Useful, Fun, & Interesting Astronomy Resources
Kids and Astronomy
- The Space Place - Educational articles and activities aimed at elementary school age; also available in Spanish.
- Star Child - Ages 5-13 resource to learn about the basics of astronomy; audio versions of some pages.
- The Eight Planets - Overview of our solar system and the spacecraft that have explored it.
- NASA Kids - A starting place for kid-friendly interactive activities to learn about astronomy.
- Astro-Venture - Interactive activities to learn about advanced astronomy topics like black holes.
- Chandra X-ray Observatory - See what we can learn about astronomy from x-rays.
Other Great Resources
- Cool Cosmos - Learn about how astronomers study the universe in the infrared.
- GSFC Outreach - Astrophysics outreach and education resources for all ages.
- HubbleSite - Resource for Hubble images and the latest news.
- NASA Space Science - Updates on the latest science news from NASA; also available in Spanish.
- NASA TV: Keep up with the latest happenings at NASA
- NASA Mars Exploration - Resource for all about Mars exploration.
Observatories and Institutions
- Indiana Astronomical Society - An organization for amateur astronomers in Indianapolis.
- Stonebelt StargazersAn organization for amateur astronomers in Bedford.
- American Astronomical Society - Especially for information about careers in astronomy
- Astronomical Society of the Pacific - A great resource for astronomy educators.
- International Astronomical Union
- SETI@Home - Help the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
- Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
- WIYN Telescope - Check out the WIYN Observatory at Kitt Peak.
Pretty Pictures
- Astronomy Pic of the Day
- NASA’s Planetary Photojournal
- NASA Image of the Day
- SPACE.com Image of the Day
- Lunar Photo of the Day
- Earth Science Picture of the Day
- Mars Rover Images
- Cassini Images of Saturn
- Sky Factory
- NOAO Image Gallery
Podcasts
- Astronomy Cast - Weekly discussions on astronomical topics ranging from planets to cosmology.
- Blueshift - Your "backstage pass" to the science, missions, and people at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
- Sky and Telescope - Each month's highlights of "what's up" in the night sky in a bite-size podcast less than 10 minutes long.
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Podcasts of the latest discoveries from the Chandra x-ray space telescope.
Videos
- Sci Show Space: 3-5 minute videos about new and interesting things happening in space
- Phil Plait's Crash Course Astronomy: Over 40 videos covering different topics in astronomy
- To Scale: The Solar System - A scale model of the Solar System in a dry lake bed.
- JPL Videos
- Spitzer Space Telescope
- NASA Goddard TV
- NOVA online
Blogs
- ScIU Blog: Astronomy articles from IU
- Bad Astronomy
- Mike Brown’s Planets
- The Planetary Society Weblog
- Chandra Blog
Star Charts
Animations
- The Scale of the Universe: A great animation showing the size of the Universe. (Requires Adobe Flash)
- Astronomy Simulations from the University of Nebraska Lincoln
- If the Moon were 1: Another great solar system animation!