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Astronomy & Astrophysics
Internet Resources
This guide contains selected astronomy resources freely available on the Internet. For more information on Astronomy, visit the Physics Department here at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Books, Journals, Open Access, Preprints
- arXiv Preprint Server (Cornell Univ.) - physics, mathematics, non-linear science and computer science
- arXiv Mirror Site (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
- Astronomy Thesaurus (Australian National Univ.) - Searchable in 5 languages.
- BookFinder.com - one of the best & largest meta-search site for new & used books.
- Digital Library for Physics, Astrophysics, and Instrumentation Astrophysics Data System (ADS) from NASA/Harvard Univ.
- Directory of Open Access Journals (Lund Univ.) - Over 2,700 peer reviewed, freely available journals, the most comprehensive directory on the Web.
- Directory of Open Access Repositories -OpenDOAR (Univ. of Nottingham) - an authoritative directory of academic open access repositories.
- Encyclopedia Astronautica (Mark Wade) - an excellent history of spaceflight and space vehicles around the world.
- Fundamental Physical Constants (NIST)
- Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics (Cambridge Univ. Press)
- Journal Info (Lund University) - Basic data and interesting statistics for open access and subscription journals worldwide.
- Journal-Ranking.com (Andrew Lim, Hong Kong Univ. of Science & Technology) - Free iinteractive journal ranking service allowing users to choose ranking parameters. Alternative to ISI journal impact factors.
- OAIster - collection of digital open access/open archive documents (Univ. of Michigan)
- Publish or Perish (Anne-Wil Harzing) - a downloadable, free program analyzing Google Scholar citations to an author's publications. Reports statistics such as ave. cites per paper and h-index & related metrics. Disclaimer: Google Scholar citation data is very noisy & includes non-peer reviewed citing documents. Citation variations likely inflate number of papers & citations.
- Scientific and Technical Acronyms, Symbols, and Abbreviations (Wiley Interscience)
- Scientific Commons (Univ. of St .Gallen) - Over 15 million open access articles and other documents
- SciVee (Univ. of California, San Diego) - Allows scholars to post articles along with a video presentation. Sponsored by NSF & Public Library of Science.
- WNY Libraries Virtual Union Catalog (Western New York area libraries holdings)
Career Information
- American Astronomical Society Job Register
- NASA Jobs
- Naturejobs (Nature Magazine)
- Optics.Org Employment Service (Institute of Physics)
- PhDs.org: Science, Math & Engineering Career Resources (Geoff Davis) - aims at Ph.D. candidate & job seekers. Includes school rankings at Find the Graduate School That's Right for You.
- Space Careers (Spacelinks) - Space industry commercial job service.
- SPIE Employment Service (International Society for Optical Engineering).
Databases
- Astronomical Almanac Online [Nautical Almanac Office (U.S.)/Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office/(U.K.)]
- Astronomical Data Archives Center (ADAC) (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
- Astronomical Data Center (ADC) - As of 10/1/2002, all updating and maintenance terminated by NASA. Ported to University of Maryland which is maintaining the site, but not updating it.
- Astrophysics Data System (ADS) - Digital Library for Physics, Astrophysics, and Instrumentation (NASA/Harvard Univ.)
- Frequencies for Observed Interstellar Molecular Microwave Transitions (NIST)
- NASA/IPAC Extragalatic Database - Includes LEVEL5 knowledgebase.
- NIST Data Gateway - Access to all databases available from NIST's Standard Reference Data (SRD) collections.
- Parallax Project Historic Star Data - Star parallax data and calculations from 1910-1969, originally, the Publications of the Allegheny Observatory of the University of Pittsburgh in 10 volumes.
- SIMBAD Astronomical Database (Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg) - data on astronomical objects outside the solar system.
- US National Virtual Observatory - meta search of data collections, catalogs, and image archives
Education Materials & Web Courses
See also: Our Solar System
- Astronomy and Cosmology on Stamps (UB SEL) - Exhibit of postage stamps with astronomical themes
- Astronomy Center (National Science Digital Library/NSF) - Clearinghouse of digital resources, teaching aids, news, & learning tools.
- Astronomy Education Review (Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy) - New ideas and resources for teaching and outreach in space sciences.
- Astronomy Software Servers (Astroweb) - Over 100 sites and codes listings that are used in astronomical research.
- NASA Education Center
- Physics and Astronomy Departments Around the World (Physlink)
- Planetary Science Research Discoveries (Univ. of Hawaii) - collection of online articles, resources, news, and classroom activities.
- Project CLEA: Laboratory Exercises in Astronomy (Gettysburg College)
- Science Animations (North Harris Community College) - Directory of animations, movies, and interactive tutorial links available on the web.
- SciTalks: Smart people on cool topics (Lee Vodra) - Excellent science videos, many by propminent researchers. Caution: Videos are self posted. Copyright & accuracy uncertain.
- Space Physics Textbook (Space Physics Group of Oulu)
- Symbols.com- Over 2,500 Western signs and ideograms with a unique graphic description search, e.g. symmetric vs. non-symmetrical
- Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students (Penn State Univ.) - a particularly useful and comprehensive guide to good scientific writing.
General Portals and Directories
- About.com Astronomy Directory
- Astronomical Resources on the Internet (Univ. of Denver)
- AstroWeb Consortium (NRAO) - Data, people, publications, organizations, research
- NASA Home Page - Links to the space agency and more.
- Life Sciences Data Archive - Including mission overviews and image library
- National Science Digital Library - funded by major NSF grants.
- Resources in Astronomy (Special Libraries Association Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Div.)
- Science.gov "FirstGov for Science" gateway.
- Scirus (Elsevier) - search engine for scientific information
- Virtual Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Space Reference Center - Martindale's Reference Desk
- WorldWideScience.org - Open access portal & federated search engine covering over 15 countries
History of Astronomy
- Biographical Index to Sky & Telescope - Covers complete run from Vol. 1, no. 1 (Nov. 1941) on.
- History of Astronomy - Also has links to science awards and prizes and pages devoted to women in science. (Univ. of Bonn, Germany)
- Scientific Timeline: Inventions & Discoveries (Cylive) - Searchable, social collaboratively built listing or 'wiki'. Recommend verifying information in other sources.
Images, Telescopes & Star Guides
- Anglo-Australian Observatory of Astronomical Images - Striking wide-field photographs
- Astronomy Images Directory - Pretty Pictures (NRAO) - Over 100 sites listed, from Hubble to the space shuttle to comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.
- Constellation and star guide (Univ. of Wisconsin) -when they are best seen and interactive sky charts.
- Interactive Sky Chart (Sky and Telescope magazine) -View an image of the sky from any location on earth.Free registration required.
- The Messier Catalog - Focuses on the most beautiful nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies (SEDS)
- Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Telescope Data Center
Our Solar System
See also: Educational Materials & Web Courses
- Habitable Worlds (NASA) - explore each planets potential for supporting life with many facts and photos about each planet.
- Map-a-Planet (USGS/NASA) - create customized maps of planets and moons.
- NASA Human Spaceflight - Information about the International Space Station and a launch countdown clock plus links to the Space Shuttle page and the history of manned space flight.
- NeoDys: Near Earth Objects - Orbital data on all Near Earth Asteroids and impact risk analysis.
- The Nine /Eight/ Planets - a Visual tour of the solar system. (Univ. of Arizona)
- Northern Lights (Nordlyssenteret AS) - Earths Aurora
- Planetary, Lunar, and Stellar Visibility (Alcyone Software) - freeware program that produces color diagrams showing when astronomical objects are visible during any year from 3000 BC to AD 6000 at any location on the earth.
- Solar System Simulator (NASA) - Software that visualizes solar system objects from many perspectives based on user-specified parameters.
- View of the Solar System: Lesson Plans and Activities (Calvin J. Hamilton)
- Lunar and Planetary Institute (Universities Space Research Association)
- Exploring the Moon . Histories and images, etc. on all the Lunar missions.
- Lunar Atlases . Four atlases are online in digital form
- Lunar Topographic Orthophotomap (LTO) Series . Digital images of 1:250,000 scale maps produced by the Defense Mapping Agency.
- Planetary Science Websites
- U.S. Naval Observatory - Extensive astronomical data such as sun and moon rise and set times, moon phases, eclipses, seasons, and positions of solar system objects. Information on software, research, and publications.
Professional Societies
- AAS - American Astronomical Society
- ASP - Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- IAU - International Astronomical Union
- IPS - International Planetarium Society
- SEDS - Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
- USRA - Universities Space Research Association
- More Astronomical Societies (NRAO) - Alphabetical list
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