Astronomy Resources for Learning & Research

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    Astronomy Resources
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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around various online resources for learning and researching astronomy and astrophysics. Participants share links to websites, blogs, tutorials, and courses that cover a wide range of topics, including cosmology, exoplanets, and galaxy dynamics. The scope includes both general astronomy knowledge and more technical astrophysics content.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants highlight that many resources are more beneficial for general astronomy rather than astrophysics specifically.
  • Links to various astronomy websites are provided, including those with detailed star information, galaxy maps, and cosmology tutorials.
  • Several participants mention blogs that focus on the technical aspects of astronomy, suggesting they are valuable for those with a deeper interest.
  • Resources for crowdsourcing astronomy projects are shared, indicating a community-driven approach to research.
  • Participants recommend online courses and lecture slides, noting their accessibility and educational value.
  • Some links lead to tools and databases that may assist researchers and students in their studies.
  • One participant expresses appreciation for the shared resources, indicating a positive reception of the contributions.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the value of the shared resources, but there is no consensus on which specific resources are the most helpful for learning astrophysics. Some participants express differing opinions on the effectiveness of certain sites and tools.

Contextual Notes

Some resources may have varying levels of complexity and may not be suitable for all learners. The discussion does not resolve which resources are definitively the best for specific learning objectives.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be useful for students, educators, and anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics through online resources.

Simfish
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Most of the sites here aren't very helpful for learning astrophysics. However, they are amazingly useful for learning more about astronomy in general (and many cover far more than what you will find in any book or textbook)

http://www.solstation.com/ - amazing amounts of detail for many stars

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/sowlist.html

http://www.astro.princeton.edu/universe/

http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/

http://galaxymap.org/drupal/node/23 - amazing maps

For site discovery, this really helps: http://www.google.com/search?q=related:solstation.com (or just google related:[domain address for any astronomy website you really like])

Blogs:

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/10516082170111880850/label/!astro - My astronomy blogroll - note that I tend to be more into the technical side and less into the popular side of astro so you won't see "Bad Astronomy" in there.

Basically, for the technically inclined (but not overly so), some of the best blogs are at http://invaderxan.livejournal.com/, http://www.centauri-dreams.org/, http://lifeunbounded.blogspot.com/, http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/, http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/, http://blogs.zooniverse.org/galaxyzoo/, and http://oklo.org/.

Crowdsourcing astronomy: (the stuff you do is very basic, but the papers are quite technical)

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/

Link Directories:

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/links.html

http://www.reddit.com/r/astro (reddits also have their own discussions, and are very up-to-date)

http://www.reddit.com/r/space

http://www.reddit.com/r/astronomy

http://www.delicious.com/tag/astronomy (huge numbers of links, some very nice, many trivial. But at least very up-to-date [like reddit])

Also, a very interesting way to see the more interesting discussions is to arrange them in order from "most replies" to "least replies". Here are some examples:

https://www.physicsforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=68&daysprune=-1&order=desc&sort=replycount

http://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/top/

Very basic tutorials:

http://donald.phast.umass.edu/~arny/indextut.html

http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/anamunn/Astro500/tutorials_astro101.html

Others:

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/index.htm - not much astro, but really amazing for fields necessary for astro
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Astronomy news on Phys.org
http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~arlin/ASTROTOOLS/astrotools.html => Departmental Tools - very nice list of lots of astro tools

http://www.astro.washington.edu/astrotools.html => another list of tools, but not as comprehensive as above
 
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  • #12
This is so great :) Thanks Simfish.
 
  • #16
Amazing planetary science lecture slides:
http://lasp.colorado.edu/~bagenal/3750/
 
  • #18
Any youtube or open courseware video lectures on there for teaching Stellar Astronomy?
 
  • #19
  • #21
Simfish said:
Amazing planetary science lecture slides:
http://lasp.colorado.edu/~bagenal/3750/
I would like to say Thanks for sharing such a nice video. What a superb collection.