Amateur Astronomy Tools and Resources

Online Tools

Hosted here

• Akarsh's DSS Query with the Dobsonian rotation calculator
• Astronomy Logbook Project
• Search interface for information on NGC objects from the former ngcicproject.org. The pages are hosted by John Pierce of TAC

Other online tools

• Mel Bartels' online Calculators for pretty much everything in amateur astronomy!
• Ned Wright's Cosmology Calculator to turn redshift values into things amateur astronomers like
• Mirror support calculator to calculate how to place a Glatter sling
• starlust.org information on Messier objects

• SIMBAD astronomical database
• NED (NASA Extragalactic database)
• HyperLeda

• Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 16: "Navigate" interface
• Digitized Sky Survey interface from the STScI
• Hubble Legacy Archive (raw images from HST)
• PanSTARRS-1 survey image cut-out server

Resources

• CloudyNights Mag 7 Star Atlas

• The late Prof. P. N. Shankar's books on amateur astronomy.

• Stellarium planetarium software
• Cartes du Ciel planetarium software
• KStars planetarium software
• Plop finite-element software for mirror cell optimization
• Mirror cooling calculator using finite-elements
• Astree -- telescope optics calculator

• CloudyNights, usually referred to simply as "CN". Most famous are the forums on CloudyNights for everything related to amateur astronomy.

• Deep Sky Forum, a forum dedicated to visual deep-sky observing.
• The Ultimate Deep-Sky Observers Resource on the Deep Sky Forum.
• Adventures in Deep Space -- observing projects, observing reports and more.
• Clear Skies Observing Guides (for digital use)
• Alvin Huey's downloadable observing guides

• Jerry Lodriguss' tutorials on imaging

• Stellafane: A very comprehensive resource on telescope making.
• Mel Bartels' articles

• telescope-optics.net