Central Maryland Area Amateur Astronomy Page

Local astronomy clubs

• Locations
• Contacts
• Schedules
• WWW Pages

Tools for Observation and Planning

• Current weather report and images
• Dark Sky information (sun/moon rise/set, full moons)
  Sunrise/Sunset/Twilight and Moonrise/Moonset/Phase for your U.S. location (USNO).
• What's up? USNO's monthly Sky Facts page.
• Astronomical League observing programs
• Current Earth Satellite Predictions
• Telescope Buying Guide
• Custom plans for a Dobsonian Telescope Mount.
• Improving Night Vision
• A Telescope Controller Project

Local Occultations

• David Dunham's An Introduction to Grazing Occultations
• Local Grazes: Late August - Early October 1996
• Asteroid Occultations
• IOTA Homepage
  (The International Occultation Timing Association)

Impact craters as viewed by NOAA weather satellites

• Some Canadian impact craters from data captured by the JHU/APL ground station.

Star Parties

• Sky & Telescope list of Star Parties

For beginners:

• Information Center for New Star Gazers by Dan Murry.

Astronomical Stories

• Tom Van Flandern's 1994 Eclipse Edge Expedition to Chile
  • The longest eclipse duration is at the centerline
    Not necessarily.
  • Well, the best place to view a solar eclipse is at the point of longest duration
    Not necessarily.
  • Check out the above interesting report to find out why.
• Interview with Dave Kratz.
  • A few questions and answers about Dave's prolific observations.

Local Politics related to Amateur Astronomy

SOS: Save Our Sky

• The problem: a drastic increase in light pollution, soon.
• What can be done?.
• Access to local TV: make yourself heard.
• Write to these addresses.
• Maryland Port Commission is having a public meeting, Tuesday Dec. 6th at 11:30 am at the World Trade Center in the J. L. Stanton Rm. on the 20th floor.

News Groups

• Amateur Astronomy (sci.astro.amateur)
• Astronomy (sci.astro)
• Research (sci.astro.research)
• Planetariums (sci.astro.planetarium)
• Space & Planetary Science (sci.space.news)
• Shuttle (sci.space.shuttle)

Random items from the net

• Instantaneous sound of meteors.
  • Fairly long post by a physicist that has modelled this effect.
• Meteoroid cloud shining by reflected sunlight in space?
  • Fairly convincing report of a faint, short-lived glow in Perseus just before the peak activity of the 1993 Perseids.

Galleries of Images and Information

• Views Of The Solar System
  • Excellent source for solar system information and images.
• The Nine Planets
  • Another excellent Solar System resource.
  • Alternate site 1
  • Alternate site 2
  • Alternate site 3
• A Messier Album of CCD images.
• Another good Messier Album
• Sky Photography by Tom Polakis

Astronomical Internet Resources

• The Universe Today
  • Space Exploration News from Around the Internet.
• Astronet
  • Astronomy news source.
• Astronomy Servers
  • Links to a large number of Astronomy Servers.
• Astroweb Category Listing.
  • Links to publications, societies, libraries, newsgroups, meetings, archives, jobs, telescopes, people, ...
• Astronomy and Space Sciences.
  • Online Astronomy resources organized by the Dewey system.
• University of MD Astronomy Department Home Page
  • Astronomy courses at U. of MD
  • Astronomy meetings at U. of MD.
  • Links to other internet resources.
• AstroWeb Main Page.
  • Various lists of links to astronomical resources.
• Astronomical Book Reviews
  • Reviews of astronomically related books.
• Mike Boschat's Astronomy Page
  • Links to a large number of Astronomy Servers.
• Other Amateur Astronomy WWW pages
  • Ames Area Amateur Astronomers
  • Tallahassee Astronomical Society
  • Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• ftp sites of astronomical interest
  • Compiled by Bart Declercq of Belgium and posted to sci.astro.
• Astro-Mart
  • World-Wide Astronomy Flea-Market
  • Advertisemnts for Astronomy related items
• Richard Dibon-Smith's Astronomy Page
  • The Constellation of the Week.
  • The Visual Binaries (orbit charts).

Interesting personal home pages

• Sky Photography by Tom Polakis
• Bo Frese Rasmussens homepage