The EYE ON THE SKY® AstroCruises Holland America Line Page
edited by Dan Benedict
Join us in March 2006 for our EYE ON THE SKY® AstroCruise to view the total eclipse of the sun in the eastern Mediterranean aboard Holland America's Prinsendam!
Watch this space for notices of EYE ON THE SKY® AstroCruises aboard other Holland America Line ships, and book through AstroCruises Travel for free membership in AstroCruisers (TM) astronomy club and other agency discounts, value-added bonuses and special deals.
A dark sky at sea gives an excellent opportunity to spot dim objects such as the Milky Way,
Andromeda Galaxy (two million light-years away, the farthest object visible to the naked eye), the zodiacal light and gegenschein, and faint meteors and satellites. A sea level horizon is the best place to see the green flash.
Here are some Web sites with information on topics we discussed during the lectures and starwatches on Veendam:
Cassini/Huygens Mission
Information on NASA's mission to Saturn and ESA's probe to its moon Titan can be found at:
Tonight's Sky
The most interesting sights you can see with the naked eye in the current sky are listed in:
For a graphical display of the night sky as seen from your home, you have several good options:
- You can generate custom sky charts at Heavens-Above and Sky & Telescope by entering either a place name or your latitude and longitude.
- For locations in the U.S. you can find latitudes and longitudes (in degrees/minutes/seconds) through the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Remember that locations in the U. S. are always "North" latitude and "West" longitude. For locations outside the U.S. you can find latitudes and longitudes through University of California-Santa Barbara's Alexandria Digital Library or U. S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's GEOnet Names Server.
- You can also generate a customized sky map at the Your Sky: Sky Map Custom Settings page at http://www.fourmilab.to/yoursky/custom.html. You'll need to enter your latitude and longitude in the Observing Site boxes in either decimal degrees or degrees/minutes/seconds, remembering locations in the U. S. are always "north" latitude and "west" longitude. For maps that are easier to read, change the defaults in the Display Options to the following:
- Uncheck Deep Sky Objects box
- Uncheck Constellations-Boundaries box
- Change value in Show Stars Brighter Than Magnitude to "3.5"
- Change value in Stars-Names for Magnitude to "1.5 and brighter"
- Uncheck Stars-Bayer/Flamsteed Codes box
- Click the [Update] button and then bookmark the resulting page in your Web browser so you don't have to repeat this step every time.
For high precision moon phase information and sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset and civil twilight times for your city, go to:
For all types of celestial information for your specific location, you can use:
To locate local astronomy clubs, planetaria and observatories:
Satellites
To find out about when and where to look for satellites at your home, go to (and then bookmark after entering your location):
To find out how to watch for satellites, go to:
All space shuttle launches are under review following the loss of the orbiter Columbia February 1, 2003, but may resume as early as May 2005. The latest information about shuttle schedules is on the Kennedy Space Center's Page at:
Meteor Showers
The American Meteor Society furnishes information about these (and other) meteor showers here:
- Quadrantids (peak January 3-4)
http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/quadrantids.html
- Perseids (peak August 12-13)
http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/perseids.html
- Leonids (peak November 17-18)
http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/leonids.html
- Geminids (peak December 13-14)
http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/geminids.html
Eclipses
Information about future eclipses can be found at:
Atmospheric Phenomena
Cruises also offer excellent opportunities to observe daytime sky phenomena, such as described on these sites:
Green Flash
The most complete source of information I've found about the "green flash" is:
General Astronomy News
For the latest astronomy and space news, try:
You can receive Weekly News Bulletin and Skywatcher's Bulletin from Sky &Telescope via e-mail.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Goddard Space Flight Center posts a new image every day at:
Thanks again for joining EYE ON THE SKY® AstroCruises on Veendam, and we hope to sail with you again soon! Bon voyage!
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The address of this page is
http://astrocruises.com/hollandamerica
AstroCruises Travel can be reached at
(609) 530-9877, or at
eyeonthesky@compuserve.com
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