Favorite Astronomy Links

It'll get better as I get my act together. Trust me.

Pretty Pictures: Everybody likes pretty pictures of the sky. Here are links to some of my faves.

• Astronomy Picture of the Day: a new picture every day, complete with an explanation and plenty of links. Quite possibly the best astronomy site around.
• HubbleSite Showcase: Favorite images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
• Hubble Heritage: A specially-selected set of images from the Hubble Space Telescope, with new images monthly.

What's Up? Tired of just reading about astronomy? Here are some pages with links to what you can go see next time it's dark.

• Sky & Telescope's Observing Page: includes highlights of the week, star charts, lists of deep-sky objects, and more!
• Heavens Above: Primarily a place to learn about observing satellites, including predictions. Ever want to see the International Space Station? Look here to find out when you can see it! The site also includes information on planets, comets, and more.

The Solar System: Roughly in order of distance from the sun:

• The Nine Planets: An extremely nice web site by the Students for the Exploration and development of space. Lots of information, links to pictures and other sites.
• SOHO - the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory: Nearly-live images of the sun and an archive of solar flares, massive explosions, and kamikaze comets.
• MESSENGER Mission to Mercury: Only the second probe to visit Mercury, MESSENGER is en route and should arrive at Mercury to stay in 2011.
• Mars Exploration Rover Mission: The latest from our intrepid rovers Spirit and Opportunity
• Mars Express: A European Space Agency mission currently orbiting Mars and taking stunning high-resolution photographs of the Red Planet.
• Mars Exploration Program: NASA's mars exploration site, including information on past, present and future missions
• Galileo Mission to Jupiter: A NASA site containing information and images from the Galileo space probe, which explored Jupiter from 1995 to 2003.
• Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn: Information, news, and pictures from the ongoing probe exploring the Ringed Planet and its moons.
• Voyager website: These twin spacecraft explored the giant planets in the solar system from 1977 to 1989 and continue to explore the outer solar system today, 10,000 days after launch! These two probes are searching for the edge of the solar system, where the sun's wind runs into the interstellar gases filling the space between stars. The site includes the mission history and photographs of the outer planets.
• New Horizons Mission to Pluto: the first mission to Pluto and the other icy bodies on the edge of the solar system.
• The Deep Impact Comet Mission: This mission will smash an 800-lb lump of copper into the comet Temple 1 on July 4, 2005. We should learn a lot about the structure of comets from this mission.
• Stardust Mission to Comet Wild 2: This spacecraft flew near comet Wild 2 in 2004 and collected dust from the comet. Stardust will land in the Utah desert in January 2006, becoming the first mission to successfully collect and return pieces of a body besides the moon.