Michael Covington's Links to Other Astronomy Sites
Clear Sky Clock for Athens, Georgia
Click on chart for explanation, other data, and other locations
- This page is no longer entirely up to date. It was created in 1999 to support Astrophotography for the Amateur. I've tried to keep it reasonably current, but please explore the rest of my site for newer material, and use a search engine such as Google to find current information. Also, check Yahoo! Groups, which has discussion groups for many recent-model computerized telescopes, as well as other astronomy topics.
- If you are new to amateur astronomy, click here.
- This page contains 6 groups of links:
- Especially for North Georgia
- Clear Sky Clock for University of Georgia Observatory
- Sky chart for Northeast Georgia, showing the sky right now
- Sunrise/sunset and Moonrise/moonset for Athens, Georgia
- Sunrise/sunset and Moonrise/moonset for Mansfield (CEWMA) site
- Visible satellites and Iridium flares for Athens, Georgia
- Visible satellites and Iridium flares for Mansfield (CEWMA) site
- The Weather Channel forecasts and radar for Athens, Georgia
- Round-the-clock infrared cloud map (times are in GMT, i.e., 1515Z = 11:15 a.m. EDT)
- High-resolution visible cloud map (daylight hours only)
- Water vapor map (often quite light even in clear weather)
- The University of Georgia Astronomy Club
- Atlanta Astronomy Club northeastern chapter at Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center
- Atlanta Astronomy Club
- North Georgia Astronomers (Gainesville/Dahlonega/Cumming) (corrected address)
- North West Georgia Astronomical Association (Cartersville, Rome)
- Roper Mountain Astronomers (Greenville, S.C.)
- The University of Georgia Observatory
- Hard Labor Creek Observatory
- Deerlick Astronomy Village (Georgia's new astronomy treasure)
- Telescope Atlanta — up-and-coming new telescope store in Atlanta; 2 locations
- Camera Bug — major telescope dealer in Atlanta, a good source of equipment, literature, and advice. (Has recently moved to the other end of the shopping center; they're not gone, just relocated!)
- Wolf Camera — chain of camera stores. Any Wolf store can special-order a very wide range of products at low prices. This is usually cheaper than ordering from New York when you need darkroom supplies, film, etc. Prepay at the store, and the merchandise is delivered to your home at no extra charge.
- E-Six Lab for scratch-free dip-and-dunk slide processing. (Colorchrome and Color Genesis, previously recommended here, no longer develop slide film.)
- Showcase Photo (the only remaining full-line professional photo supplier in Atlanta; still has darkroom supplies)
- What's going on in the sky
- Sky & Telescope: This week's sky: moon, planets, things visible w. the unaided eye
- Sky & Telescope: This month's star chart and commentary
- Sky & Telescope: This month's events (comets, eclipses, occultations)
- Fred Espenak's Eclipse Pages (the recognized authority on solar eclipses)
- American Assn. of Variable Star Observers (details of variable stars, novae, supernovae)
- NASA Eclipse Page
- Aurora Borealis sighting reports updated every few minutes
- Skyhound: what's in the sky this month
- Heavens Above: the sky from your exact location, including man-made satellites
- Intellicast weather forecast for astronomers
- Universe Today: astronomy and space news
- How to photograph the Space Shuttle
- Astronomy reference information
- Sky & Telescope: Links to astronomy web pages worldwide
- Robert Whigham's amateur astronomy links
- British Astronomical Association
- Sky & Telescope Magazine
- Astronomy Magazine
- Amateur Astronomy (new magazine with lots of reader participation)
- Sterne und Weltraum (excellent German magazine)
- Spacebuffs — news about astronomical research and space exploration
- Astronomy Outreach — interesting people and useful resources
- Astronomy software: TheSky Starry Night SkyMap Pro
- My database files for these software packages
- Deepsky Astronomy Software (D.A.S.) by Steven Tuma (database, images, object information, finder charts, even image processing and telescope control)
- AstroCalculator (actually several useful computational tools) by Joe Cahak
- Virtual Moon Atlas (freeware, very good!)
- Astronomical Data Center (catalogues and data online)
- SIMBAD (comprehensive object catalogues and references to astronomical literature)
- Digitized Sky Survey (Palomar images of the whole sky)
- Consolidated Lunar Atlas on line
- Want a star named after you?
- Where I like to shop
These are just a few selected dealers.
They are either my personal favorites, or suppliers that are filling an unusual niche.
There are many excellent dealers that are not listed here.
- Words to the wise:
- Not all dealers sell all brands of telescopes. Because of different pricing systems, you will more often find Celestron telescopes at smaller dealers and Meade products at large chain stores. This does not reflect on the quality of the telescopes; I have one of each; they are both good. Also, I know of two dealers that test telescopes before shipment to customers; one of them sells only Meade and the other sells only Celestron. Neither brand is perfect, but if a dealer strongly disparages one in order to promote the other, some skepticism is in order.
- The Christmas rush often overwhelms even the most reliable dealers. If you get the impression that any dealer is overextended to the point of sacrificing reliability, take your business elsewhere.
- There are often electronic or mechanical problems with any newly introduced model of telescope. A well-tested secondhand telescope, or a new unit of a model that has been on the market for some time, can be a better buy than the latest and hottest product.
- See also the Telescope Buyer's FAQ maintained by Dennis Bishop, for quick answers to lots of questions.
- Astronomical equipment, supplies, and services:
- See above for local dealers in North Georgia.
- Orion Telescopes and Binoculars (mainly their own brand of telescopes and accessories, which are good; very good place to start if you're a beginner; very informative catalogue)
- Astronomics (leading full-line dealer selling all brands, recommended for the more experienced observer; has informative literature for beginners too)
- Oceanside Photo and Telescope (photographically oriented, especially digital SLRs for astronomy; located near San Diego; highly recommended)
- University Optics (An old-time supplier with good eyepieces at low prices; their Orthoscopics are as good as anybody's. I first did business with them in 1970.)
- Telescope House (Broadhurst Clarkson and Fuller) (full-line astronomy supplier in London, England; can test telescopes before shipment)
- Company Seven (near Washington, D.C.; specializes in quality and good service; tests telescopes before shipment)
- Lumicon's back! After a period out of business, their product line is being revived by Parks Optical.
- Advanced Telescope Systems - very solid portable and permanent telescope piers (stands)
- Rigel Systems (many useful accessories for astrophotography, including the PulsGuide blinking illuminator for guiding eyepieces)
- IDAS (Tokai) nebula filters — a new type of nebula filter that is lighter and gives more realistic colors while still suppressing the emission spectrum of streetlights
- ScopeTronix (maker of several unique products including camera-to-telescope adapters, digital camera afocal bracket, ETX piggyback mounts, and eyepieces that thread directly onto your digital camera) now appears to be out of business although the web site is still up; status uncertain.
- LE-Adapter for afocal coupling of SLRs, digital cameras, and camcorders to telescopes and microscopes now appears to be out of business.
- SRB Film Service (in England; unusual lens amount adapters, afocal couplings, and ability to custom-make adapters of any type as needed)
- The Slideprinter (a lab I have not used myself, but they are highly recommended for scanning slides and making prints of them)
- Tony and Daphne Hallas (custom photo lab services for astrophotographers)
- Russ Dickman — Ancient Light (digital services for the astrophotographer)
Acrylic plastic sheets from Sloan's Wood Shop, including transparent red (#911) for computer screens
- Classified ads for astronomy equipment
- AstroClassifieds (new, free classified-ad service, sponsored by several major dealers)
- Astronomy-Mall (free classified ads and links to numerous vendors)
- Astrofieds (free classified ads, run by Astronomics; relatively small)
- Astromart (The biggest astronomy ad site, run by Anacortes Telescope. No longer free of charge, although still described as such on some of its web pages; there is a now a $12 fee for creating an account. Click here to find out why I do not use Astromart.)
- Gecko Optical Classifieds (classified ads and astronomy links in Australia; I have not used this service myself)
- Astrobuysell.com (classified ads and astronomy links in Canada; I have not used this service myself)
- Large-volume discount camera dealers:
- Adorama (low prices, wide selection; New York discount dealer with staff knowledgeable about astronomy)
- B&H Photo (low prices, wide selection of everything photographic; mail order and New York store)
- Samy's Camera (the B&H of the west, in Los Angeles)
- Note: B&H, Adorama, and Samy's usually have the lowest North American prices on photographic equipment. Other reliable dealers' prices will be similar.
Vendors who advertise much lower prices are often unreliable. Be especially wary of "bait and switch" tactics ("you don't really want that, it's no good, here's something better made by a different company"). When in doubt, check Google Groups to find discussions of particular vendors, but remember that bad experiences are much more likely to be reported than good ones; consider carefully whether each complaint is reasonable.
- Specialty photographic suppliers:
- KEH Camera Brokers (reliable used cameras)
- Charlotte Camera (in North Carolina; a smaller selection of used equipment; good prices)
- Porter's Camera Store (BIG, free catalog of everything photographic)
- Damar Photo and Imaging, Savannah, Ga. — filters, T-mounts, unusual lens adapters
- PhotoTech (New York) — repair of Nikon, Canon, and other photo equipment
- Camtech — repair of Olympus cameras; lots of technical information
- Essex Camera — repair of obsolete cameras
- Campkins and the other Campkins — two excellent camera stores in Cambridge, England, with much more than their web site indicates
- Shutterbugs Direct — large British used-camera dealer
- Telescopes, cameras, and techniques
- Digital cameras:
- My DSLR page (Canon EOS, Digital Rebel, Nikon D70, etc.)
- Astrophotography with a budget digital camera (Chris Holt, Abingdon, England)
- Open Directory Science/Astronomy/Amateur/Astrophotography_and_CCD_Imaging (links to many more sites)
- Image gallery to which you can submit your astronomical photographs
- Improving the classic LX200 power inlet circuit (how to give it true chassis ground, reverse polarity protection, and no need for an external fuse)
- Who needs an autoguider? You can autoguide with any video imaging device (modified webcam, Meade Lunar-Planetary Imager, Celestron NexImage, etc.) using GuideDog software (free download). If your telescope is computerized, you can control it through its serial port cable. Or, if your telescope has a standard 6-pin autoguider connector (which includes many Celestron and Meade telescopes even if not computerized), you'll need a cable which you can make or buy from Shoestring Astronomy. With an electrically unmodified ToUCam Pro and an 8-inch telescope, I can guide on stars down to at least magnitude 7.5.
- Meade Advanced Products User Group (all of the newer Meade telescopes, but especially the LX200 non-GPS)
- Two Yahoo! groups for the LX200 GPS: LX200GPS and LX200-UNCENSORED; there are similar groups for NexStars and many other telescopes
- Donovan Conrad's LX200 GPS site with electrical and mechanical information, troubleshooting, minor upgrades
- Jordan Blessing's NexStar site
- Rod Mollise: Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes (GOOD SITE; Rod is the author of an excellent book)
- Drift method polar alignment reference card (for people familiar with the method, who want a brief memory aid)
- My notes on polar-aligning an LX200 by iterating on Polaris and one star
Note: This was an attempt to work out the geometry of something in Meade's manual. I do not actually recommend aligning this way. Instead:
(1) Make sure the 90 degree mark on your dec. circle is accurate;
(2) With computer turned off, point telescope to 90 degrees dec. and align wedge or mount with finderscope using this chart;
(3) Refine by the drift method as described in How to Use a Computerized Telescope.
- The Taki algorithm — How a computerized telescope does its calculations
- My wooden wedge for my Meade LX200
- My notes on Building a foam-lined telescope case
- My notes on Kodak HC-110 Developer
- My notes on Kodak Xtol Developer
- My notes on the Meade Lunar-Planetary Imager
- Ohad Drucker's notes on using outdated Kodak Technical Pan Film
- Thom Bell's photo reference information (history of film, filters, etc.)
- Phil Harrington's Star Ware (authoritative beginner's guide to commercially available telescopes and accessories)
- Military surplus shipping cases that fit the Meade LX200 with its original shipping foam, and other telescopes (John Hopper)
- Antique Telescope Society
- Solar filter safety tests by B. Ralph Chou, Optometrist
- Jim Misti's Misti Mountain Observatory, with film tests and film astrophotography
- Robert Reeves' film tests for astrophotography
- Ron Wodaski's online book about CCD imaging
- Richard Berry and James Burnell, Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing (highly recommended!)
- Craig Zerbe's video astronomy site
- Simon Szykman's guide to adapters for connecting digital cameras to telescopes
- Bill Ezell's LX200 information and electronic upgrades
- Meade field de-rotator pictures by Florent Poiget, using a 12-inch LX200 in altazimuth mode. (En français... and English too!)
- Eric Greene's Unofficial Celestron 8 Web Page
- Les Blalock's Unofficial Celestar 8 Deluxe Page
- John Steinberg's Unofficial NexStar 5 Web Page
- NexStar resource page and web ring
- Jeff DeTray: Barn-door tracker plans, CG-5 mount improvements
- Stephen Tonkin's barn-door tracker plans, telescope making information (in Britain)
- Ed Ting's telescope reviews
- Todd Gross: telescope reviews, meteorology
- Richard Berry: build your own CCD camera
- Al Kelly and others: Acquiring and Processing CCD Images
- Greg Konkel: Lunar and planetary photography with an Olympus digital camera
- Astro-photo mailing list archives (with search engine)
- Amateur telescope making (ATM) archives (with search engine)
- Amateur telescope making page (will subsume the ATM Archives)
- Robert Deane's reverse-engineered Schmidt-Cassegrain designs and related data
- Peter Smith on telescope optics
- Bengt Hallinger: Photography web pages and links
- Digital cameras (part of the Computer Vision Handbook)
- Camera repair FAQ (updated link)
- Olympus camera FAQs (updated link)
- Olympus instruction books online
- Master list of Nikon-related links
- Bill Darden's FAQ on Deep-Cycle 12-Volt Batteries
- Calibration chart for variable-contrast black-and-white printing with a Beseler color head (PDF file)
- Individual astrophotographers and groups
- This is a very haphazard, incomplete list and many of the best astrophotographers that I know aren't listed here. Please don't assume that omission means anything! For more examples of excellent astrophotography, see my books.
- The Compleat Amateur Astronomer (Lenny Abbey's 50 years of experience)
- Chris Anderson (CCD, FASTAR)
- Astrofotografía in Spain (Spanish and English pages)
- Ulrich Beinert (Meade ETX and other telescopes, Germany)
- Matt BenDaniel ("StarMatt")
- Doug Bremer - Wide-field astrophotography on a budget
- Pietro Carboni (Celestron 5, NexStar 5, astronomical computing>
- Chris Cook
- Ctein (noted fine-art photographer and color printing expert who often tackles astronomical subjects)
- Fabiano Diniz (Brazil, in Portuguese)
- Dirk Dooms (Belgium)
- Gordon Garradd (Australia)
- Rob Gendler (CCD imaging)
- Angel Gomez ("Astro Dog") — astrophotography with digital cameras
- Chris Grohusko (aurora borealis a specialty)
- Tony and Daphne Hallas (custom photo lab services for astrophotographers)
- Clearskies.se, P. M. Hedén's unusually elegant site in Sweden
- Gary Holland
- Bob Holzer (astro-imaging from almost-downtown Atlanta; nice color CCD work!)
- Marc Huber (very fine site featuring SBIG STV camera/autoguider and Meade LX10 telescope)
- R. Scott Ireland (photo gallery — astronomy, nature)
- Vasu Jagannathan's digital camera and webcam astrophotography with a 3.5-inch telescope
- Preston S. Justis (black-and-white deep-sky photography)
- Janne Käld (Finland)
- Bert Katzung (includes description of an interesting small observatory building)
- Renato Langersek (Australia)
- Brian Larmay (includes plans for a motorized barn-door tracker)
- Philip Lau
- Jerry Lodriguss (many good technical papers as well as great pictures)
- Heaven's Glory Observatory (Brian Lula — color CCD imaging)
- David Malin, professional astrophotographer, Anglo-Australian Observatory
- Mike Marshak (Meade LX10)
- Bobby Middleton (mostly deep-sky)
- John Mirtle's cold-camera astrophotography (an old technique that may be coming back!)
- Star Fields Observatory (Joe Mize, Chiefland, Florida)
- Shegemi Numazawa (Japan)
- D. Oblander — Getting started with minimum equipment
- Philip Perkins — Pictures and technical articles, especially about Meade LX200 telescopes. His are the pictures you've seen in Meade's ads.
- Tony Pilato
- Tom Polakis
- Simon Pooley (Maidenhead, UK, with British astronomy links)
- Glenn Ray
- Michael Richmann (excellent deep-sky images taken with Meade 8" LX200; links to other sites)
- Joe Roberts (wide variety of equipment and techniques)
- Spacepage (Belgian astrophotography site, in Dutch)
- Michelle Stone
- Stephen Tonkin (many interesting astronomy links centered in Britain)
- Ian Turner (portable domed observatory, megapixel CCD camera, other advanced equipment and techniques)
- Ventura County Astronomical Society (holds astrophotography conferences)
- Steno Wac (Denmark)
- Brad Wallis and Robert Provin (authors of noted advanced astrophotography handbook, A Manual of Advanced Celestial Photography). Adaptive optics and other new techniques. Link updated 2003 July 6.
- Jason Ware
- Ken Wilson, astrophotographer (Atlanta)
- This is not a complete list; there are hundreds of good astrophotographers in the world. I'm no longer trying to maintain a complete list. But if you think you should be listed, and your site contains unique information pertinent to astrophotography and does not have pop-up ads, please e-mail me. Please do not send digitized images or other large files; they will not reach me.
- Many of these people earn money by selling their pictures for publication or display. Look at their web sites and contact them directly if you're interested.
- I do not do "link exchanges" with businesses. You are welcome to link to me if you wish, but that does not obligate me to link to you. Everything here is here because I think it ought to be.
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