Students:  Syllabi are here.

Astronomy 310 Links 

(Listed by Chapter or Section)

Some links have notes after them highlighted in Red

 Introduction 

The nature of Science  (This one is important if you want to understand how my tests work!)  

http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/howscienceworks_01

About Skepticism and the Paranormal

http://skepdic.com/

http://www.skeptic.com

What harm does paranormal thinking cause?  Here's actual examples:

http://whatstheharm.net/index.html

Fallacies of argument

http://www.skepdic.com/ticriticalthinking.html

http://www.freewebs.com/thinkingstraight/Fallacies.htm

Test yourself - watch this & count the number of ball passes... then watch it again

http://viscog.beckman.illinois.edu/flashmovie/15.php

What can you trust on the Web?  (Look at the table at the bottom)

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/1998/jul/teachingundergrads.cfm

Conspiracy “theories”

http://skepdic.com/illuminati.html

Other weirdness

http://www.crank.net/science.html

Scale of the Universe (Powers of Ten)

http://www.cern.ch/CERN/Microcosm/P10/english/P0.html

Lookback time

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/intro/lookbacktimesim.html

Small Scales

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

Observing and amateur astronomy 

http://www.dma.org/~wagner/ast_tel.htm  

    - The local astronomy group for Sacramento  

http://www.svas.org  (If you live in Sacramento, look here)

 Chapter 1 

Applets

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/lunarcycles.html

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/ancientastro.html

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/coordsmotion.html

Constellation myths - The stories behind them  

http://www.comfychair.org/~cmbell/myth/myth.html

http://www.greekforme.com/constellations.html

Interactive skyviewer (see the whole galaxy without the ground in the way)

http://media.skysurvey.org/interactive360/index.html

Why Earth has seasons 

http://www.uwm.edu/~kahl/CoVis/Seasons/

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/coordsmotion/zodiac.html

Lunar phases 

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/lunarcycles/moonphases.html

    - Java Applet  

http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/vphase.html

Lunar months

http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/anisamples/astronomy/sidereal.html

    - See a full Lunar cycle!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991108.html

Solar Eclipses

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/eclipses.html

    - Check out future eclipses

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/lunarcycles/eclipsetable.html

Parallax

http://www.astro.ubc.ca/~scharein/a311/Sim/new-parallax/Parallax.html

 Chapter 2 

Applets - Renaissance astronomy

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/renaissance.html

Ancient civilizations and astronomy  

http://www.sir-ray.com/Ancient%20Astronomy.htm

    - Namoratunga

http://www.bluegecko.org/kenya/tribes/turkana/articles-namoratunga.htm

Venus 

    - Pictures:

http://www.nineplanets.org/venus.html

    - Volcanoes on Venus

http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/images/browse/venus/sifmons.jpg  

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/venus/mgn_gula_mons.jpg

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/venvolc.htm  (Warning - popup windows) 

    - What happened to Venus?  

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/121/nov27/nov27.html  

http://www.astronomynotes.com/solarsys/s9.htm

Earth

http://www.nineplanets.org/earth.html

    - Interior

http://jersey.uoregon.edu/~mstrick/AskGeoMan/geoQuerry8.html

    - Volcano Activity Finder

http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/find_regions.cfm

    - Recent earthquake activity

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php

    - Plate tectonic motions on Earth

http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/plate-tectonics.html

    - Plate motion, past and future:

http://www.scotese.com/pangeanim.htm

http://www.scotese.com/futanima.htm

    - Radioactive Half Lives

http://www.gcse.com/radio/halflife2.htm

    - “Greenhouse” effect vs. Global Warming

http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadGreenhouse.html

    - Global Warming

        - The science behind it:

        - Denial of it:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/06/4_stages_denial.php

http://www.john-daly.com/  

        - Response to deniers:

http://www.astronomynotes.com/solarsys/s11b.htm

        - Effects of sea level rise:

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slrviewer/index.html

    - Ozone and its issues

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/ozone_resource_page.html

    - Tides

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/tides.html

Moon

    - Pictures:

http://www.nineplanets.org/luna.html

Mars

    - Pictures:

http://www.nineplanets.org/mars.html

http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/choices/mars1.htm

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-mars.html  

http://www.msss.com/msss_images/index.html

   - The most detailed and easy to navigate Mars montage yet:

http://jmars.mars.asu.edu/maps/?layer=thm_dayir_100m_v11

    -Google Mars:

    - Percival Lowell and his "canals"

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/M/Marscanals.html

    - The “Face” on Mars

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/mars/face.jpg

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/mars/mgs_cydonia1_processed.jpg

        -- The farce of the "Face" :

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/face.html

    -    - Zoom into the "face" on Mars!

http://www.astronomynotes.com/solarsys/face-zoom.htm

    - Outflow and runoff channels on Mars

http://www.msss.com/msss_images/subject/channels.html

    - The "Mars rock" of 1997 and life:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marslife.html

    - Why getting to Mars happens every two years:

http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/kepler/Kepler.html

    - The Mars Society, advocates for colonizing Mars

http://www.marssociety.org/

    - See what a terraformed Mars would look like

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mfogg/gallery.htm

http://www.xs4all.nl/~fwb/rgb1440.jpg  

Jupiter

    - Pictures:

http://www.nineplanets.org/jupiter.html

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-jupiter.html

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/jupiter.htm

    - Great Red Spot

http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/captions/jupiter/febgrs.htm

    - Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and its impact with Jupiter 

http://www.nineplanets.org/sl9.html

http://www.nineplanets.org/io.html

        - Europa 

http://www.nineplanets.org/europa.html

        - Ganymede

http://nineplanets.org/ganymede.html

        - Callisto

http://nineplanets.org/callisto.html

Saturn

    - Pictures:

http://www.nineplanets.org/saturn.html

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-saturn.html

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/

    - Titan

http://www.nineplanets.org/titan.html

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/?subCategory=10

    - Other moons of Saturn 

http://www.nasm.si.edu/ceps/etp/saturn/sat_icy.html

    - Home site for the Cassini mission: 

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

Uranus 

    - Pictures:

http://www.nineplanets.org/uranus.html

http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/choices/uranus1.htm

    - The odd moon Miranda 

http://www.nineplanets.org/miranda.html

Neptune 

    - Pictures:

http://www.nineplanets.org/neptune.html

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-neptune.html

Pluto

    - Pictures

http://www.nineplanets.org/pluto.html

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-pluto.html

 Chapter 14 

Applets - Solar system debris

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/solarsystemdebris.html

Asteroids

http://www.nineplanets.org/asteroids.html

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/asteroid.htm  

    -Titius-Bode

http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro2201/bodes_law.htm

The Kirkwood Gaps in the Asteroid Belt: 

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?histo_a_ast

Asteroid mining:

Killer asteroids

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/

    - The Tunguska impact in 1908

http://www.psi.edu/projects/siberia/siberia.html

    - Stopping them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_deflection_strategies

    - Figuring out the risks:

http://killerasteroids.org/impact.php

Comets 

http://www.nineplanets.org/comets.html

Meteorites

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/meteor.htm  

http://www.nineplanets.org/meteorites.html

 Chapter 15 

Applets - Extrasolar planets

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/extrasolarplanets.html

Formation Temperatures

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/solar/formationtemps.html

Solar System origins

http://www.nineplanets.org/origin.html

Extrasolar systems 

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog.php (Get today’s exo planet count)

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/atlas/atlas_search.cfm

http://exoplanets.org/

http://media4.obspm.fr/exoplanets/base/index.php

http://www.planetary.org/exoplanets/list.php

http://astronautica.com/detect.htm

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/light/radialvelocitydemo.html

    - Make your own planetary system!

http://www.alienearths.org/online/starandplanetformation/planetfamilies.php

    - Exoplanet Art

http://extrasolar.spaceart.org/extrasol.html 

 The Fringe 

Skeptical resources (again)

http://skepdic.com/

http://www.skeptic.com/

Fallacies of argument (again)

http://www.skepdic.com/ticriticalthinking.html

http://www.freewebs.com/thinkingstraight/Fallacies.htm

End of the world as we know it (failed predictions of Apocalypse)

http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl2.htm

http://alma-geddon.com/lastjudgment.html  (An excellent site!)

    - Sign up for TEOTWAWKI Alerts!

http://www.rowdydow.co.uk/eotw/

2012

http://www.2012hoax.org/  (Your one-stop shopping for 2012 madness)

    - Crystal Skulls

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread357958/pg1 

(Watch out for the nonsense hidden amidst the bits of actual fact!)

    - More end-of-the-world predictions for the near future

http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl18.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl20.htm

Effects of the full Moon

http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html

About claims that the Moon landings were faked:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm  

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/astrology.html

Skeptical views of UFO claims:

http://www.debunker.com/ufo.html

http://www.krysstal.com/ufos.html

    - Everything you ever wanted to know (no matter how depressing) about Billy Meier: 

http://www.iigwest.org/investigations/meier/

Problems with alien abductions:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/aliens/

    - Take the survey!

http://www.abduct.com/survey.php

    - The strange case of Sr. A. Boas that took abductions to a whole new level:

http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/UFOs/boas-abduction.htm  

    - Betty and Barney Hill

http://www.thetriangle.org/news/2005/04/15/SciTech/Ufo-couple.Use.Story.To.Spark.Alien.Abduction.Fear-926219.shtml

   - Fire in the Sky & Travis Walton (A hoax?)

http://www.debunker.com/texts/walton.html  

   - Sleep Paralysis and Alien Abductions 

http://www.skepdic.com/sleepparalysis.html

    - False Memory Syndrome 

http://skepdic.com/falsememory.html

http://www.fmsfonline.org/

Roswell

http://www.csicop.org/si/show/roswell_incident_and_project_mogul

http://skepdic.com/roswell.html

 Looking for life around other stars:

http://www.solstation.com/habitable.htm

The Fermi Paradox 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#Explaining_the_paradox_theoretically

Drake Equation

   - Drake Equation calculators (also different forms of the Equation) 

http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/SETI/drake_equation.html#Try

http://www.classbrain.com/artmovies/publish/article_50.shtml

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/drake-equation.html

http://www.scigames.org/

Radio SETI

http://www.seti.org/ata/targeted-star-search

http://www.seti.org/ata/galactic-center-survey

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/seti1.htm (Lots of ads)

    - The "Wow" signal

http://www.bigear.org/6equj5.htm  

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-wow-signal

    - Help find alien radio signals with SETI @ Home

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/  

Optical SETI

http://www.coseti.org/introcoseti.htm

Interstellar Travel

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/warp.html

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