• Jeff's Astronomy Site by Jeff Medkeff, former contributing editor of Sky & Telescope (UPDATE: we have just read that, sadly, Mr. Medkeff has passed away in early August, 2008: see this discussion on the group Amastro.) I like Jeff's style, sense of logical argument, and practicality. Jeff has confirmed my own beliefs about the unbelievability of many "standard values" for limiting magnitude of telescope aperture, which often fall very short of the mark: see the articles on Limiting Magnitude on his oustanding observing pages. Another superb Medkeff resource is his discussion of "Visual Observing and Physiology of the Eye", which is a long hyperlinked series of questions/answers included in a webpage on "Radiometry and Photometry in astronomy" by Paul Schlyter. I am not quite sure why Jeff's article -- especially useful for beginners -- is found there, but it is a valuable read, inserted about 2/3rds of the way down the long webpage: even intermediate level observers will benefit from Jeff's information and suggestions.
• Through an Eyepiece Darkly by Dave Gill. This succinct web page article collates and presents in a thoroughly lucid form the research about limiting magnitude of Clark, Schaefer, and O'Meara: confirming that, indeed, some observers do 'work' at a higher level of visual perception than others. Data have been gathered that indicate, in a useful chart, how often one may expect the population to sustain measurements of faint stars, and how wide the variation may be.
• Determination of the Limiting Magnitude of a Telescope is an exceptionally nuanced Javascript calculator, far better than anything else available on the Net to my knowledge, based on a computer program by Bradley Schaefer that was published in SKY & TELESCOPE magazine, November, 1989, page 522. By means of this calculator, I was able to verify that some of the faint star observations I have made with my C-11 are indeed not only possible, but also likely.
• I can't make anything anymore. I gave up being an ATM around the end of the nineties, and my mechanical skills have atrophied. So, when I look at a site like an amateur telescope maker's projects (intentionally lowercase) by Bruce Sayre (an IBM systems engineer since the time of the drum-memory computer) I drool with awe and envy. And, what an elegant site design, too! Boy, what I'd give for a commercial version of his RFT project at an affordable price...
• Jaakko Saloranta's website illustrates some "boundary observations" made at an unexpected place: in Finland, where summer skies are "white" (as shown in this video snapshot made in his neighborhood on a June midnight, though the sky is otherwise quite dry), and winter skies are dark (often wet, with a tendency to be cloudy.) 
Jaakko often works with merely an 8" Dob, and yet produces quite aesthetic, accurate drawings of very faint, obscure objects. His observation routine -- often the most difficult ones being achieved at sites near the equator, not in the frozen north -- includes Sharpless emission regions, Abell planetaries, Hickson and Abell galaxy clusters, supernova remnants, Palomar globulars, and many faint objects that he is able to compare from rare views in the skies of his native country with those obtained on his trips to Austria, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Italy and four of the Canary Islands. I especially enjoyed his Personal Deep Sky Challenges, and eagerly await his confirmation of the "jet" in M-87, Maffei 1 with a small telescope, and sightings of Messiers without optical aid! The ones he's done, such as a naked eye sighting of M-81, the globular Mayall II in M-31 with an 8 inch scope (I've done that, too!), Phobos & Deimos, and some very challenging distant open clusters show that he must be considered a terrific observer (though he is too modest to say so himself.)
• Iiro's DeepSky Sketches is the website of Jaakko Saloranta's fellow observer and friend Iiro Sairanen, who was born in 1981 and lives in Imatra, Finland. His sketches, like Jaakko's, are extremely informative and reliable. Many objects are included that have been observed in southern skies and high altitude sites, augmenting what Iiro has seen from Finland. He uses high quality 18" and 4" aperture reflectors and thus records not only the most familiar and well-known objects, but also many faint, obscure ones that are ignored by many observers with small instruments or who do not benefit from the best dark-sky sites.
• Deep Sky Archive is another great Finnish resource, containing several thousand drawings and observing reports by dedicated amateurs. Javascript is required to open a window for each report, and did not work properly in my Firefox browser, but functions fine in Internet Explorer. It may have been fixed recently (Feb. '06), though, judged from the results of my latest visit using Firefox. But, another problem has cropped up: some days the URL seems to be down altogether. Keep trying!
• Visual Observation of Deep-Sky Objects is a phenomenal, gigantic collection of excellent drawings, rendered in 'negative' view (white on black background) to resemble a photograph or eye view, rather than in normal dark pencil on light background: in fact, rather than being a negative reversal of the original artwork, they were actually done originally with white pencil on black drawing paper, with excellent skill in rendering faint nebulosity. The observer is Kiminori Ikebe, and his original Japanese website was translated by an Australian friend, Mr. Eiji Kato (who also has a splendid website of superb "Drawings of Astronomical Objects" shown in a similar manner though his black-on-white artwork has been electronically reversed as a negative, for white on black.) Either website is worth browsing; and sadly they don't turn up very often near the top of a web search for the target objects, so it's taken me quite a while to find them. My only caveat is that Ikebe's pictures are quite realistic, which means that on some monitors, his faint nebulosity will seem VERY dim unless you fiddle with the brightness/contrast.
• Bill Greer's Astronomy Site is a superb resource for learning how to do astronomical drawing. "To Sketch Is To See" is the motto, and Bill -- who is one of the most intelligent, experienced, and prolific contributors to the newsgroup sci.astro.amateur -- has been doing this for more than forty years. He has examples of excellent lunar, planetary, and deep sky sketches, often in color: and very useful descriptions of how to maximize one's technique. His drawing of a "Jovian Double Shadow Transit" from 2001, done with a 5 inch refractor, shows his skill and perception, a superb image that captured a memorable event, and probably better than many astrophotographers and imagers have been able to do. I quite agree with his impressions of the Horsehead nebula, and the collision of Shoemaker-Levy comet bodies with Jupiter. However, I only wish I had his sensitivity to the color blue in faint eyepiece views of galaxies, which always look gray to my aging eyes! Bill also has one of the few interesting astronomical blogs that is worth reading on a regular basis, filled with his colorfully written observations and more drawings.
• Skyhound really deserves to be included here, although it is at least partly a commercial astronomy products promotional website, compared to all the others here which are strictly by amateurs. For, "Skyhound" Greg Crinklaw is not only a programmer and developer of advanced astronomical software, but also a highly skilled and experienced amateur astronomer and observing enthusiast. He lives in Cloudcroft, N.M. and observes there with several telescopes in the pristine skies at nearly 9,000 feet above sea level. He shares his enthusiasm for sky objects in his excellently researched and carefully written webpages about current comets and interesting sky objects; and he frequently contributes interesting ideas and opinions to the newsgroup sci.astro.amateur. Don't miss his site, even if you have no need at all to use computer software for astronomy. Amateurs of all levels will greatly benefit!
• Joe Bergeron's Amateur Astronomy Page and his other web offerings are, graphically, among the most beautiful websites on the Net. Joe chronicles here his fascination with refractors over a thirty-five year period of his life. A writer and artist, he has applied a special touch of poetry and beauty that few other web authors have used to grace the subject of astronomy. Be sure to investigate Joe's List of Favorite Obscure Deep-Sky Objects!
• The DEEPSKY OBSERVER's COMPANION (DOC) web pages, developed by the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa, is the finest single integrated webpage resource I've found online that pulls together information needed to become a good visual astronomical observer, with the best and most succinct article on Visual Astronomy I've found so far. It also supports a Yahoo group and observers' mailing list. There are interesting historical articles about early southern hemisphere star catalogues, culminating in the now famous Bennett Catalogue of the 1970s (a parallel to Messier's famous compilation) which includes objects that may be seen from my northern hemisphere latitude in California.
• The Brightness of the Night Sky by Brian Skiff is just one of the many articles and resources available for both visual observers and astrophotographers on the invaluable Catching the Light website by Jerry Lodriguss, one of today's greatest astrophotographic experts. Beginning and intermediate visual observers will find his Object Lists particularly useful. And, don't forget the pretty pictures!
• Jay Reynolds Freeman, legendary northern California amateur astronomer, has recently collected many of his brilliant essays, observing reports, and reviews, organizing them in a convenient site that eliminates the tedious searching that we Freeman enthusiasts have had to do in order to find them on various net forums and newsgroups. Enjoy!
Update, 5/09: I have just located another batch of charming and colorful Jay Freeman observing posts. You may access them via this directed Google search.
• Sights Above is a very entertaining and attractive astronomy website by James Eaton, chock-full of interesting articles, pictures, and resources that amateurs have contributed. It's worth going to just to see a remarkable page: an ANIMATED illustration of the Pickering Seeing Scale, with graphics by Damian Peach. Boy, that took my breath away: how clever can you get?!
• Deep Sky Observing Articles on the Amateur Astronomy Page of Paul Markov. These essays are well written and cogent, covering interesting topics such as using reference objects to determine sky transparency; pushing yourself and scope to the limit of detectable faintness of objects; safety at remote dark sky sites; measuring the eyepiece true field of view; and articles about some obscure but interesting sky objects (a stellar asterism named after him, and the Dolidze Dzimselejsvili [DoDz] open clusters.) I disagree with some of his opinions, such as not using much more than 80x for deep sky observing (but, he argues them well from his point of view; and skies near Toronto aren't like my crystal-clear western mountaintop venues.) Paul's extensive observing logbook is also interesting to peruse: his 2005 and 2006 pages show his considerable progress as a beginning digital imager.
• What’s Up-365 Days of Skywatching by Tammy Plottner and Ken Vogt is a fascinating website of essays, a new one offered each day, that will keep you enchanted and delighted. These eclectic articles cover every aspect of astronomy, from observation to history to theory. The authors are thoroughly qualified, their work being worthy of any worldwide astronomy publication: what's amazing is that it's all truly free, for everybody! The icing on the cake is a wonderful gift: a completely free ebook (more than 410 pages) in PDF, a 24 megabyte download that most of us can obtain via a broadband connection in a few minutes (a commercial printed copy is also available.)
• Menke Scientific, Ltd., has a nice website that primarily serves to promote their professional consulting services; but John Menke has provided a very informative booklet of more than 50 pages, in PDF, that serves as a good overview of the issues one encounters when setting up a remote amateur observatory: the Remote Control Astronomy Handbook. The free article is several years old and some of the inline links no longer work, but might be useful as a preliminary reference for those adventuresome amateurs who would like to use their home PC to control a telescope at a dome on their property. Other features of John's website include his Images and Studies page from Starlight Farm Observatory.
• Barbara Wilson's Home Page is a very attractive, interesting site, mostly about astronomy. Barbara is one of the leading advanced deep sky visual amateur astronomers in the United States, residing in Texas where she is able to benefit from dry, high altitude, dark skies in order to make cutting-edge observations with her superb 20" Dobsonian telescope (shown at the bottom of the page), achieving the excellent results that enables her to write articles, such as this one about some obscure Milky Way globular clusters, or this article on the planetary nebula known as "Gomez' Hamburger". (Note to Barbara: please update the links on your site to some of your OWN articles; they've been moved!)
• Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope Website by Ted Kurkowski, a physicist and mechanical engineer, offers at least as much information and useful, practical advise as many current books on the topic. Save your $30 and read all the articles on this site! At first, the articles seem short; but they are merely portals to further in-depth information, and a plethora of links. Ted has provided, for example, some excellent observing lists in either spreadsheet or PDF form, as well as pre-built lists for the NexStar Observing List computer program by Michael Swanson.
• Astronomy for the People is an interesting, elaborate website by Wes Stone, an amateur skygazer who lives in Oregon: we have something in common, as he uses a 10" Dob, and has made many drawings of challenging objects with it, preserved in his sketch gallery (I have one criticism: his white-on-black sketches are rather hard to see, since they show up against a white, mostly blank, browser page; he should figure out a way to show them against a darker background -- or the user must change his or her browser page default color, which I'm loathe to do.) Wes has created a very useful "Skytour" introduction to astronomy, and has written some interesting essays and reviews: a very eclectic fellow!
• David Ratledge, an experienced UK amateur astronomer and writer, has a very elaborate website with many different sections, devoted to his observatories, telescope making activities, astro imaging, and book reviews. But I like best his observing page, containing six articles of merit that offer interesting -- and sometimes unusual and rare -- suggestions for observing programs that will be greatly rewarding to viewers of diverse levels of skill and experience. I'm not 'big' on the Caldwell catalogue myself, finding it a rather arbitrary list, but there's a good overview of it, as well as some charming asterisms you'll enjoy (my favorite is "Kemble's Cascade", a fabulous and charming sight!); some challenging Hickson galaxy clusters that are within reach of most amateur instruments of moderate aperture; and the fascinating Arp peculiar galaxies. Each article is illustrated with very good pictures, some in color and done by author Ratledge.
• Eric Jamison's Astronomy and Photography Home Page is a huge personal website that can entertain and inform readers for hours and hours. I was enormously pleased with his scholarly article on the Bonds of Harvard College Observatory (stuff that is right up my alley) and fascinated (though somewhat appalled, being a cheapskate myself!) by the reviews of $600 eyepieces and $4000 refractors: he has GREAT taste in equipment. When I've had a chance, occasionally, to use some of the same gear, I've had the same reactions and experiences that Eric relates; and I like the fact that his eyepiece reviews give so many detailed comparisons based on views of actual deep-sky objects. Eric's numerous drawings of planets are skillfully done, revealing his visual acuity and experience; and his film astrophotos are exemplary. An all-round guy, an expert, and an enthusiastic astronomy devotee: don't miss his site! UPDATE: Page Gone? Or Server Down? That's a shame. I'm leaving this description here as a reminder for all of us to look for any potential relocation of it at a later date. -- srw, 1/27/09
• Martin Nicholson's Astronomical Projects involve doing real astronomical science as an amateur. A retired teacher who lives in Daventry, a small town in Northamptonshire, England, Martin uses remote telescopes in New Mexico, controlling them and collecting data via the Net. His extensive website features articles on comet astrometry and photometry, making large-scale deep hydrogen-alpha maps, data mining the Sloan Digital Sky Survey for uncatalogued or obscure objects, and monitoring or discovering variable stars (among many other interesting projects.) If you crave some CONTENT in astronomy websites, rather than just "gee whiz" graphics and superficial glitz, spend some time with Martin!
• Adventures in Deep Space is a great website put together by Jim Shields, with a minimum of web "fluff" and a maximum of interesting, educational, useful content for amateur observers. The articles may seem at first glance to be for 'elitists' -- discussions of viewing the Palomar globular clusters; the incredibly faint Abell planetaries; the "challenge objects" chosen for each season -- but to my personal surprise, a significant proportion of these things may be seen in MY own 10" inexpensive Dob, used in the mountains just outside of populous San Jose, California. And, even if you cannot see them with YOUR instrument, you may learn about many interesting celestial phenomena quite painlessly in these entertaining articles! Contributions from Steve Gottlieb, Barbara Wilson, Doug Snyder, Bob Hill, and other experienced observers make up these enjoyable commentaries and useful observing lists.
• One of the astronomical things to look forward to a couple of times a year is Skywatch, a highly polished, very professional, and thoroughly informative and entertaining newsletter for amateur astronomers, created and produced by the indefatigable Rod Mollise. It is published on Rod's website as an elegant pdf, and looks just about as good as any magazine of its type that you'd buy. The content is often more thought-provoking than any old monthly issue of the typical commercial astronomy magazine, as it covers "insider gossip" as well as unusual personal by-ways of a diversity of astro hobbyists, who contribute excellent material (though, admittedly, I find some issues more interesting than others, due to the particular combination of the contributed articles.) I highly recommend it, and have enjoyed it for some years. (I wish I could say the same for RM's own opinion pieces: his latest new ones at Cloudy Nights are so self-consciously "cute", with over-used slang and alleged Southern 'witticisms', that, frankly, they make me gag -- though enthusiastic fans of Ma and Pa Kettle might disagree. Go to Jay Reynolds Freeman, Jeff Medkeff, Ed Ting, and any number of other amateur astronomers for authoritative comments on equipment.) That being said, some of the "Skywatch" articles are wonderful: the best darned one I have read, which would do any astronomy publication proud, is in Issue 87: "Galileo's Go-To" by Ken Hutchinson (how to make a Galilean telescope, and have the thrill of duplicating the views that Galileo himself had, 400 years ago.)
• Cosmic Voyage is the website of Bill Ferris, which he calls "the online resource for amateur astronomers". Bill lives in Flagstaff and has worked at several capacities at Lowell Observatory (and has an interesting list of asteroid and comet discoveries on his CV page.) In addition, Bill has written an intesting article about how to perceive and judge faint objects in a telescopic eye view (downloadable here as a well-illustrated pdf.) The numerous resources available can occupy any reader for a long time (though his specific advice articles on photography, telescope alignment, and observing could benefit from somewhat greater depth -- which I'm sure he could provide.) I am very happy that Bill has relocated his massive website, now OFF the defunct AOL Homepage domain: it should work much better!
• Andrew Cooper was formerly known as "The Silicon Owl" and had a great website; he's now moved from Arizona to Hawaii and established a new site called "A Darker View" in which he seems to be striving for a particular aesthetic effect that makes astronomical drawings easier on the eye by using dark backgrounds; you might prefer -- or not like -- this style, depending on your own taste and vision acuity. Among his many resources, Andrew offers online databases and a search engine to look up and display his observations and sketches -- and many images -- of the Messier catalogue, 845 NGC objects, 107 items from the Index Catalogue, and hundreds more of Barnard objects, stars, and miscellaneous obscurities to delight advanced observers; you may even generate your own custom-filtered observing list. His website combines both advanced aesthetic design AND serious content: congratulations!
• Planetary observers, and indeed ANY amateur astronomer, simply MUST run, not walk, over to Two Weeks on Mars, a stupendous website that in my opinion ranks as one of the supreme discourses on the Internet about the nuances of telescopic observing: and at the same time a visually exquisite treat! This gem documents a two week investigation of Mars by four astronomers, using the great 36 inch Clark refractor at Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton. Two professional astronomers (Tony Misch and Remington Stone) joined two amateurs (Bill Sheehan and Laurie Hatch) to do what almost no professional or academic astronomer does in the 21st century: look into a telescope by eye. The occasion was the close opposition of Mars in the summer of 2003, and the instrument and observing site are amongst the most suited for the task in the entire world. The splendidly- realistic Mars sketches by Hatch, Sheehan, and Misch are compared to historic drawings done by Edward Barnard, many published here for the first time (though I'd seen the originals previously, during my 1989 studies of Barnard documents in the plate vault at Mt. Hamilton and in the Mary Lea Shane Archives of the Lick Observatory when I researched Barnard's and Curtis's early photographic work on the Horsehead nebula.) Laurie Hatch's color pictures that chronicle the event are some of the most beautiful evocations of this photogenic venue that I've ever seen, and vividly evoked my own memories of spending many hours in the dome of the huge refractor. I recently stumbled on this website by pure accident; it is not well known on the Net, though it deserves to be famous!
• Belt of Venus is an exceptionally beautiful website by Flagstaff, Arizona professional designer -- and amateur astronomer/artist -- Jeremy Perez. A power failure in the year 2000 darkened his city, and Jeremy was so stunned by the view of the Milky Way that he resolved to take up visual astronomy; and being a superbly talented artist, he put his exceptional eye to work, producing "photorealistic" drawings that are rendered white-on-black, wonderful replications of what the eye could see -- ideally -- under superb, dry, high desert skies. His special interest seems to be double stars, which he takes the trouble to measure carefully, and to render in their particular color differences. His deep-sky drawings, like this marvelous M-17, viewed in his 6" Newtonian at Anderson Mesa, are much closer to the true "eye experience" than you get from typical photos or CCD images: some of them made me almost shiver with delight! Jeremy also takes pleasure in interacting with the many visitors who have left their comments and compliments on his splendid website: drop in and, if you are as impressed as I am, be sure to let him know! (I tried to leave a nice compliment, but his web form INSISTS on a valid email address, and I don't give mine out just anywhere...sorry, Jeremy! So, my commentary praising his site and notifying him that it is included here was rejected.)
• A very enthusiastic and experienced deep sky observer named Eric, who goes by the moniker "Zizzapnia" on the Cloudy Nights forums, has put together the useful Astronomerica website, containing both helpful, informative resources and a bit of astro-humor. As the owners of felines, my wife and I both enjoyed his amusing web page of "Cats in Space". Eric's main features are his elaborate collection of Sloan Deep Sky Survey Images (including many lesser known, obscure, and dim objects), some well-reasoned Observing Tips, and a new feature: "MP3 guided tours of the night sky": a series of fascinating narrations that you may play while you observe (which are well written and presented in a clear, articulate fashion.) I particularly appreciated his inclusion, in his Astronomy Files collection, of a formatted version of the famous "McNeil Planetary Nebulae List" that can be imported into the program "TheSky" version 5 -- though I had to do quite a bit of work to download it correctly and make it run in TheSky VI. Now I can access the coordinates of more than 400 pn's by means of their well-known names, rather than having to cross- reference them with the cryptic designations in TheSky's databases. Eric has also created files for MS Access and Excel for logging asteroids and converting astronomical coordinates.
Update, 5/15/09: I see that now Eric has added an observing blog to his admirable website! In fact, he seems to have a rather similar approach to my own such articles, covering not only his eyepiece impressions but also information on the history and occasionally something about related astrophysics; in addition he often features very good pictures (always 'worth a thousand words') that help connect the reader with the items under discussion.
• Orion XT-10.com is an exceptionally elegant and informative website by the very well informed UK amateur astronomer Jim Prior; it's entirely a "fan site", as he is not affiliated with the Orion company. I happened to discover that he had included a link to my article on "Maintaining and Modifying your Orion SkyQuest Dobsonian's Bearings" and surfed over to his site from Google and began to read it, with growing admiration and joy: here is a person who has really done his homework. Though Jim says he has had a long interest in astronomy, the Orion XT-10 is his first real scope (he uses the model with the "IntelliScope" object locator, which has the same optical properties and most of the same mechanical performance of my Orion Dobsonian.) In short, Jim knows his scope and can explain it lucidly to any reader who might consider purchasing one. His section on "How the Eye Works" is short but very succinct, and he has a page of links with good advice about collimation. Because he resides in the UK, his list of recommended accessories is somewhat Euro-centric; but in these days of globalized trade, many of the same products, or similar ones, are available in North America. Finally: Jim's website design is splendidly elegant, making mine seem especially antiquated and clumsy in comparison (though I personally would appreciate it if his dark-grey text color would be brightened a bit.) Congratulations, Jim!
• The Atmosphere and Observing - A guide to Astronomical seeing is a succinct and very cogent article by the planetary imaging specialist Damian Peach, whose work ranks with the very finest amateur astronomers and indeed surpasses all the professional observatory planetary images of Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter up to very recent years. While Damian's article (like most of the material on "Cloudy Nights") would benefit from a bit of proof-reading and minor textual correction, his ideas and content are above and beyond any criticism. It's a pleasure, in fact, to read this and find that it corroborates one's own personal experiences. For amateurs who are wondering how to make a great leap forward in discerning fine detail, or in making high resolution images, the answers are to be found here: and there are no short-cut substitutes.
• The Way I See It (subtitled "A Record of My Observations of the Deep Sky") is the observing blog of Jeff Burton, a dedicated visual astronomer who uses his own 14.5" Dobsonian and some other instruments at an amateur observatory. He has been logging his observations for years, starting with index cards and now maintaining a large, complex SQL database (which may be accessed via his log, and can in some cases provide a large variety of descriptions obtained over time, such as his page for Messier 101), documenting -- at this writing -- 1,920 observations made during 127 sessions. Jeff is not limited to familiar objects; he also looks at a wide variety of challenging items in a comprehensive series of lists. Jeff has a dark enough sky at home to enable at least some observing with his large Dobsonian; but he also gets to darker-sky sites in the midwest, Texas, and Illinois. Jeff's site is a remarkable achievement and shows a far greater sense of organization than your present author (who scribbles his observations by hand, in the dark, and seldom gets much of that information onto a computer.) Finally: I was rather stunned to discover that my own observing blog is listed in Jeff's resources, an honor that I very much appreciate.
• Backyard Astronomy for Amateur Astronomers is an elaborate website by the Dutch amateur Math Heijen, including an observing blog divided into diverse categories: deepsky; solar system (including h-alpha observing of the Sun); binocular viewing; response to reader queries; book reviews by the author; "Focus" on tours of specific regions and constellations; sketching; and extensive discussions of the equipment employed. The viewing reports are thorough though very chatty (if you like that sort of thing; it seems to me that they are written from the perspective of a 'recent enthusiast' of intelligence, rather than the perspective of a long-time observing maven.) The website design (which requires Javascript implementation in your browser) is extraordinarily elegant and professional. I can't imagine how much time and effort is being lavished on this remarkable achievement.
• The Northern Astronomical Review is a very interesting and professional- looking journal of astronomy, edited by scientist Stephen Yaskell, but addressed to the general public, and especially to amateur astronomers. The masthead for this web publication states that it is "intended for observers above 50 degrees north latitude. We are based in central Sweden, but communicate solely in English. We hope, like Polar Bears, Musk Oxen, and Polaris submarines, to span the entire top of the hemisphere." Observing articles for objects in the northern latitudes include Yaskell's own discussions of objects in the constellations Orion, Monoceros, Gemini, Cassiopeia, and Cancer, and a very good article on observing the great diffuse nebula Simeis 147 by John Tatarchuck. There are interesting and well-argued telescope reviews, and reprints of professional astronomy papers (including fascinating historical accounts of the astronomer Albert Marth, and the history of 17th century lensmaking by Yaskell.) The SF bay area's own Richard Crisp has contributed some of his splended CCD images. There are currently five full issues online, all fully illustrated and crammed with good solid content and fine writing. Recommended enthusiastically!
• The Telescope Review Website by Ed Ting is a remarkable collection of perceptive tests that have been done by using a wide variety of optical instruments in the field, to get real-world performance results. I have thought long and hard about including this excellent website here, in a collection of amateur astronomy resources. Ed takes some advertisements, and in many cases he explains that the telescopes or binoculars tested were loaned to him by dealers or manufacturers (and thus the reviews are probably closer to those found in, say, the magazines S&T or Astronomy, than completely independent commentaries by users -- who'd paid their hard-earned money for the products.) However, I have by now read almost EVERY single report by Ed (who appears to be an equipment rep for an unrelated high-tech industry), and I have come to the conclusion that he's trustworthy, candid, and experienced. When I've had my own opportunities to use similar equipment, I've often come to about the same conclusions (which says nothing meaningful about Ed's competence, I assure you!) Nevertheless, it's nice to see a consistent approach and methodology used to evaluate so many items. The reviews have been terminated, as Ed is "burned out" to a certain extent. But most of the products are either still current, or are readily available on the used market. And, I couldn't pass up mentioning Ed's wonderful website after reading his article on a piano make that was owned by Brahms, and his extraordinarily insightful Commentary on the Yamaha C6 Piano (we own a C7, and -- boy! -- is Ed right on the money.) Ed Ting is able, perceptively, to judge the GOOD and the BAD, and put them into perspective: not only about pianos, but also in regard to telescopes.
• A History of Optics is a series of articles by the Scandinavian blogger who goes by the nom-de-web of "Fjordman". He says, "I have a special interest in astronomy and astrophysics. Since I don’t write a separate history of astronomy I will include some parts of that fascinating story here and other parts in my history of mathematics and mathematical astronomy." The fifth part is likely to be most interesting to telescope users and amateur astronomers.
• Cosmos4U: Breaking News for sky aficionados is a comprehensive and up-to-date blog by Daniel Fischer (of Königswinter, Germany) which is chock-full of reports and links about multitudes of events or discoveries that will be of great interest to solar system and deep-sky observers, and any amateur astronomer interested in astrophysics and cosmology. I just learned, for instance, that McNeil's nebula (near M-78) has recently undergone a luminance outburst in December, 2008 (though I found out about one day too late to try to observe it before the full Moon got in the way...patience!)
• Here's something entertaining! Check out Wayne Schmidt's Telescope Making Page, including numerous suggestions for experiments with telescopes, binoculars, mirrors, and home-brew optical projects. Some of them are fanciful (the "Crisco bearing" -- it has to be seen to be believed!) and some are ingenious and practical. Wayne's very eclectic home page has six links to his astronomy articles found about half-way down (the breadth of his interests is amazing.) His remarkable 8" binocular telescope is discussed and shown here, followed by his interesting list of "The best objects to look at in 15 constellations". Have fun!
• Homemade Astronomy and Antique Telescopes are two elegant, informative, and very well-written and neatly ordered websites by expert amateur astronomer and ATM'er Larry Brown, a hobbyist who demonstrates a craftsman's advanced skills and and an excellent optician's expertise. As a "do-it-yourselfer" I particularly appreciated -- and was both charmed and amused -- by his page on constructing one's own homebrew eyepieces, which demystifies the subject (and might well inspire the reader to try a bit of experimentation.) Larry has illustrated some beautiful but relatively simple home-built refractors and reflectors, and gives his suggestions for improving mounts and finagling various astrophotography accessories. His "Antique Telescope" page is remarkably informative, while being at the same time succinct and easily comprehendable: you may probably be able to read carefully all the articles, and examine closely all the excellent pictures, of both sites in about an hour: but you might better appreciate the material presented, compared to many other bigger, pretentious astronomy websites, featuring glitz but less real content. His timeline summary of the entire history of the telescope, from the development of the earliest lenses to the end of the 19th century, is alone 'worth the price of admission.' And, I was also very much entertained by his essays on UFOs and astrology (versus real observational science), plus his two humorous anecdotes. More, Larry: please!
• While looking for information on McNeil's nebula I found a marvelous astronomy blog: astronomy cmarchesin by Claudio Marchesin of São Vicente, São Paulo, Brasil. The blog features very well written and succinct summaries of recent professional astronomical discoveries and studies, with images and links to articles from
NASA, Galex, Goddard Space Flight Center, Hubble, Hinode, Spitzer, Cassini, ESO, ESA, Chandra, HiRISE, Royal Astronomical Society, NRAO, Universe Today, Astronomy Picture of the Day, Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics, and many other resources. I wish I knew more about Claudio: his blogger profile says only that he is a 51 year old male, with primary interest in astronomy. It is not evident that he has ever contributed to English language amateur observing forums, and the contents of his articles suggests primarily a focus on professional observatory science. The blog has, in my opinion, done a fantastic job of collecting and reporting astrophysical studies that should interest any amateur observer; and the pictures are beautiful; furthermore, his blog layout and format are very elegant. Recommended!
• There are lots of amateur webpages on the Net that feature little homebrew construction projects to improve telescope and binocular mounts, finders, and observing accessories. But the website of Rod Nabholtz has to rank with the best of them. His conceptions, described on Home Built Astronomy Projects, might at first seem deceptively simple, in the face of the plethora of ATM sites that show how to make trischiefspieglers and spectroheliographs; but when YOU need to figure out a simple and elegant way to mount a red-dot finder, or add a heavy refractor to a camera tripod, consult Rod first!
• Jay's Astronomy Observing Blog is a very worthwhile contribution to the sharing of experiences of amateur observers, and I congratulate its author, Jay (who vaguely describes himself as a teacher of some sort, last name not provided), who put it "on the air" in January of 2009 on Google's popular Blogspot service (where I have my observing blog.) I must confess that I had to do a little bit of searching to figure out what telescope he uses, for Jay does not indicate the aperture in each of his posts. But this entry indicates that he has Orion 8" and 6" instruments; explains what accessories he uses; and where he observes (information that is crucial for others to know, in order to appreciate and correlate his experiences with their own.) Jay employs an interesting technique of showing what he sees: he places his sketchbook on the platen of his scanner, and presents a good, readable image of the entire page, sometimes in negative mode in order to show up nebulosity clearly (though, I might suggest that he slip a blank sheet of paper under his exposed page of drawings, for some of the images capture 'ghosts' from the next page.) He also occasionally provides large scale, enhanced negative drawings. He explains the rationale for his blog: that many forums feature dedicated, advanced observers, and he feels that posts from newer members and the less experienced are given little attention. I agree! It's very useful to have a consistent source of the experiences of a wide variety of observers of varying years at the eyepiece; and Jay's drawings are often very accurate and informative, while his descriptions are carefully wrought.
• If you would like to read a guide to the effects of city night lighting on astronomical observing, there is a fine illustrated webpage produced by Lick Observatory, detailing here the nature of the threat; the spectral response of various light sources (and how they affect astronomical research); and a general overview of the best practices that are also consistent with safety and lowest energy cost. Numerous other links are provided. The articles are not "inflammatory" or worded in a manner that overstates the problem, allowing for practical solutions. But, professional academic research uses narrower bandwidth than the entire visual optical spectrum, perceived by eye by amateur astronomers: so we amateur viewers suffer more from light pollution than the great Observatory on Mt. Hamilton!
