little orbits inside the orbits of the planets and showed that planets moved in
connected loops as they revolved around the Sun. A theory that would later be
disproved and re-examined by Kepler in his work on Elliptical orbits and how
they applied to the planets of our Solar System. Copernicus died without ever
publishing his work for fear of the power of the Catholic Church in Europe
prior to the Protestant reformation and without realizing what a stir it would
cause many decades later.
There are many
websites on Copernicus that can be linked to using Yahoo for a good search on
the web, but here is one website that does a good job on explaining the works
of this astronomer.
It contains a
detailed history of the Copernican system for which he developed and some of
his illustrations of his model with additional links.
1)
Es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/Copernican_system.html
Galileo Galilei (1564 –
1642):
This astronomer of Italian birth is one of the most famous of his time and celebrated for his revolutionary approach to astronomy. He was the first to use the telescope for looking into the night sky and seeing things that were invisible to the naked eye. He was the first discover moons other than our Earth’s own Moon and identified four moons orbiting the planet Jupiter. His observations of these Moons at least four in all where named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. These were designated as the Galilean moons in honor of Galileo who was the first to discover these objects, but most of all he destroyed the myth that all things revolved around the Sun including our own Moon. Galileo showed that Jupiter moons based on there changing positions from night to night where revolving around the planet rather than the Sun. He also did the first work on astronomical observations of the Sun and discovered Sunspots as well as disproved the ideal that the Moon was a perfect body. His observations of the Moon, lead to the discovery of mountains, craters, changes in surface color and contour, which would later be proven by later astronomers using telescopes of higher power.
If you only want
to know a lot about one these astronomers I strongly recommend the following
website on Galileo which is a wonderful, see for yourself website.
The next website contains a lot of information of Galileo’s experiments with pendulums with five attachments that contain detailed information on a particular experiment involving pendulums.
1)es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo
2)es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Student_work/Experiment95/galileo_pendulum.html
Edmond Halley(1656 – 1742):
Edmond Halley devoted his life to
understand the nature of comets and invested enormous amount of time on the
past records of comets that were sighted and documented and became the first to
predict the return of such bodies. One such comet would return to be seen from
the Earth with the naked eye every 76 years and would be named in his honor.
This comet known as Halley’s comet returned in 1910 in the same year that the
famous author Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) would die in and again in
1986. This comet was been studied in more detail then any other comet in the 20th
century and was visited by six spacecraft from 1985 to 1986. These included two
from Japan, two from the former Soviet Union, and one from Europe, which was
named Giotto. Giotto was the first spacecraft to make a close flyby of the
nucleus of a comet and made several photographs of the surface of the nucleus.
This flyby would later verify to some degree that cometary bodies are in fact
balls of dry ice that contain a surface layer of metallic and semi-metallic
material.
1)es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/halley.html
Some of these
links may not accessible from here, so you can use Yahoo or Google to find many
of the links that are posted above. There also many other famous astronomer
that if you want to should learn about that are not posted here and can found
through the use of Yahoo or Google.
Cosmology is the subject that if one
wishes to should study at its simplest level before going into depth in which a
substantial portion of the subject is deeply covered by Mathematics. There are
many components to the subject of Cosmology that expand on the actual to the
theoretical. The issues are in a range from determining the age and fate of
galaxies and the overall Universe to the nature of cosmic string and
superstrings in their simplest state. The most important aspect of Cosmology is
Einstein’s theories of Relativity; one is General and the other Special. Albert
Einstein’s theories of Relativity were drawn up in 1905 and 1912 which deal
with the physics of the Universe and the nature of the behavior of mass, energy,
gravity, light, and space, etc. The various forces and effects with the results
from such interactions become the mechanisms for the how the Universe functions
and behaves at the Macroscopic level. Below are a series of links to learn
about the various aspects of Cosmology, which are covered in greater detail.
This is a good
website to visit to learn about advanced Physics and make the subject of
Cosmology very easy to understand and covers many if not all of the basic
concepts within the field. It does not go too much into the mathematics, so
almost any person with a deep interest in the field can visit this link and
learn about Cosmology in its most basic form.
This link has
addition links that go into greater depth about Albert Einstein’s theories of
Relativity.
-
General
Relativity (1905)
-
Special
Relativity (1912)
1) www.geocities.com/autotheist/Physics/Cosmo.html
This link
contains a vast array of articles in pure text relating to many subjects within
Cosmology.
Difference with
this link from the previous –
-
A larger index of
articles
-
Some of the
articles have more in-depth Mathematics
-
Links to
Astronomy plus Sky and Telescope magazine websites with articles on Cosmology
Note: This link is for those who have a passion for learning
about the depth of Mathematics applied to the field of Cosmology. Of course
much about Cosmology is based research and development of the Mathematics that
are essential to understanding much of the concepts within this field.
2)itss.raytheon.com/café/cosm/cosmol.html
To those who want
to catch up on the latest news in Cosmology this link is titled Cosmology
Today with daily and past reports with the ability to send e-mails to
respond and/or be critical on the latest articles released.
3)home.flash.net/~csmith0/
This is a website
dedicated to the nature of Theoretical Cosmology and covers six major topics
that are discussed by clicking onto any of six illustrations to learn about a
topic on this component of the field.
4)cfa_www.havard.edu/~jcohn/tcosmo.html
Following website
focuses on what is known at the “Accelerating Universe Expansion Theory” and
calls it “A new Cosmology” for the 21st century.
Accelerating
Universe Expansion Theory – This theory states that the Universe expands at an
ever – increasing rate where the Hubble constant becomes a changing variable
rather than stay as a constant. This would include that the speed limit to the
Universe (speed of light; c = 186,000 mps) is not a constant, but that it
changes overtime rather than stay consistent.
5)pages.prodigy.com/suna/cosmol.htm
This link focuses
on the following topics in physics that are related to Cosmology. –
-
Non – Equilibrium
Field Theory
-
Particle Physics
-
Condensed Matter
Physics
-
Cosmology (the
general topic)
This link has a variety of Articles, Publications, Goals, etc. and
should be visited by those who love the deep physics that is reviewed to a
great detail.
6)www.physik.fu_berlin.de/~defect/
Websites for reference on
Astrophysics
Astrophysics
unlike regular Astronomy is a branch of Space Science that explores the Physics
of celestial objects primarily from analyzing the data obtained from studying
the electromagnetic radiation of such objects. Other forces such as
gravitation, strong and weak nuclear forces are also applied to understand the
nature and behavior of how a variety of celestial objects developed and
function. Unlike Cosmology which deals with the Cosmic vacuum, superstrings,
superclusters of galaxies, etc., Astrophysics deals with nuclear reactions
within stars, formation and age of globlar clusters, the lifespan and fate of
stars, nebula and nebulosities, etc.. Below are a variety of links to look at
and read about to get a greater understanding of Astrophysics.
Note: Astronomers unlike Astrophysicists merely
observe and record the presence and locations of celestial objects and events,
Astrophysicists take a deep approach into the mysteries of the records and
observations made by Astronomers.
1)www.journels.uchicago.edu/ApJ/
This previous
link is titled The Astrophysical Journal, this has a large array of
articles devoted to Astrophysics with some reference to Cosmology and
Astronomy.
One
interesting aspect to this link is the appearance of a front image that always changes appearance with new images and
you can click on this image and get an explanation to what are look at.
2)www.spectrashift.com
This is another
good website on Astrophysics that shows a good application of the use of spectroscopy
for studying the radial velocities of stars.
3)isotopes.lbl.gov/isotopes/astro.html
This link for
those who love and want to know everything about Nuclear Science and its
occurrence within the natural Universe especially within the core of stars.
This link has an
extensive and constantly updated computerized library of texts and various
articles on the nature of Nuclear Astrophysics.
Note: Nuclear
astrophysics is the application of nuclear sciences in the study of celestial
objects, events, and structures that require the knowledge of physics to apply
the need of astrophysics.
4)www.jp_petit.com/
This is the link
that most should avoid and should be limited to those who has both a deep
passion and love for lots of mathematics, especially geometry. The interest in
this link to me is topic is covers, Geometrical Physics. This topic
deals with the nature of how geometry and physics are intertwined in their
importance to Astrophysics.
To those who love
math or who wants to know about the math within the field can visit this link
with some basic displays to give a visual image of types of manifolds that are
part in the analysis. The analysis of celestial objects and structures in
Astrophysics require some knowledge in the mathematical analysis of the
Geometry of these manifolds. Manifolds being structures that contain a definite
or a changing volume and/or surface area that are analyzed using advanced
mathematics.
Note: I would approach this link with some
caution, although I do admit it has some nice, basic displays with arrays of
some fancy equations and shows how to solve such equations and their
applications in Astrophysics.
5)heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/0/docs/acronym.html
This a link to
government agency, NASA and directs you to the website for the High Energy
astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (a.k.a. heasarc).
This is a website
that I highly recommend to
learn about all of the commonly used acronyms in Astrophysics and you can click
on an acronym and get detailed information relating to that acronym.
Websites for reference on
Astrophotography
Here are some
links that go into depth about this aspect of the field of photography and to
look other website if you are interested in this hobby and want to engage
yourself into it go to www.yahoo.com.
CDD world is an
electronic forum that discusses on the types of equipment and development in
the techniques and applications of CCDs and SWIR detectors. These devices are
fast becoming the future choices for the hobby of photographing celestial
objects and events since they are greater in light – absorption efficiency and
shorter time exposure.
To learn more
about what CCDs and SWIR detectors are and how to use them visit this site
below.
1)www.not.iac.es/CDD-world/
This is a
personal site made by an amateur Astronomers who talks about his experience and
thoughts on both Astronomy and Astrophotography.
2)www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/2071/
This following
link is a great place on looking for recommended texts on Astrophotography and
the applications of it for both the amateur as a hobby and the professional to
improve on his or her trade.
3)www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/2071/book s.html
This is a small
website, but an interesting place to learn about Quickcams and how they are
used or can be used in Astrophysics with some pretty, good pictures of the
Moon.
This is a fun
place for the quickcam funs with that lazy approach to enjoying this particular
hobby.
4)www.electronf.com/space/
Websites for reference on
Deep Sky Observations
Of all of the
websites I have visited in learning about deep sky observations this site that
was produced by a citizen of Great Britain does an impressive job about all of
the enjoyments and necessities for observing deep sky objects.
Among the list of
things that you can find at this site –
An
impressive list of various types and catalogued number of celestial objects
that was viewed from an eight inch dobsonian, reflector telescope.
Among
the objects observed are a variety of galaxies, globlar and open star clusters,
a variety of the different types of nebulas, and double stars.
Accompanying
sketches to see what one would expect to see under ideal, dark conditions.
A
guide for learning how to sketch celestial objects that one sees in the night
sky and some tips and techniques for making sketches.
An
e-mail site to respond and/or a make some constructive, critical remarks about
the website with additional links to other site related to this topic.
1)www.dbushnell.freeserve.co.uk/
To
search for additional sites on Deep Sky Observing look to dir.yahoo.com/Science/Astronomy/Deep_sky/ to help in
expanding your interests in observing the deep sky objects in the night sky.
Websites for reference on
Radio Astronomy
Radio Astronomy has been in existence for
only the fifty years or so and is used to study celestial objects, structures,
and events at the low end of the EM spectrum. This branch of Astronomy
approaches the study and observation of space by the analysis through radio
waves, which are EM waves of such low energy and with wavelengths that stretch
for many miles.
Radio telescopes are the primary instrument to use in this field of
Astronomy and these type of scopes are large parabolic dishes that are much
larger than the largest single reflector scopes in the world. This is necessary
in order for these scopes to obtain a decent angular resolution of 10 cm where
as optical scopes can have angular resolutions down to a fraction of an arc – second.
Radio astronomy is growing in popularity with amateur astronomers with the
availability of the required equipment.
To learn a lot
about radio astronomy link up to this site below and possibly become a member
of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers.
- Attend future conventions and radio astronomy star parties and send emails with discussions on all of the various aspects in this hobby.
Note: This is for those
who enjoy the world of electronics and are highly literate when it comes to
understanding high-tech equipment and
not for those who prefer the lazier approaches to amateur astronomy.
1)www.bambi.net/sara.html
This site has
some basic information, papers, and reprints on the topic of computational
Astronomy with uses in X-ray Astronomy. This place is recommended for fans of
Computer Science and Computer languages.
2)www.srl.caltech.edu/campastro/
This is a website
that was created by a Washingtonian amateur who has been conducting a series of
highly, technical projects related to the field of Radio Astronomy. To see the
latest developments in his works and the results of some of his latest projects
visit this website.
3)www.signalone.com/radioastronomy/telescope
Websites for reference on
Light Pollution
Light
Pollution is an environmental condition in which high concentrations of light
dissipate into the atmosphere and small, but noticeable amounts get trapped by
the atmosphere. The release of such light is the result of inefficient use of
light – fixtures that expel most of the light in almost every direction. This
outshines most of the stars and those celestial objects that would be seen
under ideal conditions and the greater the pollution, the less one would see of
the night sky. In major cities with large populations and heavy industry it is
known for certain constellations to be blotted out completely due to tremendous
light pollution. The result is pour observation of the night sky and a
tremendous decrease in the quality of the images that are seen through scopes.
The contrast between the image and the background sky is reduced in return
reducing the detail of the image being viewed. It is known that in order to
obtain a better image in the midst of light pollution large scopes with filters
are required to get a better view.
To visit a site
and learn more about the on – going and growing campaign to deal with the
environmental issues that result from light pollution visit this link which
what I recommend.
Or visit any site
that is related to light pollution using –
dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Environment_and_Nature/Pollution/Light/
which can be reached using www.yahoo.com.
1)cowan.bendnet.com/darksky/Default.htm
Websites for reference on
Auroras
Auroras for a reminder are forms of
visible light that are produced when (Coronal
Mass Ejections) which are
enormous amounts of solar debris interact with the upper atmosphere of Earth.
These CME’s enter into the upper atmosphere via the polar regions of the Earth
where the planet’s magnetosphere is at its weakest. The solar debris interacts
with the molecules of Earth’s atmosphere and by their momentum produce friction
when both types of material come into contact. The friction emits energy in the
form of photons and since these photons are in the visible light range of the
EM spectrum, chemicals within the Earth’s atmosphere emit much of this light.
This results in the emission of the colored light which both reflects on the
chemistry of the upper atmosphere and the components of the CME’s. Since some
of the CME material stays within the atmosphere what energy is left from the
molecular and atomic interactions disrupts electrical equipment. Since the
additional energy can overload such equipment with two much energy which built
up charge and current which results in permanent damage.
This is the
ultimate link to get an excellent multimedia course in learning about and
watching past recordings of time – lapse photography of auroral activity in the
Northern hemisphere. All past recordings can be seen either by Window Player
and QuickTime and contain all of the related links that are relevant.
Note: Look for the
photographs from one the links on this site that shows the Hubble Space
Telescope taking images of Auroras occurring on Jupiter on both Polar Regions.
1)www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/auroras.html
This link is a great place to learn
about the search and techniques adopted by Berkeley Astronomer, Geoff Marcy. This
professor of Astronomy with the assistance of several colleagues is responsible
for the discovery of at least a few dozen extra – solar planets. To learn about
his techniques and work on the search for such worlds, go to this like via
yahoo for this August article from 1998 of Science news.
1)astron.berkeley.edu/~gmarcy/science_news/_aug98.html
Here is a great article to learn
about the application of micro gravity lensing in the search for extra-solar
worlds particularly with worlds of the jovian (Jupiter – like) size.
There are many articles that can be
found on the aspects, techniques, and methods used in micro-gravity lensing. To
look at these sites you will need to have the following programs on your
desktop –
-
Acrobat Reader 4.0
-
Jasc Paint Shop pro
-
Additional links to other
related websites can be found at this link.
2)bustard.phys.nd.edu/MPS/
The Darwin project is an experiment
in the development of space – based telescopes that use optical and infrared
Interferometry in the search for extra – solar planets. This project is been
undertaken by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the hope of discovering whole
solar systems other than our own. The project will take part in the larger goal
of Planetary Astronomy to discover other Earth – like worlds like our own.
To learn more about the Darwin
project, visit this website -
3)ast.star.rl.ac.uk/darwin/
Websites for reference on
X-ray Astronomy
X-rays are high – energy Electromagnetic waves that are carried by photons and differ from optical astronomy due to these waves and can not be reflected in the same way as visible light waves. The high energy content of these types of photons are likely to penetrate the primary mirror of any reflector telescope the same way as ordinary x-rays can through walls. Therefore highly parabolic and hyperbolic mirrors are aligned almost parallel with the paths of the rays to alter the directions of the beams to gather a the focus point. X – ray astronomy is what it is, the study of celestial objects, events, and structures with the use of X – rays that are required when these celestial things emit forms of energy that can not viewed by conventional means.
I refer to the
NASA site below as the place to study and learn all you want to know about X –
ray Astronomy and its’ uses in better understanding Nature within the Cosmos.
The site mentions the world chandra, which is the latest space telescope
that is in orbit around the Earth.
1)chandra.havard.edu/
2)heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/xte_1st.html
Texts and
Magazines : Various Subjects in
relation to Astronomy
There are
thousands or texts, articles, and countless articles in journals, periodicals,
and magazines that cover a wide variety of subjects within the fields of
Cosmology, Astronomy, and Astrophysics. In have read an enormous number of
texts and articles in the search to find a good range of sources that are
included in this list. This list covers older texts and up to date sources that
can be found in your local library. If you wish to look at this list below to
find certain texts that cover certain areas within Astronomy, Astrophysics, and
Astronomy, simply look at the list of sources that I have to offer below.
For those who are interested in
telescopes:
Experienced level of knowledge 1) Hubble: A New Window to the
Universe
Published
by Copernicus and Copyright 1995
An
Imprint of Springer and Verlag
Review: A good source of material into
the history and development of the Hubble Space telescope from its origins in
the 1950’s to its groundbreaking contributions to optical Astronomy. This book
talks about the construct of the scope, development of the optics and the
primary mirror of the scope, and mechanics of the scientific instruments that
are used within this scope for the various functions necessary to achieve its
primary goals.
For Beginner’s knowledge: 2) Build your
own telescope: 2nd Edition
By
Richard Berry
Willmann
– Bell, Inc.
Copyright
dates: 1985, 1992, and 1994
Review: I strongly recommend this book
for all those who are interested in learning how to build your scope, select
the kind of scope you would like to have, and construct the type of observatory
you want in your own backyard. This
book gives an excellent array of detailed instructions by the author’s own
research into building your own personal observatory by using the tools and
materials that are available to the public.
For fans of lunar observations: 3) A portfolio of Lunar
Drawings
By
Harold Hill
Cambridge
University Press
Copyright
date: 1991
Review: I recommend this book for those
who are interested in observing many of our neighborly celestial objects,
especially the Moon. This book displays some very good maps of the Near – Side
of the Moon and has an enormous amount of low to high detail drawings of lunar
surface features from small craters to some complex terrain. Each of the
drawings has the following information on the type and size of the scope,
magnification power, and seeing conditions. This book is helpful to anyone who
wishes to learn more about lunar observations and can use the information in
this book to become a keen expert in observing lunar terrain.
For those who are interested in
stargazing:
A general overview of the night sky: 4) The Audubon
Society Field Guide to the
Night
Sky
Published
by the Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
A
Chanticleer Press Edition
Copyright
1991
Review: This is one of the greatest
books that can found on the market that has everything you want to know about
the basics of Astronomy. This book shows each constellation and the basic
knowledge about the history, the objects that can be seen in it and information
on such objects. There is a wide variety of information on the basic essentials
on year – round stargazing and a good array of colored pictures on the most
easily visible celestial objects and events that can be seen in the night sky.