RASC Calgary Centre - Links Page

Page last updated December 12, 2008

Links

Calgary Centre Member Websites

A number of Calgary Centre members and "friends of Calgary Centre" maintain websites which may be of interest to you. This page is intended as a short and incomplete listing of ones we know of. If you think your homepage would fit into this list please drop the RASCwebmaster a note with your website address and a suggested brief, 1 or 2 sentence, description of the site for inclusion on this page.

Several members of our Youth group host homepages with astronomical content. Please visit their sites and check them out.
- Eric Lund

Dan Charrois and his company Syzygy Research and Technology host a site with a strong astronomical theme and featuring his commercially available planetarium program. In addition Dan donates the web resources which we use for this website.

J. Brian Clarke noted science fiction writer hosts a site with a strong theme of writing and astronomy.

Brian Fenerty hosts CALGARY SCENES. Current photos of the Calgary area updated each week and other information of interest.

Robin Kemp hosts Home-Dome. Robin is a machinist and amateur astronomer with an observatory built onto his house. His site describes his "two car garage observatory, with powered dome and telescope, drawings and diagrams, astronomy links".

Deane D McIntyre hosts a page with astronomical and other useful links representing some of his interests.

John Mirtle, a long time Calgary Centre member, hosts a site dedicated to astrophotography. Stop by and check his excellent site out!

Stephen Tonkin, a relatively new member to the Calgary Centre (but not new to astronomy!) has an interesting site, with heavy emphasis on telescope making.

Friends of Calgary Centre

Civilized Adventures - Our partner for international eclipse expeditions.

www.spacealberta.com Wetaskiwin Astro Club member Denis Fell operates this site dedicated to solar system observing and includes optical and photographic articles and technical information. Denis Fell has been an active amateur astronomer since the mid-1970's and is a member of both the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Murray Paulson's Astro pages

Astronomical Sites Recommended by our members - (no particular order)

If you know of a nifty astronomical site please let the RASCwebmaster know

SETI at home Use your computer to assist scientists in analysis of radio-telescope data looking for signals from Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

What time is it in Calgary? Click the link to use Heavens Above's atomic clock page to check your PC's date and time settings.

http://www.winnipeg.rasc.ca/ftp/dtracy/ (link no longer active) - Visual Ephemeris of Uranian moons, by Dennis W. Tracy of the RASC Winnipeg Centre. Recommended by Roland Dechesne.

Solar images from SOHO

Solar Terrestrial Dispatch - Space weather alerts (coronal mass ejections) and a number of commercial and demo software packages such as STD Aurora Monitor. Recomended by Larry McNish.

NEW! Auroral Detection and Early Warning System (ADEC) - In progress of being replaced by: Aurora Chasers Recomended by Larry McNish.

Sundials: Member and avid sundial fan, Roger Bailey, recommends this site explaining that "It has over 100 links to sundial sites with FAQ, pictures, design software, sundial association, etc. It is a great place to start exploring this topic"

http://www.bester.com/Pred/ISS.Calgary_AB_Canada.html (link no longer active) - International Space Station pass predictions for Calgary

Rothney Astrophysical Observatory Open House program - The RAO is a professional observatory owned and operated by the University of Calgary. During the summer months they open the facility for public tours 1 Saturday a month.

Iridium Satellites:
- Iridium Flare and Satellite pass predictions at www.heavens-above.com originally from the German Space Operations Centre. Check if there are bright flares predicted for your site to watch for or avoid in your astrophotography.

Find your precise Lat/Long in North America at this excellent site. Allows query by address for many municipalities or a "map zoom" for sites away from a supported town.

Magnetic Declination from the Geological Survey of Canada. Enter the year and your Lat/Long.

Site run by John Walker, a co-author ofAutoCad.Calgary Centre member Jim Kinnaird recommends this site - "This is an awesome site for lots of topics I'm interested in. For one thing, it has an excellent freeware astronomy program, "Home Planet" and a couple of related screensavers. The features of Home Planet are available elsewhere, but I think the details you can find in the online help make this program worth having. It also has things on math, physics, and a variety of computing topics."

Here's a great Java animation of Earth's artificial satelliteconfiguration suggested by Jim Kinnaird.
Jim has this to say about the site:
Your browser might warn you that this Java applet is requesting a high risk privilege (Displaying windows that don't have the unsigned applet label). I recommend that you grant the privilege. First a page pops up in your browser. There is a delay while the Java applet starts up and downloads information about 500 satellites. Blow up the applet window to maximum size and try out all the dropdown menus. A view that I like is to zoom out a couple of times and select Chandra. The best feature is that you can rotate the image by dragging with your mouse.

The local sky here and now Dave Patte, author of the shareware package "MyStars" offers this interactive site which allows you to enter your location, a direction and a range of times to get a simple sky map for the specified conditions.

Identify Gas Giant moons Ever look through a telescope at Jupiter or Saturn and wonder which moons you are seeing around these giant members of our Solar System? You might like the excellent Planets JAVA application you can access at http://www.cpac.freeserve.co.uk/solar.htm

Amateur Rocketry Sites

Team O-Canada and the Dauphin Rocket Project Team O-Canada launched the most powerful amateur rocket ever at the Roc Lake, Alberta launch site Saturday June 28, 2003.
The Lethbridge Rocketry Association's web site.
The Official Homepage of the Roc Lake Launch Site.
Calgary Rocketry Association The Calgary Rocketry Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to the safe enjoyment and promotion of Model Rocketry.
The Canadian Association of Rocketry (CAR)
The Edmonton Rocketry Club
Calgary Model Rocket Club

Other Alberta Astronomy Clubs

Ancient Light Astronomy Club, Drayton Valley. Ryan Modrall, Box 7948 - 5236 50th Street, Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada, T7A 1S9
Big Sky Astronomical Society, Vulcan. James Durbano, P.O. Box 510, Vulcan, AB T0L 2B0
Edmonton Observers Group Network Lance Taylor Edmonton, Alberta
Lethbridge Astronomy Society Rick Ponomar, P.O. Box 1104, Lethbridge, AB T1J 4A2
Medicine Hat Astronomy Club Thor Jacobson, P.O. Box 24008, RPO Crestwood, Medicine Hat, AB T1A 8M8

RASC Calgary Centre - Observer's Information
Links pertaining to more current sky information have been moved to the Monthly Sky Highlights page

Astronomy Education - Internet Curriculum Connections
Resources for Science Educators and Students

The Internet has numerous sites for teachers and students to learn more about astronomy and the related space sciences. The best way to look for appropriate sites is to do a "net search" utilizing one of the many available search engines like Yahoo, Web Crawler, etc. Just type in some key words (like solar system, or Neptune) and check out the sites the search engine will retrieve. Below are some sites which contain relevant material to the Sky Science unit. If you go to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada web site (listed below) the links are ready for you to click on them. Please note that internet addresses often change. Use any of the below sites to link with other related sites.

Contents

General Internet Stuff
Local Resources
General Astronomy
Solar System
Space Flight
Internet Sites for Students
Light Pollution

General Internet Stuff

Google - the Google Search engine
Yahoo - the Yahoo Search engine

Local Resources

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Calgary Centre - Local Astronomy club. Look for monthly sky highlights and other related internet links
The TELUS World of Science
The Edmonton Space & Science Centre

General Astronomy

Sky & Telescope Homepage - Lots of good stuff on astronomy
NASA's Spacelink - Contains information packages on many space related subjects
Space Science News
NASA Space Calendar - Lists upcoming astronomy and space flight events
Eric Lund's website a site maintained by the Youth Group of the Calgary Centre of the RASC..
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Center
A list of the World's Largest Telescopes
Astronomy Graphics & Digital Photographs A massive collection of astronomy images of galaxies, planets, stars, NASA, and much more. View world-class photography and art free of charge. It is the digital, online equivalent of a massive image library. Browsing through the library is free, and there are no access charges, registration requirements, or usage limits.
The Universe within 12.5 Light Years - The Nearest Stars
Stars within 20 light years
Stars within 50 light years
An Atlas of the Universe

The Solar System

The Nine Planets - Multimedia tour of the solar system (look under Nine Planets)
http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/ (link no longer active) - The Comet Homepage - Detailed information about bright and faint comets
Canadian Impact Craters - General information provided by the Geological Survey
Canadian Impact Craters - General information provided by Cochise College
Weather Satellite views of the Earth - Look under GOES Satellite Products
Solar Analemma
Sun at Perihelion and Aphelion
- http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=196160
- http://webpages.charter.net/darksky25/Astronomy/Articles/sun/sunindex.html
Moon at Apogee and Perigee
- http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=228640
- http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Apo-Perigee.htm
Great Comets

Space Flight

NASA JPL page
The NASA Homepage
Canadian Space Agency
Space News from Space.com
Space News from Spaceflightnow.com
Galileo Spacecraft Homepage - Past Jupiter Mission
Hubble Space Telescope Homepage - Lots of images plus educational activities
Mars Missions
Cassini Homepage - Launched in October 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004
Stardust - Comet Sample Return Mission. Flew by Comet Wild 2 in January 2004 and returned to Earth in 2006
Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous in February 2000
Deep Space 1 Homepage - Mission to an asteroid (flyby a comet in September 2001)
Iridium Flare and other satellite predictions
The Genesis mission
The ESA Mars Mission
NASA's Deep Impact mission
Canada's Most Mission
Canada's SCiSat Mission
SOHO mission
SIRTF mission

Internet Sites for Students

Star Child - A learning center for young astronomers (Excellent Site)
Planetary Society learning centre.
Canadian Space Agency "Kidspace"
SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space)
JPL
http://www.spacekids.com/ SpaceKids (link no longer active) - from Space.com
Zoom Astronomy
Gander Academy - Many theme pages from "Bats" to "Vikings"!

Light Pollution

I.S.S. and Satellite Links

Iridium Satellites:
- http://www.satellite.eu.org/iridium.html General Information on these recent and often brilliant visitors to our night sky.
- http://www.heavens-above.com Iridium Flare and Satellite pass predictions, originally from the German Space Operations Centre.

Satellite position information:
- http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/JTrack/Spacecraft.html provides I.S.S., Shuttle and Hubble positional information over the Earth. Drop-down menus are provided to customize the list of satellites you wish to view. Note that this web page requires Java to be enabled!!
- http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/Jtrack/3D/JTrack3D.html Another NASA site that allows you to view a 3d model of the Earth and some 500 satellites. You can pick individual satellites, view their orbit, rotate the Earth and zoom in or out. Maximize the size of the window for maximum impact! Note that this is also a JAVA applet, and also requires that JAVA be enabled in your web browser.

General Space Shuttle/International Space Station information:
- http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/index.html General information straight from the folks at NASA.

Information on specific satellites:
- http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/ is JPL's website for the Galileo satellite orbiting Jupiter.
- http://oposite.stsci.edu/ The Space Telescope Science Institute has all the latest on the Hubble Space Telescope.
- http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/ NASA's main web page for the Cassini mission to Saturn.
- http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ The Deep Space 1 space probe has proven to be a highly successful testing ground for new spaceflight technologies.
- http://near.jhuapl.edu/ The NEAR satellite may have landed on the asteroid Eros back in Feb. 12 2001, but the science continues.
- http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ Messenger: Mission to Mercury
- http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/ New Horizons: Mission to Pluto
- http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/ MRO Homepage
- http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/index.html Venus Express homepage
- http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/ Mars Rovers Homepage
- http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/ Dawn: Mission to the asteroid belt
- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/main/index.html Canadian Aurora mission

Links from Steve

Return to main page