The EYE ON THE SKY® AstroCruises Orient Lines Page

edited by Dan Benedict

Watch this space for notices of EYE ON THE SKY® AstroCruises on Orient Lines!
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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 Orient Lines:

Tonight's Sky

• This Week's Sky at a Glance
  http://skyandtelescope.com/observing
  
• Sky Calendar
  http://www.space.com/spacewatch/sky_calendar.html
  
• Skywatcher's Diary
  http://www.pa.msu.edu/abrams/SkyWatchersDiary/Diary.html
  

• 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 the Alexandria Digital Library.
  
  
• 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.
    

• U. S. Naval Observatory
  http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html
  

• CalSKY Astronomical Calculator
  http://www.calsky.com
  

Satellites

• Heavens-Above
  http://www.heavens-above.com
  

• Visual Satellite Observer's Home Page
  http://www.satellite.eu.org/satintro.html
  

• Upcoming Space Shuttle Launches
  http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/schedule/schedule.htm
  

Meteor Showers

• 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

• NASA's Eclipse Home Page
  http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html
  

Atmospheric Phenomena

• Les Cowley's Atmospheric Optics
  http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/phenom.htm
  
• German Halo Workgroup
  http://www.meteoros.de/indexe.htm
  
• Harald Edens's Weather Photography
  http://www.weather-photography.com/index.php
  
• allthesky.com
  http://www.allthesky.com/atmosphere/atmosphere.html
  

Green Flash

• Andrew T. Young's Green Flash Page
  http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF
  

General Astronomy News

• Sky & Telescope magazine
  http://skyandtelescope.com
• NASA, America's civilian space agency
  http://www.nasa.gov
• space.com Web site
  

Astronomy Picture of the Day

• Astronomy Picture of the Day
  http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
  

Thanks again for joining EYE ON THE SKY® AstroCruises on Orient Lines, and we hope to sail with you again soon! Bon voyage!