Posts
- Great astronomical objects or events for beginners to observe
- 2024 Eclipse
- Jupiter’s tilt
- Northern lights in Columbia (May, 2024)
Tools
- Sky at a Glance
- Interactive Sky Chart
- COBS – Comet OBServation database
- Skymaps.com – Publication Quality Sky Maps & Star Charts
- Stellarium Web Online Star Map (stellarium-web.org)
Notification Services
You can subscribe to the ATELs for free, then restrict them to alerts about novae. Create an account, confirm it as instructed, and log in to it. Then set your email settings. Choose
Email Frequency > Instantly
Wavebands > Optical
Objects > Nova
Or, you may get a quicker alert from the AAVSO. Create an AAVSO website account using the Login button at the top of the home page. Then, from the homepage go to My Account > Profile > MyNewsFlash > Add a New Subscription. Fill out the boxes there including
Frequency > Real Time
Stars to Report > T CrB
Only Show Observations Brighter Than > 8.5 [for example]
Check No Fainter-Than Observations
Observation Type > Visual (and maybe VISDIG).
That way you won’t be flooded with email for other stars, outlier observational noise for T CrB, and infrared observations of T which normally run between infrared magnitudes 7 and 8.
Websites
- Astronomy Picture of the Day
- NASA
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) – Robotic Space Exploration
- Sky & Telescope
- Heavens-Above
YouTube Videos
Local organizations
- University of Missouri-Columbia Physics and Astronomy Department
- Central Missouri Astronomical Association (CMAA) | Facebook
- Columbia Public Schools Planetarium
Local events
- Laws Observatory, located on top of the Astronomy & Physics building on the UMC Campus in Columbia, Missouri, hosts a number of small telescopes, a computer room and an astronomy exhibit room with a collection of autographed pictures from NASA Mission Control, astronauts, engineers and people connected with NASA. The Observatory is open every Wednesday night from 8 – 10 pm (weather permitting), except holidays.
- The CPS Planetarium have a Saturday event open to the public every month throughout the school year.
National Organizations
Concepts to know
- The objects in the solar system:
- sun
- planets
- moons
- dwarf planets
- comets
- asteroids
- meteors
- rings
- The structure of the solar system:
- The geocentric and heliocentric models
- The inner planets
- The outer planets
- The asteroid belt
- The Kuiper belt
- The Oort cloud
- The relative sizes of the sun, planets, galaxies, etc
- Distances used in astronomy
- Light second
- Astronomical unit
- Light year
- Parsec
- The speed of light
- Gravity
- Electromagnetic radiation
- Nuclear fusion
- The history of manned space flight
- Robert Goddard
- Sputnik
- Mercury project
- Gemini project
- Apollo project
- The space shuttle
- The international space station
- Important unmanned missions
- Voyager 1 & 2
- Cassini
- Mars rovers
- Hubble space telescope
- James Webb space telescope
CoMo Science 