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ASTRONOMICAL WEBLINKS, selected by S. Waldee

Copyright (c) 2007-8, Stephen R. Waldee - All Rights Reserved

This page contains our selection of some of the most admirable and remarkable amateur astronomy websites on the Net, in our opinion. The criteria used for selection included the proportionality of original material, the quantity of content versus 'web fluff and formalistics', and the utility of the pictures, articles, and data for amateur astronomical observers. In each of the three separate sections, the lowest item is the last one added. Last confirmation of working links: 01/23/08. Last change or addition: 10/08/08.
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Admirable Astronomy Websites We've Discovered

General Topics |  Imaging & Photography |  Reference Sources
Links Found to Our Pages

• 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's neighborhood in June, at midnightJaakko 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!

• 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!

• 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.)

•  Cosmic Voyage is the website of Bill Ferris, which he calls "the online resource for amateur astronomers" -- and it IS simply just that! 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.) One can spend an almost limitless amount of time examining his splendid astronomical sketches, his observing notes for many objects, his experience in planetary studies. In addition, Bill has written a great article about how to perceive and judge faint objects in a telescopic eye view (downloadable here as a well-illustrated pdf.) My only complaint: the lousy AOL server that hosts his site, which often is as dead as a doornail -- not Bill's fault! -- when I try to find one of his interesting pictures or articles. If you have that trouble too, don't lose patience: try again! It's worth being tenacious to get his excellent material. NOTE:  I've just read that as of Oct. 31, 2008, all AOL home pages will be shut down. I wonder what will happen to Bill's page?

•  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.

• 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.

•  ASTRO IMAGE WEBSITES are found in abundance on the Net, including ones by the current leaders in the field (such as Robert Gendler, Russell Crowman, or my friend Chuck Vaughn: we all have those sites bookmarked by now!) But here are a few done by amateurs who have devoted countless hours of time, and their own money, merely to share their remarkable work. I often refer to these sites in order to confirm a detail I think I've spotted by eye, with a fabulous picture.

    Gregg's Astronomy Page is a beautiful amateur imaging site, done by an enthusiast who has an eclectic interest in anything that can be captured by a telescope and CCD: extremely instructive for those of us who want to know exactly what the potential of a good mass- produced commercial telescope might be (featuring results achieved by a Meade 10" f/10 SCT with focal reducers; a Losmandy G8; and standard imagers and software.) Gregg began in the 1960s, now achieving at his "Albert Ruppel Observatory" (dedicated to his father) a remarkably productive backyard facility, complete with dome. A boyhood dream come true!

    Dave Briggs' CCD Imaging Site: I like David's monochrome images because he does not use a LOT of processing, and many of them resemble optimal eye-views. He has also done very useful finder charts for some objects.

    Glen Youmann's Astrophotos Many unusual objects are found here, such as Sharpless and Van den Bergh nebulae, not often targeted by other amateurs. He works in very dark sites in pristine California skies; his color images are often spectacular.

    Jim's Astrophotography Site by James Janusz. Both film and CCD images, monochrome and color: including unusual objects; a very helpful page when a POSS plate does not have much usable data for a faint, large nebula.

    William's Home Page: William R. Mattil is one of the contributors to sci.astro.amateur whose posts I always try to read, especially if he's done a new image he wants to share. He has worked in all astro imaging media, for decades: and his experience is shown in the excellence of his work.

    Astrophotography by Anthony Ayiomamitis: Stunning, stunning... but unfortunately his Greek server is sometimes a bit "iffy". Worth the wait!

    Astroimaging by Mike Chapa: inspiring! Some of his RGB images, such as his "Rosette" nebula, rival Gendler or Crowman.

    Deep Sky: Astrophotography by George Greaney: George's articles and reviews in Sky & Telescope have long brought me much pleasure and instruction. And he's not merely a critic, but also a fabulous photographer too! Dr. Greaney is an anesthesiologist by profession, so his film and CCD astro images are strictly a hobby, but he's achieved the highest level of accomplishment.

    Dave Jurasevich's Images of the Universe site currently has on its front page the most spectacular monochrome Horsehead I've ever seen. Dave, a mechanical engineer by profession, has produced such wonders of achievement as to make it hard for me to find enough adjectives or analogies with which to convey my awe!

    Daniele Gasparri is a 24-year-old amateur astronomer who lives in Perugia, Italy. He has been interested in astronomy since childhood, and now owns a number of nice instruments, including a good refractor and a Celestron C-9.25. His images are often quite superb, including his solar work (high resolution sunspots that are as detailed as any I've ever seen by eye: hard to photograph with amateur equipment!) His planetary pictures are excellent, and even his nature images are superbly done, and quite charming.

    Steve Crouch's CCD ASTRONOMICAL IMAGES FROM CANBERRA features southern hemisphere celestial glories that we northerners envy. I was stunned by his images of globular clusters, done with a C-14: especially 47 Tucanae, and the highly obscured NGC-6380. His other deep sky shots are wonderful, too: such as his "Centaurus A", and an NGC-253 that looks so real it's as if you're approaching it at Warp 6 in the "Enterprise"!

    Ray Gralak's CCD Images, including his supplementary page of Hydrogen-alpha pictures, features an awesome collection of material that has been gathered by his excellent scopes "from my light-polluted backyard in San Jose, California" according to Ray: an inspiration for people who think that it's impossible to live near your work, and also to do great astronomy. Some of his pictures of faint nebulae -- such as NGC-281-- are equal in resolution and depth to those taken in desert or rural skies; yet he's close to about a million people (and perhaps nearly a million streetlights!)

    The Grasslands Observatory website is an awesome accomplishment; one can only marvel at the work expended in the creation of the "3towers Observatory" in Tucson, Arizona at the home of Tim Hunter, a Professor in the Department of Radiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona, who has been an amateur astronomer since 1950. In addition. Dr. Hunter is partners with James McGaha, who is the Director of the Grassland Observatory, which boasts a 24-inch aperture f/5 telescope. There photos and CCD images are often quite stunning, the recent color work being state-of-the-art. Don't miss their interesting Essays page. Of particular interest to me was their article and pictures from their unique Photographic Messier Marathon; but in truth, the site has enough treasures to keep you fascinated for weeks!

    Images from the Universe by Andrea Tamanti is a website that will confound you. When you first visit and bring up his page of the latest astro pictures he has taken, you'll blink in astonishment. "What -- is this the HUBBLE telescope website?" is the thought that came to my mind. For the images of galaxies and nebulae often have the clarity, precision, and depth of the images taken by that famous 100" telescope in space -- but instead are achieved by means of a 12" home-made Ritchey f/8 instrument -- in the midst of light-polluted Rome! Don't miss this amazing adventure, which is merely the HOBBY of a talented sculptor. I'm still a bit mind-boggled...

    The modest Sicilian astroimager Giovanni Benintende states at the top of his staggeringly-beautiful astrophoto Gallery: "These images have no scientific value, they are for purely artistic purposes." Well, perhaps so; but 20 to 30 years ago no observatory on earth, with few exceptions, could duplicate his amazing work. "Gianni" is truly a sort of amateur David Malin! He uses the cream of equipment, sparing no expense or effort, to photograph at high altitude on the slope of Mt. Etna, in crisply transparent Meditteranean skies that have yielded work that will truly take your breath away: and he only took this hobby up a few years ago, at age forty, following a long-suppressed dream of his childhood. His story gives you faith that life can truly hold out surprises and good fortune to the one who waits. In addition, he kindly provides two small software programs for astrophotographers and imagers. He is internationally recognized now, and the receipient of many awards and publications in distinguished venues. I am only sorry that I have found his website recently; any of my articles mentioning the objects he has imaged would benefit from an appropriate link to one of his portraits (which I shall try, eventually, to add.)

    "CCD Images By Dean Salman and astronomy for the amateur astronomer" is the main portal to a number of beautiful related web sites created by Tucson, AZ. astrophotographer Dean Salman, who is obviously both fabulously talented and fantastically dedicated (as well as being generous to the amateur community: for he supplies some nice Windows™ software for cataloging images, obtaining data for the Moon and planets, and for accessing his website and features by means of cell-phone; plus free astronomy screen-savers.) Dean's articles about astrophotography have helpful information (such as his plans for making a portable wind break), and his new "Sharpless Catalogue Gallery" has staggeringly- beautiful CCD images taken by Dean with his superb equipment.


• REFERENCES: These amateur (or, at least non-commercial) sites have a treasure- trove of information, easier to locate and use than my old charts, astronomy books, and magazines that cluttered up my office up to the last turn of the century. Now, I seldom have to get one of those musty volumes out and crack it open. The preparation and editing done by the webmasters of these wonderful resources will usually be just as good as the reliability of printed volumes -- if not even better. I simply could NOT do my articles without them!

    The NGC/IC Project: Kudos to Robert E. Erdmann and his contributors (including Dr. Harold G. Corwin, Brian Skiff, Steve Gottlieb, etc.) for this monumental project to correct the error-ridden New General and Index catalogues by Dr. J. L. Dreyer. You may even see scans of the original old documents, plus fascinating articles -- with many rare pictures -- about the contributors and discoverers who found the NGC objects by eye, and some of the IC objects with early astrophotography. Now, I won't have to drive to the UC/Lick Observatory library collection in Santa Cruz to see their copy of the original historic catalogues (which I used to do, in the 1980s.) Of course, that isn't all to the good: it means no more stopping at the "Saturn Cafe".

    Wolfgant Steinicke Revised NGC & IC: Wolfgang Steinicke is, in my opinion, one of the two world's finest ranking NGC historians, along with Dr. Harold G. Corwin, a professional astronomer. Steinicke is an amateur, and his interesting biography (in German) is recounted on his extensive website. Recently there seems to have been an unfortunate falling out (over issues regarding claims of copying and lack of attribution) between former contributor Wolfgang and Bob Erdmann (of the NGC/IC Project): now Steinicke has relocated his additions to Erdmann's site on his own valuable Astronomy Pages, most in both German and English. I find Wolfgang's list of NGC & IC Observers, with links to bios and pictures, to be invaluable; and his Revised NGC and Revised IC to have the most reliable data, with the best and most thorough corrections available. In early May 2008, Wolfgang added his new "Historic IC" page, featuring a very thorough spreadsheet containing his corrections of the IC data list plus the "discoverers, dates, instruments, references, and cross identification in other historic catalogues." Thanks, Wolfgang, for your tireless work!

    Messier45.com is the stupendous "front end" for a powerful engine to search for, and plot, countless tens of thousands of deep-sky objects, and to produce the easiest possible downloads from the Deep Sky Survey plates. Need to cross-reference oddball objects? Start here first. Professional programmer Mikkel Steine has also produced some valuable articles about sky objects and observing. I simply wish this was on a CD-ROM computer program that I could install locally on my laptop! Perhaps, someday that could be accomplished.

    Planetary Nebula Finder Page by Professor Benjamin Mauclaire is an easy search gadget for finding PN's in the ESO catalogue, with all pertinent data that you might need to know. PN's are sometimes hard to cross-reference and track down: this website will do it quickly, if you conform to the syntax required (shown by example.) It will also produce handy lists of PN's by constellation (in case they're left out of your star chart software or observing books.) I print the pages using legal-sized paper and keep them with my charts.

    The Whole NGC is a very simple set of pages on Benoit Schillings' website, with hyperlinks that produce Deep Sky Survey download pictures of the New General Catalogue objects. (Be sure also to look at Benoit's excellent amateur pictures on his CCD Web Page.)

    NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) is a very efficient search engine for obtaining professional catalogue data and references to every sky object. It's a very left-brained resource that might not make much sense to beginners, but the more you use it, the easier it gets. VERY obscure objects may be cross-referenced here.

    SEDS Databases, by the "Students for the Exploration and Development of Space": SEDS Messier Catalogue and Interactive NGC Catalog Online, with umpteen subsidiary pages, articles, and links, are the superb work of Hartmuth Frommert, Christine Kronberg, and many other dedicated enthusiasts. There is so much information that one can't possibly chronicle even the most rudimentary overview: just surf, and learn! (I especially appreciate the List of Common Deep Sky Catalogs.)

    The Minimum Aperture Catalogue created by Jere Kahanpää is a project to determine the smallest telescope needed for a visual sighting of any deep sky object, including almost all objects in Uranometria 2000.0. It is a handy resource even if you are NOT interested in trying to determine if, say, open cluster DODZ 1 can be seen in a six inch telescope. Many objects in the constellation lists are linked to drawings and observation reports.

    Robin Gatter's Home Page contains two invaluable reference tables: the Deep Sky Object Cross-Reference Data, and Star Cross-Reference Data, both for Meade LX-200 telescope users, fully documenting and relating the object catalogues in that line of computerized scopes. The information, of course, will be of use to any observer, and in its handy format is one of the quickest ways to find all important and pertinent data about most sky objects.

    Doug Snyder's Planetary Nebula Page is an elaborate amateur resource covering all aspects of information you might need about these objects, including observation reports, lists, and pictures. It is an extraordinarily useful central repository of information and images, which I use constantly. Unfortunately due to some health issues, Doug has not updated his pages for several years (so, I'm sad that he hasn't had time to respond to my notification and include references to my own observations of the very obscure planetary nebulae "in" M-15 and M-22, one of the most interesting sections of his website for certain types of dedicated observers.)

    The Saguaro Astronomy Club has produced invaluable references, which may be downloaded here: the SAC database, and SAC collections of double stars, red stars, and asterisms. You will also find observations of the Herschel 400 objects by Steve Coe, and a general page of observations, sorted by constellation.

    Stars by James B. Kaler is an amazing, phenomenally comprehensive website about...stars. Each week a detailed article is added about a new star; the count is up to nearly 500. Do you need to convert or cross-reference catalogue numbers? Go here! And there are 27 major categories to investigate, from the constellations, through technical articles, to history and philosophy. This site is a major lifetime accomplishment!

    Calsky (for 'the calculated sky') is a customizable, user-friendly website out of Germany (in English at the link given) that allows visitors to set up their own unique, personalized celestial calendar; to obtain planetary, comet, and asteroid positions; and to create sky charts. Planet imagers often use the Calsky simulation for, say, Mars or Jupiter in order to compare with their pictures and to see if they recorded details shown in an ideal depiction.

    The Tutorial Pages on Stephen Tonkin's "Astronomical Unit" website contain succinct articles, and an excellent glossary, that should be used as a reference for high school or adult astronomy beginners. Topics about the science of astronomy include cosmology, the understanding of the heliocentric planetary system, redshift and the scale of the universe, stars and other objects, and celestial coordinates. Amateur telescope topics include polar alignment, star testing, collimation, Barlow lenses, and buying starter telescopes. Good graphics are provided when necessary, but there is a minimum of flashy web-gimmickery, and a maximum of reliable content.

    I believe that the best overall astronomy encyclopedia on the Net is "The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight" by David Darling, a UK professional astronomer and author. I've heard him interviewed at length several times on the "Coast to Coast AM" radio show by George Noory and Art Bell, and find him to be a fascinating exponent of modern cosmology. His encyclopedia is a beautiful work, with excellent graphics and web design, and succinct content for an incredibly large number of topics.

    The Open Library Website and Internet Archive have a large selection of public domain astronomy books and scientific papers from the 19th and early 20th century, which have been scanned beautifully from good quality source copies, now in the public domain. If you have a large, clear monitor showing at least 1024 by 768 pixels, you may often read both pages of a book; smaller screens require some scrolling. Various file formats are also available for downloading. I was stunned at the beautiful quality of some of these volumes, such as David Todd Peck's 1922 textbook on astronomy. The complete list of items takes a while to load as it contains many thumbnail pictures, which are animated GIFs of selected pages. Of course, you can also search for any other topic desired. What a boon to amateur science historians!

    The Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers Astronomical Information Page features their own excellent monthly astronomical calendars (prepared by Dave Mitsky); very useful lists of stars and DSO's for each month (they've thought of everything: clickable links to an information page for each object, with astronomical data and Deep Sky Survey photos, plus even handy printable charts); and numerous other pertinent links for observers who would like to plan their sessions, or at least get a general idea of what's up at a given time. I found that this page worked better in Internet Explorer than in Firefox (version 1.05.0.7) but since there are no popup ads, I am willing to make the "sacrifice" and use it instead of my preferred browser.

    North American amateurs may find a use for a helpful web page provided on the website of the Harvard- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics "MicroObservatory" Online Telescope site: an extensive object search engine that is customized for the organization's automated telescopes, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Amado, Arizona. You may select the categories of Messier objects, galaxies, open or globular star clusters, emission or planetary nebulae, and planets, and then choose the telescope location. The search engine will then tell you "What's Up Today" at those specific geographical locations (which you may easily interpret for your particular longitude and latitude in the United States.) The purpose of the page is to provide help for using their robotic telescopes for imaging, but you need not sign up. For instance: I just determined that near Tuscon, Arizona, on Wednesday 16 May 2007, a total of 86 NGC & IC planetary nebulae will be visible. Since I am only one time zone to the west, and 6 degrees further north in latitude, almost all of these will be visible from my observing site near San Jose. You might be advised to cross-check low declination objects -- and ones that are found near sunset or sunrise -- for your local horizon and time zone, using a good star chart program or planisphere.

    Jose Torres has built a large webpage based on his Observer's Notebook, recording views of -- at present -- more than thirty deep sky objects, mostly obscure but well worth seeking out. He used a 10" Dob, sited at a village in Spain a few miles from the ocean: a slighly light polluted locale that offered NELM of about 6 at the zenith: thus, comparable to the sky darkness at my own observing site in the mountains south of San Jose. I had seen Jose's CCD imaging page last year but only recently, while researching planetary nebula Abell 48, found Jose's visual work (he's one of the three amateurs, besides myself, who have reported visual sightings, or at least suspected ones, of this faint object.) Jose's logs were originally written in Spanish but he's translated them into idiomatic English, and I must say that he is VERY thorough (making my logs seem rudimentary by comparison.) His powers of observation are extremely well developed, and he doesn't miss a detail! Jose has augmented each one with an eyepiece field finder chart (though I think the software program he uses makes the brighter stars look too big for my comfort.) I can only hope that he adds more and more to this list, as I intend to use it as a reference for new objects to seek out.

    A "real" interactive deep sky observing planner (though, compared to software programs, somewhat limited in scope) may be found here: the Framis Group Night Sky Planner 1.0. One may customize this for any viewing locale with geographical coordinates and time zones that are appropriate, and choose from a variety of data sets (Messier objects, the RASC "Finest NGC List", the Caldwell Catalogue, and a number of other selections), and after clicking "submit" the planner will eventually output a large list in your web browser (you may opt to include images, optimal time of highest altitude, and existing remarks, and sort by RA/Dec or constellation.) But, with all the information requested, the list could be quite lengthy (I found that one without the images would require some 43 pages to print out) so perhaps the easiest option is to save it as a web page HTML file; but that seems to be prevented by the web page code (though you can select the text on the page and save it as a text file.) There is thorough documentation of sources, and the information is created from reliable information. If you don't have an "astro planner" software program, this could serve as a stop-gap. Unfortunately, no matter how extensively I tried to adjust the Javascript and cookie options in Firefox 1.5.0.7 I kept getting an error message that a script had stopped working and never got the results; but when I ran the program on Internet Explorer 6.0.26x it worked fine (under Windows XP Home; I can't vouch for it under other circumstances), save that no matter what I tried, it would not SAVE my viewing location and time zone, which has to be entered each time (cookie setting issue?) This little glitch only slightly impacts the usefulness of the site, as long as you keep your viewing location coordinates handy.

    Deep Sky Database is a helpful website by San Francisco amateur astronomer and avid optics and science buff Duane Frybarger that serves as a search engine for the Saguaro Astronomy Club database (version 7.2) of more than 10,000 object records. It is divided into 9 separate online query pages, allowing one to filter the choices very effectively. I just used it to make up lists of double stars with close separation, by constellation; other searches permit selections of planetary nebulae, galaxies, clusters, Herschel lists, and 'unusual' objects.

    Mark Wagner's "Astronomy Connection" monthly observing lists are valuable collections of objects, unlike many others of the same general type because the selections include many obscure items that are rarely viewed. Furthermore, the basic object information is supplemented with viewing comments drawn from posts to the Astronomy Connection's archive of observing reports (including perceptive ones by Mark, Jay Freeman, and the redoubtable Steve Gottlieb.) While the avid observers of Mark's acquaintance generally use large (17-24+ inch) telescopes, I've been able to see and at least appreciate a little of most of these faint nebulae and galaxies with my 10 and 11 inch (and occasionally my 4.7 inch) scopes. Mark posts the link to his newest list each month in the deep sky observing forum of Cloudy Nights, but I have not been able to find a webpage that has collected all of them into individual links. So here are the ones that were available when last I checked:

    February; March; April; May; June; July; August; September; October; November; December; January '08; February '08; March '08; April '08; May '08; June '08; July '08; Aug '08; Aug-Sept. '08; Sep. '08.

    If these URLs change, I'll try to track them down and correct them. (I should point out a very minor error: Mark has made some mistakes in the page titles, which appear in the URL banner of your browser, so that some of the files seem to be for the wrong month. But the actual file names and text will indicate which months they cover; and the objects of course may also be seen in adjacent months though perhaps not optimally.)

    The Ephemeris Tool for calculating a handy chart of the Visibility of Deep Sky Objects is a Javascript function that is just one of the marvelous resources on Ole Nielson's valuable Ole's Astronomy Website. One object I'm always interested in is "Omega Centauri", the great southern globular cluster. It just grazes my site's horizon on one or two nights a year. This calculator includes the globular in the list of pre-programmed objects; or you can specify the coordinates of anything else desired. Your location and other pertinent custom information may be saved as a cookie, if preferred. There are so many worthwhile things on his site -- including marvelous astronomical images -- that I won't bore you with a recitation: just go there and enjoy!.

    Small Wonders by Tom Trusock and What's Up by Steve Coe are complementary monthly columns featuring selected objects from current constellations, both featured on the Cloudy Nights website (and, in my opinion, the best features on that venue.) While Steve Coe is an incredibly experienced observer who's "done it all", and works in dark skies in Arizona, Tom's column tends to be more interesting (with good finder charts, often very well produced images, and comparative notes by other observers.) Both columns are must-reads for me, and -- I hope -- all other deep sky observers, and will help to stimulate the investigation of worthwhile objects.

    "Galaxiengruppen des Hickson - Kataloges": The German amateur astronomer Uwe Glahn has created a very useful series of webpages on the Hickson galaxy groups, with DSS pictures that have mouse-activated identifications of the group numbers (if your browser has Javascript implemented); the pages are written in German but much information may be gleaned even if you do not know that language. Uwe has also supplied on his main website an English language version of his extremely useful and informative illustrated page on The Abell Planetaries. including DSS images and sketches, and his observing notes recording impressions using a 16" scope; I refer to this page very often and recommend it as a very convenient 'clearinghouse' for the challenging Abell nebulae.

    The "Gallery of Planetary Nebulae Spectra", by Karen Kwitter and Dick Henry of Williams College, has been brought to our attention by Sue French, the "Deep Sky Wonders" columnist of Sky & Telescope, who recommends this resource if you wish to determine the prominent nebular lines of planetary nebulae in order to plan effectively for using a specific filter . Over 100 nebulae are catalogued; enter the professional reference ID number of a planetary (DO NOT use Messier numbers; employ NGC or other substitutes, or leave the field blank to bring up the entire list) and then obtain a page with astronomical data about that object, with a link to "Line ID Templates." Clicking that link brings up several PDF files with graphs of spectra. For instance: here is the page for NGC 7009, the "Saturn" planetary nebula in Aquarius (which I've discussed in one of my astro-blog posts.)


• LINKS TO US: Here are a few websites who have mentioned our pages, or list them as suggested links. These are not in any preferential order, other than the sequence found in a Google search, or as added later when we came upon them.

Expect more links when other interesting amateur web pages are found.



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