Name of Site: A Practical Guide To Astronomy
URL:
www.aardvark.on.ca/space
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: A practical guide to astronomy takes you from things earthbound - theorizing about how the earth might really end - through a guided tour of our solar system and on to such cosmological talking points as the Big Bang and black holes. With an easy interface and some handy diagrams and pictures this site is perfect for getting an overview of the universe or as an introduction for those astro-newbies out there. The quick and easy way to discover just how insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things. - SS
Name of Site: Australian Telescope National Facility
URL:
www.atnf.csiro.au
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: The ATNF operates a set of 8 individual radio telescopes that form the Australia Telescope which has been used for some cutting edge projects such as testing the distortion of space-time near stars to testing general relativity! The website hosts an array of information on astrophysics, current research, technology in use with the Telescope, and if you've got some spare time and some handy research you can even book some observatory time. Apparently however, using the telescope to scope out neighbouring buildings for cavorting naked couples doesn't qualify as valuable research... Sad times. - SS
Name of Site: European Space Agency
URL:
www.esa.int
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Flash, Quicktime
Review: ESA is the European version of NASA, and like NASA they have a HUGE site too, with tons of news and information on space projects in it's 15 member states. With a spectrum of interesting sections - Life in Space, Protecting the Planet and Expanding Frontiers (where you can learn about new technologies), medicine in space and how we can protect the environment, competitions to design technologies for use on Mars, virtual tours of the Zero-G aircraft and videos of spacecraft taking off - you'd better strap yourself down! Good 'Old Europe' is hipper and more spaced out than Mr Rumsfeld thinks. - SS
Name of Site: NASA
URL:
www.nasa.gov
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Flash, Real Player
Review: When you think space, you think of NASA, either that or you start wondering who would win if the Klingons and the Borg had a showdown. Either way this slick site is definitely worth visiting, especially since it's had a massive make-over. With America pouring in the big bucks as part of its global domination strategy, NASA has a lot going on so the content changes frequently here and includes loads of multimedia stuff if you're fortunate enough to be on broadband. But whatever your connection, the final frontier starts here! - SS
Name of Site: SpaceRef
URL:
www.spaceref.com
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Need a Map
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: SpaceRef is posturing itself to become your guide to space on the web. With an encyclopaedia-type navigation of links that reach out through the space-time continuum to bring you the most useful sites in virtually whatever category you can think of, SpaceRef will help you find what you need. If that's not enough SpaceRef has a sister website called Mars Today, which unlike the planet, is teeming with the semi intelligent life of its contributors. SpaceRef, you are up against the might of the US-backed NASA regime, but if you stay away from thoughts of space terrorism, you may well achieve your noble galactic goals unhindered by military intervention. - SS
Name of Site: Zoom Astronomy
URL:
www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: Zoom Astronomy is part of the enchantedlearning website, a comprehensive virtual school online. Consequently the site takes a very schoolroom approach with fact sheets, activities, quizzes and fun things to do, such as finding out your age on other planets. Thanks to Zoom's easy to read style, diagrams and pictures you'll be an astrophysicist in no time. All I know is next time my wife complains about her weight, I'm going to tell her to go to pluto! - SS
Name of Site: Dan's Astronomy Software Collection
URL:
www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/software.html
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: Dan really likes his astronomy, which is understandable since he's a high-powered physics professor. So Dan has spent quite some time collecting links to astronomy-programs. In fact he has over two hundred programs here, from sky atlases to moon clocks to a program that coordinates interactive data reduction and analysis (whatever that means). If you are into astronomy you're bound to find some tool you don't know how you lived without! Personally I'd rather just look up at the sky and go "wow" but you, like Dan, might very well prefer the mathematical approach to inducing awe. - SS
Name of Site: Astronomy Links
URL:
astronomylinks.com
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: You'd never guess what the content of Astronomy Links is... Well OK it's a dead giveaway actually, but at least it lives up to it's name. With an index of forty categories and hundreds of links covering such staples of astronomical society as exotic phenomena and interferometry, Astronomy Links has won awards for it's dedication. So follow their mantra and take a "journey through your universe." Having a link specialist like this certainly beats trawling through a search engine, especially since these guys have taken the time to review and rate each link featured. - SS
Name of Site: Celestia 3D Space Simulator
URL:
www.shatters.net/celestia/index.html
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: Forget paying a million dollars to get on board a Russian space ship, cheap and affordable space travel has arrived! With the Celestia 3D Space simulator you can traverse the universe without leaving your chair. Once you master the somewhat intricate controls you'll be soaring over Alpha Centauri and inspecting Mars from Phobos. Just remember though, there's a reason in sci-fi movies that they always go into suspended animation when travelling through space...There sure is a lot of nothingness out there. - SS
Name of Site: Chandra X-Ray Observatory
URL:
chandra.harvard.edu
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: Chandra is a 45 foot long satellite designed that can observe X-rays from particles up to the last second before they fall into a black hole! It's resolving power is equivalent to the ability to read a stop sign at a distance of twelve miles! And remarkably it runs on the same amount of power as a hair dryer. This site has heaps of info on the Chandra as well as X-ray astronomy in general - and the photo album has some gorgeous shots of nebulae, super novae and starbursts that will make you look at the X-ray machine at your GP in a whole new way. Prepare to have your mind blown as you begin to comprehend just what is going on up there. - SS
Comment on this page
0 comment(s) |