Astronomy Games for Kids

https://wordfinderx.com/blog/space-games/ - A great collection of games for kids with an Astronomy Focus. Suggested by Katie Hylton ( Thanks, Katie!)

https://word.tips/space-solar-system-games/ - A nice collection of Astronomy and space learning activities for kids. Suggested by Zane Robertson (Thanks, Zane!)

Astronomy in Media

https://octaneseating.com/blog/astronomy-in-media - A very interesting and entertaining “educational guide centered around astronomy & science and its relationship with film & television throughout history.” Take a look - I think you will enjoy this one! (Thank you Devin Boudreaux!)

Astronomy Resources For Kids (Both young and old!)

https://blog.aaastateofplay.com/2022/02/astronomy-resources-for-kids.html - A wonderful collection of astronomy related resources for kids! Suggested by Abigail Lynwood and Eliza from the Lyndhurst STEM Club for Girls in the Lyndhurst School District of New Jersey.  (Thanks Abigail and Eliza - this is a great addition!)

https://naplab.com/guides/sleeping-under-stars-planets/ - a nice collection of links about exploring the planets and the solar system, an introduction to the constellations, and general info on astronomy in general. (Thanks to Michelle and Payton who brought this link to my attention!)

https://www.ucf.edu/online/engineering/news/five-stem-space-activities/ - An interesting collection of activities that can be done to foster interests in STEM, Space science and Astronomy! - (Thanks Danielle, for suggesting this!)

https://www.snappywords.com/knowledge/navigating-the-stars-a-young-learners-guide-to-astronomy A Young Learner’s Guide to Astronomy - with additional resources and links. (Thanks to Ada for suggesting this link!)

Black Holes

https://science.nasa.gov/universe/black-holes/ - Nasa’s Great Overview of Black Holes

https://discover.join1440.com/topics/black-holes - 1440’s excellent overview of Black Holes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole - Wikipedia’s Aticle on Black Holes

Calculators

http://astronomy.tools - Great collection of calculators for determining the field of view, image scale, camera/scope suitability, etc.

Constellations

https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/ - great list of constellations and constellation star charts.

https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/88constellations.html - a simple list of Latin names and English names or descriptions for all constellations

https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/c/Constellation - list of constellations and where they came from.

https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-map/ - simple maps of the constellations for the north and southern hemisphere.

https://www.halloweencostumes.com/constellations-mythology.html - A nice summary of constellation methodology and information for those interested in learning more. Bought to my attention by a reader - thanks, Stacy!

Cosmology

(note - looking for recommendations for more relevant links for this section!)

https://discover.join1440.com/topics/big-bang - 1440’s overview of concepts around the Big Bang!

Dark Skies

https://www.darksky.org/ - If you are doing astrophotography, you have to support dark skies!

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ - check out this high res map of light pollution for your areas - or for areas you are planning to travel to!

Data Science and Astronomy

https://datascienceprograms.com/learn/the-role-of-data-science-in-astronomy-and-interstellar-exploration/ The Role of Data Scince in Astronomy today. (Thanks to Susan and Amelia for suggesting this interesting link!)

Deepsky Object Catalogs

Overview of Deepsky Catalogs

http://messier.obspm.fr/xtra/supp/cats.html - An overview of most of the main catalogs dealing with Deepsky Objects

http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/Dic?Sim - Dictionary of Nomenclature of Celestial Objects

Messier Catalog

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-messier-catalog -NASA does the Messier list with some of the best images ever taken of each object! Descriptions and some finder charts (somewhat crude but useful).

http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-messier.html - Sea and Sky’s reference page on the Messier List. Some nice images and descriptions.

https://www.go-astronomy.com/messier-objects.htm - Go Astronomy’s Messier page - nice whole sky map, descriptions, and images.

https://www.wwu.edu/astro101/a101_messier.shtml - Spanel Planetarium’s Messier guide - nice images.

http://www.messier.seds.org/data2.html - Nice Messier list with images, descriptions, and cross-links to other related data.

NGC/IC Catalogs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NGC_objects - Wikipedia has the full NGC list built-in!

https://in-the-sky.org/data/catalogue.php?cat=NGC - In-thesky.org has a nice NGC with data, images, visibility for various locations, etc.

http://spider.seds.org/ngc/ngc.html. SEDS database of the NGC 0 search and find - cross-links to more data.

http://news.sky-map.org/group?id=21#:~:text=The%20Index%20Catalogue%20(IC)%20%E2%80%94,to%20the%20New%20General%20Catalogue. - News @ Skys has a nice NGC list where you can see lots of different images taken of a selected item.

http://www.emilivanov.com/CCD%20Images/Catalog_NGC.htm - Emil Ivanov’s NGC list - nice reference

http://www.emilivanov.com/CCD%20Images/Catalog_IC.htm - The IC version of Emil Ivanov’s reference.

Caldwell Catalog

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-caldwell-catalog - Nasa’s version of the Caldwell Catalog - some of the best images you will ever see of these objects!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldwell_catalogue - Wikipedia does a really nice job of covering the Caldwell Catalog!

Bernards Catalog

https://in-the-sky.org/data/catalogue.php?cat=Barnard&const=1&sort=0&view=0&page=2 in-the-sky.org has an online listing of Barnard objects - one of the very few that I have seen.

Sharpless Catalog

http://www.sharplesscatalog.com/default.aspx - a nice site dedicated to Sharpless and the objects in his list

http://galaxymap.org/cat/list/sharpless/1 - Nice image and info

http://www.astromaster.org/oggetti/sharpless_data/Sharpless_r.pdf - This is a great downloadable PDF file that is an atlas for the Sharpless Catalog. The full catalog, along with star charts, finder fields, survey plates, and other images. A very handy resource!

http://astro.neutral.org/sharpless/sharpless-catalogue-list.html - This is a great comprehensive list of the Sharpless Catalog.

Herschel Catalog

https://www.stellar-journeys.org/Herschels%20and%20their%20Catalog.pdf - A nice history of the Herschels and their work!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_400_Catalogue -A nice description of the Herschel 400 list and well as the list it self, with cross-references to Messier and NGC designations and other hot links. Very handy!

https://www.go-astronomy.com/herschel-objects.htm -An online reference for the Herschel 400 list.

https://archive.org/details/generalcatalogue00hersrich/page/4/mode/2up - The complete online text of “A general catalogue of nebulæ and clusters of stars, arranged in order of right ascension and reduced to the common epoch 1860.0 (with precessions computed for the epoch 1880.0)” by Herschel, John F. W. (John Frederick William), Sir, 1792-1871

https://zenodo.org/record/1432282/files/article.pdf A downloadable Scan of "Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars" (PDF). By William Herschel. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 76: 457–499. Bibcode:1786RSPT...76..457H

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rstl.1802.0021 A downloadable scan of the "Catalogue of a Second Thousand of New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars; with a Few Introductory Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens", by William Herschel. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 79: 212–255. Bibcode:1789RSPT...79..212H. doi:10.1098/rstl.1789.0021.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rstl.1802.0021 A downloadable scan of "Catalogue of 500 New Nebulae, Nebulous Stars, Planetary Nebulae, and Clusters of Stars; with Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens", By William Herschel. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 92: 477–528. Bibcode:1802RSPT...92..477H. doi:10.1098/rstl.1802.0021.

https://ia903207.us.archive.org/20/items/jstor-106639/106639.pdf - Anotehr PDF of “Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. By William Herschel, LL.D. F. R. S.”. This one is a little cleaner.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Catalogue_of_a_Second_Thousand_of_New_Nebulae_and_Clusters_of_Stars%3B_With_a_Few_Introductory_Remarks_on_the_Construction_of_the_Heavens._By_William_Herschel%2C_L_L._D._F._R._S._%28IA_jstor-106695%29.pdf - This a clener doenlaodbale PDF of “Catalogue of a Second Thousand of New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars; With a Few Introductory Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens. By William Herschel, L L. D. F. R. S.” from Herschel, William, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/108864.pdf - scan of “Catalogue of Nebulcc and Clusters of stars” by Sir John Herschel 1863

https://www.faintfuzzies.com/Files/Herschel%20400-I%20v1.pdf - Herschel 400 part 1

https://www.faintfuzzies.com/Files/Herschel%20400-II%20v1.pdf - Herschel 400 part 2

https://www.faintfuzzies.com/Files/Herschel%20Part%20III%20v1.pdf - Herschel 400 part 3

Arp Catalog

https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Arp_contents.html CalTech’s Complete ARP Catalog list with plate images of each object.

https://arpgalaxy.com/ - A great overview of the ARP’s Catalog and some great cross-links to images and more info.

http://www.astromax.org/arp/index.ht - The American Association for Amateur Astronomers list of ARP objects with survey plate images.

vdB Catalog

http://www.emilivanov.com/CCD%20Images/Catalog_VdB.htm - Emil Ivanov’s vdB list - nice reference

LBN Catalog

http://cdsads.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1965ApJS...12..163L&data_type=PDF_HIGH&whole_paper=YES&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf - This is a link to the original paper written by Beverly T. Lynds on the Catalog of Bright Nebulae.

LDN Catalog

Still have not found a great reference here. If you have one, please let me know!

DWB Catalog

http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1969A%26A.....1..270D&data_type=PDF_HIGH&whole_paper=YES&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf - Paper covering the emission nebula in Cygnus X, including a catalog of emission object studied.

Simeiz Catalog

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=sim&NbIdent=cat&Radius=2&Radius.unit=arcmin&submit=submit+id - A list of the SIM objects. This one is a bit esoteric.

The Local Group

https://www.faintfuzzies.com/Files/LocalGroup%20v2.pdf - The galaxies consisting of our own Local Group!

Quasars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_quasars -A list of Quasars in Wikipedia

https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/milliquas.html - MILLIQUAS: The Million Quasars Catalog, Version 8

Wolf-Rayet Stars

http://www.pacrowther.staff.shef.ac.uk/WRcat/ An online catalog of all of the known examples of these massive stars!

Forums

https://www.cloudynights.com/ - In my option, this is the best Astro-based forum out there today.

General Astronomy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy - Wikipedia’s overview of the topic of Astronomy

https://www.space.com/16014-astronomy.html - Space.com has a great article looking over the realm of Astronomy

https://www.elevators.com/space-elevators-astronomy/ - An interesting discussion of the concept of Space Elevators, along with a some great links on general astronomy. Suggested by Dorothy Mayer and her student Mila (who found this link)- thanks for the great addition!

Mars

(note - looking for recommendations for more relevant links for this section!)

https://discover.join1440.com/topics/mars - 1440’s excellent overview of the planet Mars, along with a rich collection of articles and videos on topics related to Mars. Very well done.

Moon

Maps

https://cseligman.com/text/moons/moonmap.htm

https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/map/Moon/Geology/Unified_Geologic_Map_of_the_Moon_GIS_v2

https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/resources/moon-map/

Phase

https://www.moonpage.com/ - Lookup the Moon phase for any date

https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/ - Simple Lunar Phase calendar

https://stardate.org/nightsky/moon - Lunar phase calendar and calculator

https://stardate.org/nightsky/moon - Phases and calculator

http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/phasescat/phasescat.html  Six Millennia of phases!

Planets

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/planets/ Nice overview on planets and planet exploration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets Wikipedia Entry

https://theplanets.org/ Great site that covers the planets in our solar system!

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/series/planets/ Nova series on the planets!

Planning

https://telescopius.com/ - Convenient online resource for planning and target selection

https://www.astrobin.com/ Preeminent Worldwide Astrophography site - great tools for exploring objects by constellation - very useful for planning purposes.

Pixinsight Image Processing

Pixinsiights’s Channel in YouTube. A great set of introductory videos for Pixinsight.

Pixinsight Part 1 of 12  total beginners tutorial. Mitch's Youtube Tutorial Series - a GREAT place to start your Pixinsight journey

https://www.ip4ap.com/2020-Primers/PI_Primer_2020.htm. Free primer on Pixinsight

https://tinyurl.com/t7z2k7cn - An amazon link to Warren Keller’s Book “Inside Pixinsight”

https://www.harrysastroshed.com/pixinsight/pixinsight%20video%20html/Pixinsighthome.html Harry’s Astroshed Pixinsight tutorials

https://barrywilson.smugmug.com/PixInsight-Tutorials - Barry Wilson’s tutorials on SmugMug

https://thecoldestnights.com/2020/06/pixinsight-dynamic-narrowband-combinations-with-pixelmath/ - some nice stuff on band

blending and mixing

https://www.youtube.com/c/adamblock - Adam Block’s free Youtube Channel. Adam’s stuff is the best in my opinion.

https://www.adamblockstudios.com/ - This is Adam Block's premium Pixinsight instruction service. VERY pricey - but worth it if you really want to get a better understanding of how to use Pixinsight well.

Cosgrove’s Cosmos 2-Minute Tutorials Series on Youtube. This is a series of short video (ok not quite 2 minutes - some go longer!) that take one apsect of Pixinsight and focuses a short practical tutorial on it. A more organized and curated view of this series can be seen on this website HERE.

https://www.youtube.com/@anotherastrochannel2173 - This is Bill Blanshan’s channel - he creates great Pixinsight Scripts.

https://www.youtube.com/@rrcroman - Russel Croman’s Channel - cerator of great AI software!

Deconvolution

https://astrodoc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Sky-and-Telescope-July-2017-Deconvolution-article.pdf - A well-written article by Ron Brecher on the use of deconvolution, which appeared in Sky & Telescope

https://jonrista.com/the-astrophotographers-guide/pixinsights/proper-use-of-regularized-richardson-lucy-deconvolution/ - A really useful article written by Jon Rista, where he describes the use of Wavelet Regularization to handle noise rather than an object mask: 

https://cosgrovescosmos.com/tips-n-techniques/using-deconvolutioninpixinsight-part1-introduction - My own article on the use of Deconvolution - a series in 7 parts

https://www.pixinsight.com/examples/M81M82/index.html - written by Juan Conejero of Pixinsight, offering a Deconvolution and Noise Control Example with M81/82.

Platesolving

https://nova.astrometry.net/upload - Great online platesolving tool

https://www.hnsky.org/astap.htm - fastest and best local platesolve solution that works well with SGP.

https://planewave.com/software/ - This page lets you download platesolve2, another stand-alone platesolving solution.

Quasars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar - A great summary of Quasars in Wikipedia

https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Quasars.pdf - Visually observing Quasars!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_quasars - Quasar Images!

Societies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronomical_societies#United_States - nice list of Astronomical Societies in the US.

https://aaa.org/ - Amateur Atronomers Association

https://aas.org/ - The American Astronomical Society

https://www.aavso.org/ - The American Association of Variable Star Observers

https://www.astroleague.org/ - The Astronomical League

https://www.astroleague.org/astronomy-clubs-usa-state - Local club listings by the Astronomical League.

http://herschelsociety.org.uk/ - The Herschel Society

https://www.iau.org/ - The International Astronomical Society

 https://www.planetary.org/ - The Planetary Society

https://ras.ac.uk/ - The Royal Astronomical Society

https://www.rochesterastronomy.org/ - The website for our local Astronomy Section of the Rochester Academy of Science (ASRAS)

https://www.webbdeepsky.com/ - Quoting from their website: “The main purpose of the Society is to encourage amateur observations of double stars and 'deep-sky' objects such as star clusters and nebulae, and to provide a forum where observers can communicate and publish the results of their work.”Star Charts Online

https://stellarium-web.org/ - This is the online version of Stellarium

https://theskylive.com/planetarium -The SkyLive has a nice interactive planetarium view

https://www.google.com/sky/ - Google maps in the sky!

Software

Planetarium Software

https://stellarium.org/ - Stellarium - Outstanding and powerful Software for exploring the night sky - FREW

https://www.ap-i.net/skychart/en/start - Cartes du Ciel is another fine opensource planetarium package that is open source!

Guiding Software

https://openphdguiding.org/ - PHD2 - The gold standard of guiding software. It does it all, and does it well. PHD stands for “Push Here Dummy!”. Opensource - Free!

Sequence Control Software

https://astrophotography.app/ Astro Photography Tool was my first sequence control package. Easy to learn. Demo available but this is premium software but with a very reasonable price.

https://nighttime-imaging.eu/ N.I.N.A. : Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy - An astrophotography imaging suite. An amazing and very cable sequence control suite with plug-in capabilities that bring a large set of expanded capabilities to it. This is Open Source software with no fees. I am late coming to NINA, but I can tell you that I have found it very powerful and pretty easy to learn to use. Frankly - I am now sure why I would spend money on other software with this being available - but that is just my opinion.

https://www.sequencegeneratorpro.com/ Sequence Generator Pro - a powerful sequence control package that is relatively easy to learn. Most of my images were captured with this software. This is premium software with a yearly license fee.

https://software.starkeeper.it/ Voyager Astrophotography Automation tool. Well written, very capable. This software has amazing flexibility. It is however, premium software with a bit of a higher price point, but may be just what you are looking for!

Supernova

https://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html  Unique resource on the latest Supernova reports

Wolf-Rayet Stars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf%E2%80%93Rayet_star - Wikipedia’s overview of these exotic beasts!

https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/w/wolf-rayet+star - The Cosmos Encyclopedia of Astronomy entry on Wolf-Rayet Stars.

https://www.universetoday.com/24736/wolf-rayet-star/ Universe Today’s discussion of Wolf-Rayet Stars

YouTube Channels

https://www.youtube.com/@cosgrovescosmos - Cosgrove’s Cosmos - My own YouTube Channel!

https://www.youtube.com/@PixInsight - The Offical Pixinsight Channel!

https://www.youtube.com/@VisibledarkAstro - Visible Dark Astro - A great Astrophotography channel

https://www.youtube.com/@anotherastrochannel2173 - This is Bill Blanshan’s channel - he creates great Pixinsight Scripts.

https://www.youtube.com/@rrcroman - Russel Croman’s Channel - A creator of best-in-class smart AI tools. These tools have revolutionized my processing workflows!

https://www.youtube.com/@ChucksAstrophotography - Chuck’s Astrophotophotography - a fun and extensive Astro Imaging Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@AstroBackyard - Astro Backyard - This was the very first Asto Imaging channel I happened onto when starting my own Astrop Photo Journey.

https://www.youtube.com/@DylanODonnell Dylan ODonnell - some great and fun content here!

https://www.youtube.com/@CuivTheLazyGeek Cuiv - The Lazy Geek - Fun and very informative! A lot of great and useful content!

https://www.youtube.com/@astroshed Chris Woodhouse’s Channel - great image processing content

https://www.youtube.com/@PatriotAstro - Patriot Astro - A great channel with lots of detailed “How To” videos. THE place to go when first learning N.I.N.A. ! Some great videos on buying and setting up mini-pcs for use in astro imaging.

https://www.youtube.com/@setiv2 - Seti Astro - creates free, fun, and useful astro processing scripts for Pixinsight. Some real jewels in here. I don’t use them all, but many have become standard tools for me!

Weather

https://www.astrospheric.com/ - Astropherics - The best weather site for astronomy and astrophotography. Free level and premium level. The Premiu level is worth it in my mind. CLoud predicitons way out - short term and details smoke plume predicitons.

https://clearoutside.com/  Clear Outside - is associated with the Astronomy.tools website.

https://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/ - Clear Dark Sky -This is a very popular clear night predictive map for the next week.

http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/satellite/ - Weather satellite images of your regions. See where the clouds are!

https://www.weather.gov/idp/ridge2landing - This cool site will show you Live radar maps for your area!

https://weather.ndc.nasa.gov/GOES/ - One of the best sites for getting satiliite views of a larger region and your local region (Provided to me by Gary Opitz - thanks Gary!)