Online Astronomy Resources

There are many great resources available online to support your learning in the astronomy module of the course. In this post, which I’ll update as we go along, I’m going to list a few of my personal favourites, some of which link directly to the required course content but others are included as a way for you to broaden your knowledge – and even have a bit of fun.

If you want to observe some of the artificial satellites that are in orbit around the Earth then go to the Heavens-Above website. The launch page greets you with an illustration showing the position of the International Space Station (ISS) right now. To make further use of the website you need to set your location by going into Configuration (on the left of the screen) or clicking on the word “unspecified” in the Location box (top right of the screen). If you enter Jersey you will get a map of the entire Island, on which you can click to set your very own precise location.

From then on it’s just a matter of exploring but I suggest that you take a look at the 10-day predictions for the ISS. This will tell you when and where you need to look in the night sky to watch the Space Station pass overhead. Remember that larger negative numbers mean greater brightness so those are the viewings that will be easiest to spot. And when you make a successful observation, let me know.

To find out more about the sheer number of things in orbit around the Earth, go to the Stuff In Space website. This is an interactive animation showing not just useful satellites but also discarded rocket boosters and even debris left over from a satellite collision. Everything is shown as a dot – and there are LOTS of dots to see. Click on any dot to reveal the details about that particular item. You can also zoom in / out and rotate the animation. Consult the Help menu for more information about how to use the website.

There are several video that are worth watching, all of which are very short (under 10 minutes). I particularly recommend the following;

• The Big Bang (Crash Course Astronomy)

• The Life Cycle of Stars (Institute of Physics)

• Geocentric vs Heliocentric (SciShow Space)

• Hubble Deep Field Image (Vox)

For more great videos, head over to the Scale of the Universe website. Here you will find the fantastic Powers of Ten film by Charles and Ray Eames as well as the Huang brothers’ interactive animation and 209s (a video “that will make you question your entire existence”) – the latter being something that was found and recommended independently by one of my students. Happy viewing!