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on-line courses
 
_the nine (eight!) planets An overview of the history, mythology, and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system, compiled by Bill Arnett. Each page has text and images, some have sounds and movies, and most provide references to additional related information.
_the solar system An introductory-level, on-line course from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Tennessee. You will find sections 1 to 8 of particular relevance to PHY105.
_astronomy notes A very comprehensive set of non-mathematical, on-line astronomical notes with some excellent graphics. Written by Nick Strobel of Bakersfield College, California. You will find the notes on Astronomy Without a Telescope and Newton's Law of Gravity of particular relevance to PHY105.
_stephen tonkin Some nice on-line astronomy tutorials. You will find the ones on positional astronomy and time particularly relevant to this course.
_the geometry of the sphere An advanced-level on-line course by John Polking of Rice University, Texas.
_skywise An astronomical comic strip by Jay Ryan which appears in Sky & Telescope every month. You may find the pictures help you to visualise the astronomical phenomena described in these lectures.
_analemma By Bob Urschel. Contains a comprehensive description of this interesting astronomical phenomenon.
software
 
_planetarium software An exhaustive set of links to just about every single piece of planetarium software available on any computer platform, compiled by Bill Arnett. Includes CyberSky, the Windows program used in the lectures to animate the night sky.
_astronomy software Links to astronomical software (much of it free) on the web.
_distant suns A software package which can be used to view the solar system, including detailed renderings of planetary surfaces, from any position in space. It also includes a movie option which enables you to fly-by any planet or group of planets in the solar system. The full version of the program costs about 30 pounds, but it is possible to download a pretty useful trial version for free.
interactive simulations
 
_spherical geometry A java applet to draw triangles on a sphere in your web browser, by John Sullivan at Illinois.
_about.com: geography Some excellent geographic utilities, such as a great circle distance calculator, a great circle route drawing program and an accurate distance calculator which treats the Earth as a geoid.
_online planetarium On-line java-applet-based planetarium. Highly recommended.
_sun angle Java script which calculates the position of the Sun based on location, date and time.
_astronomical sky calculator Given a location, date, time, and the coordinates of a celestial object, this cgi-script provides Sun and Moon rise and set times, Moon phase, galactic coordinates, Julian date, and much more besides.
_kepler planetary orbits Excellent java applet which enables you to change the parameters of an elliptical orbit and view the results in real time.
_solar system simulator NASA's solar system simulator can simulate the view of any solar system body from any location.
_astronomy workshop A collection of interactive web pages. Of particular relevance to this course are the on-line orbital viewing programs and the orbital integration programs.
other links
 
_general astronomical links A list of general astronomical links supplied by the Astronomy Group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield.


©Vik Dhillon, 30th September 2009