PAT BAKER'S ASTRONOMY CENTRALzz
Explore Astronomy & Universe , Hubble, Solar System, Cosmology,
Particle Physics, Origin of the Universe, Amateur Astronomy, Telescopes,
Galaxies, Comets, Famous Astronomers, History Of Astronomy, Extrasolar
Planets, etc,etc via 21 Indexed Categories Plus Over 100  Links
ZCompiled By: Shields P. Baker
 Added Particle Physics Page 12/10/02
Removed Inactive Sites, 10/06/02
YOU ARE VISITOR # SINCE MAY 6, 1998

SUBJECT DIRECTORY, 21 SELECTION CATEGORIES +100 SITES
*SCROLL DOWN*
  A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE
(IT'S ORIGIN, STRUCTURE AND DESTINY)
NEW PARTICLE PHYSICS /HUBBLE TELESCOPE*GALAXIES /
SOLAR SYSTEM/*zAMATEUR ASTRONOMY ////TELESCOPES-/
8
/COMETS/ GENER AL/EXTRASOLAR PLANETS
*
COSMOLOGY    AND     UNIVERSE ORIGIN SET 1//
*
COSMOLOGY  AND  UNIVERSE ORIGIN SET 2
*
RELATIVITY/*SETI    *  FAMOUS ASTRONOMERS

/BAKER'S HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY//MY OBJECTIVES
*
 CLICK HERE TO SEND ME EMAIL Z/

DEDICATION//REFERENCE BOOKS //CREDITS*
-RETURN FROM SUBJECT SECTIONS  VIA "BACK" OR MENU AT END OF SECTION
Z
Z

-
THIS WEB SITE  IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE SCIENTISTS,
ASTRONOMERS,ENGINEERS AND PROGRAMMERS WHO ARE MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO GO ALMOST TO THE EDGE OF
THE UNIVERSE AND THE BEGINNING OF TIME.
Among these men were
 Hipparchus,Copernicus,Galileo,Kepler,Maxwell, Newton, Hertz, Einstein, Hubble, Hawking  and many others who were mental giants, beside whom I feel extremely humble. 
         The sites on this webpage will enable you take advantage of the work of all these great men. I take no credit whatsoever for the content of these sites.Please note that "edge of universe" is a play on words and somewhat unscientific. See my "cosmology notes" section
 SO CLICK HERE DIRECTORY  TO GO TO DIRECTORY  AND
BEHOLD THE AWESOME STORIES  AND GLORIES OF OUR
UNIVERSE
=


HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SECTION

SIX FABULOUS SITES


 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICS STAR JOURNEY
-
  Clicking on the above will take you to National Geographics sight where you can learn about the Hubble Telescope, The Orion Nebula, Galaxies, Star Clusters,Nebulae in general , and see images of each type of object.

  HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE PUBLIC PICTURES
-
This site provides access to hundreds of images
and text items in  the following categories:
---------------------------------------------------------
New releases of pictures and text
Releases for years 94, 95, 96, and 97
Pictures organized by subject
Pictures for comet encounter with Jupiter
Planetary Nebulae Gallery
Pre and post service mission pictures

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE  NEWS
-Provided by the Space Telescope Science Institute

Here you will find the latest discoveries (mind-boggling) in Astonomy
including all types of objects. Over 125 releases with images and text.


 SEDS, THE BEST OF HST  ( HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE)
-
A site providing  access to 133 or more images of all type of astronomical object. Galaxies, starbirth regions, black holes,quazars,surface of betelgeuse, shoemaker-levi comet, mars, jupiter, etc etc etc. A FABULOUS IMAGE SET.
-

- JIMS HUBBLE TELESCOPE PHOTO GALLERY
-
Over 40 stunning images from Hubbble arranged for easy access
via sequential clicking


_
 HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE UK FACILITY
At this site you will find a great deal of information including:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 HST images, archives , and press releases
Hubble deep field data and pictures
Next generation space telescope information
Servicing missions pictures and text
Information for proposers and observers
Documentation

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-GENERAL ASTRONOMY SECTION

 THREE  GREAT SITES


 TODAY @ NASA.GOV

This is the place to go for  all the latest news about NASA'S missions, discoveries and activities


 NASA OBSERVATORIUM

This is a public access site for earth and space data. In effect the site contains an information tree with numerous branches which cover diverse data including such items as galaxies under construction, a map of the ocean floor, images of earth, planets, galaxies, state capitals from space, el nino, aeronautics etc etc..


 ASTRONOMY CAFE
By  Doctor Sten Odenwald
This award winning site has links to several Nasa sites and
sections on popular astronomy articles, big bang
cosmology, the infrared universe etc.
 
 

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ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE SECTION
----------------------------------------------------
TWELVE  INFORMATIVE SITES
THIS SECTION PRESENTSSITES WHICH DISCUSS THE
ORIGIN & DESTINY OF THE UNIVERSE  AND THE HISTORY
OF THE BIG BANG THEORY.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Do not confuse the model of the universe , which is an
expanding balloon with the term "Shape of the universe" which
deals with expansion versus time. As I see it ,this is an
entirely different subject.

ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE

 A brief, mildly technical, tutorial on the origin, expansion
and end of the universe. Includes a short discussion on black holes.

 IMAGINE THE UNIVERSE
This is a splendid tutorial on the universe written at a level
understandable by any person over the age of 14.
It includes the following sections among others
--------------------------------------------------------------
Imagine  Science, all aspects of astronomical science
Ask a Nasa Scientist, you can ask  your specific question
Satelites and Missions
Astronomical Dictionary

 THE HUBBLE EXPANSION
This is a short paper defining the Hubble expansion
and constant

 THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE
This is a brief  tutorial on the expanding universe covering
it's connection to Einstein's theory, the Hubble law, red shift,
standard candles and the age of the universe.

 ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF THE UNIVERSE
This is 6 page tutorial on the age of the universe, the
rate of expansion, its fate, methods of measuring
its age and size, and an extropolation back to the
Big Bang. It also includes links to subjects dealing
with density, general relativity etc.

NASA'S ORIGINS PROGRAM
The objectives of the NASA ORIGINS PROGRAM are to determine how the universe originated, how it got to its present state and are there other planets with life out there. This site presents the missions, the  science, the technology and the educational outreach facets of the program. It provides links to the numerous mission sites for Hubble Space Telescope,  Wide Field Infared Explorer (WIRE), Ultraviolet Spectroscope Explorer (FUSE), etc , etc.

  NASA'S INTRODUCTION TO COSMOLOGY

 This is a fairly comprehensive tutorial consisting of about 30
pages and  14 subject sections. It explains the basics of
subjects such as the big bang, how old is the universe,
how did the chemical elements form etc etc. It does not
require formal training to be understood.


 CREATION OF A COSMOLOGY
This is an excellent dissertation on the big bang theory,
It discusses the history , the scientists and astronomers
involved and the details involved in the theory and
 its background science

 BIG BANG COSMOLOLOGY
By Dr. Sten Odenwald
Contains a great series of essays on The big bang

 HOT BIG BANG MODEL

 AKA " Cambridge Cosmology Hot Big Bang"
An excellent site covering the following subjects
----------------------------------------------------------------

     2) Brief history of our universe
    3) The four pillars of the hot big bang
    4)Shortcoming of standard cosmology

    Important: Be sure to click on images at end of first page,
    They are links


 OUR HIERARCHAL UNIVERSE
An excellent dissertation on the universe including,
The visible universe, galaxy clusters , the great  attractor,
looking back to early universe, smoothness, formation of
structures and the future of the universe

 COSMIC MYSTERY TOUR
A brief 6 part history of the universe from the big bang  to the
present

EINSTEIN RIEMANN SPACE TIME
For articles which present  this subject go to the relativity section by
cliscking on the followinng link  RELATIVITY PAGE


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COMETS SECTION

TWO SITES WITH HUNDREDS OF IMAGES


( NASA'S ) COMET OBSERVATION HOME PAGE

This site provides hundreds of images and text items for a wide range of comets.They were submitted by astronomers from all over the world. It also provides numerous links to other amateur and professional home pages for comets

 COMET SHOEMAKER LEVY HOMEPAGE-JPL

 Contained here is information about the collision of comet Shoemaker Levy  with Jupiter. It also contains  a biography of Eugene Shoemaker, a great deal of data on the Galileo mission, information about an impact with earth of a S.L. like comet and information about the comet Schwassmann-Wachmann-3


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 SOLAR  SYSTEM  SECTION
ELEVEN SITES WITH
THOUSANDS OF IMAGES AND STATISTIC TABLES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 THE PLANETARY SOCIETY HOME PAGE

 This society was founded by the late Carl Sagan. The site provides over 500 pages of information including images, information about current and future missions to the planets, about astronomers, and information on membership and about the society.
 


THE NINE PLANETS by BILL ARNETT
This great site contains a UNIVERSE of information. Each object in the solar system, including planets, moons, asteroids, comets, meteors, the kuiper belt, the oort cloud, the interstellar media
and the aurora are covered in great detail.
Following is the type of information provided.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Statistics and Images for each object  where applicable and available. These probably number in the hundreds. History of Discovery and  Discovers, Visits by space vehicles,Mythology,
The author, Links
More, INCLUDING MOVIES AND SOUND

 PLANETARY PICTURE LIST BY BILL ARNETT
I decided to separate this out from the main document
above. It contains images of, as near as I can see,
every significant object in the solar system.

 BILL ARNETT'S WWW DOCUMENTS
A links set with text of all of (as far as I know) Bill Arnett's
Documents on the Web

 BILL ARNETT'S HOME PAGE
Here's a chance to find out about a man who is dedicating so
much of his life to making astronomy available for everybody

 MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR
 x
Here is a site which contains a great amount of information about this mission. It includes mission schedules and status reports, new news, images from orbit, technical information,  science and science equipment descriptions, real time information, etc, etc.

 MALIN SPACE SCIENCE SYSTEMS
A great site which provides considerable information on past, present and future  missions in the form of data and images. Included are Mars Explorer, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, Mars Surveyor 98, Mars 94/96,
Mars Observor, Magellan  and future missions.

 MARS AND ITS MOONS
THIS SITE PROVIDES THE FOLLOWING DATA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Approvimately 85 images , from space of Mars, it's
features, and its moons
 A text description of Mars and its moons
A small set
of statistics on the Martian system


 MARS PATHFINDER

 ALL ABOUT THE PATHFINDER  MISSION TO MARS.
PROVIDED HERE ARE THE FOLLOWING
-------------------------------------------------------------
A large archive of images taken on the surface of Mars
Mission Information and Status
Science Results
Conference Data
Team Members


 EARTH PICTURES FROM SPACE
 This is a great site which provides the following:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Images on this site are currently unavailable
A complete set of earth statistics
 Ten images of the whole earth and sections of earth with text
Eight  images of the moon and sections of the moon with text
Miscellaneous images and text
Links

 WELCOME TO THE PLANETS
This site is provided by The California Institute of
Technology and sponsored by Nasa
It includes for each planet:
-------------------------------------
A table of statistics, an image of theplanet and images
of several surface features, and images of principal
moons and their features.

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EXTRASOLAR PLANETS
FOUR INFORMATIVE SITES
Excuse the pun, but extrasolar planets are not extra planets
but they are planets circling other stars

x
  THE ASTROBIOLOGY WEB

This great webpage provides a vast amount of extra solar
information via links to over 80 sites having data
in the following categories.
------------------------------------------------------------------
New news about extrasolar planets
Stellar and planetary system formation
Planets circling other stars
Pulsars with planets
Brown dwarfs
Proposals to expand search
Recommended books relating to extrasolar planets
Related news groups and astrobiology pages
Search engine


 EXTRASOLAR PLANETS ENCYCLOPEDIA

 INCLUDED  IS INFORMATION OF THE FOLLOWING TYPES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 An overview of the detection methods
Extrasolar planet catalog (listing and table of statistics)
Bibliography and Reports from 35 sites
Announcement of Euroconference on Extrasolar Planets
Forum on Extrasolar Planets
Listing of meetings
Listing of other sites

 YAHOO'S EXTRASOLAR PLANETS
THIS SITE PROVIDES ACCESS TO SIXTEEN EXTRASOLAR
PLANET SITES WITH A VAST AMOUNT OF INFORMATION


 x
 CHVIEW-- EXTRA SOLAR PLANETS AND BROWN DWARFS

This site provides lists with statistics for  the known extrasolar planets, star maps for various distance ranges from sol,
categorization methods for stars, a glossary of
terms and various other data.


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 -
AMATEUR ASTRONOMY SECTION
SEVEN SITES WITH INFO FOR AMATEURS
 SKY WATCHERS DIARY

This site provides a wealth of information for the amateur astronomer.
It contains information in the following general categories:
Daily  sky events, radio and television astronomy programs
Sky calendar (by the day) and evening sky maps
An extensive set of files and links to other sites providing a huge
information base for skywatchers


 MILWAUKEE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY HOME PAGE

The Milwaukee Astronomical Society (of which I am fortunate to be a member),
is fine Astronomical Group that does agreat deal of good for both the public
and the astronomical community. They are located in New Berlin, Wisconsin.
This home page provides information on, among other things:
Requirements and Fees for Joining
Observatory Pictures and Site Location maps
Membership Activities and Projects
Links to Member Sites and other Sites


 ASTRONOMICAL LEAGUE

This is the home page of the Astonomical League, Included
on this page are the  following subjects:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Information about the League and Observing clubs
Finding a membership society near you
 Information on membership and joining
Contacting League officers
Awards
Astronomical events
Images by club members
Aspects of astronomy
Links


  ASTRONOMY

This site is provided by Kalmback Publishing Company, publishers of Astronomy
Magazine,  Included on this very extensive site is information in 15 catergories.
including among other subjects:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Summary of The Current and next Months Astronomy Magazine
Discussions  of current sky events, News about current astronomical discoveries
Numerous extensive feature stories about about astronomy
An extensive categoried photo gallery of astronomical  objects
Sky On Line, Astronomy Quiz, Product Information
Etc, Etc, Etc


 SKY ON LINE-- A SERVICE OF SKY PULISHING CORP.
This site provides webpages for their  following publications:
Sky and Telescope, Skywatch, Spec Catalog and
CCD Astronomy (now extinct)
These pages outline the contents of current issues each
of the subject magazines.
It also provides what I term an information tree with a
hundred or more branches covering subjects ranging
from links to astronomy on the internet, catalogs
of comets and deep sky objects and
even listable programs in basic for numerous astronomy tasks.

 CLICK HERE FOR OTHER AMATEUR TELESCOPES
After viewing use directory button at end of that section to go to directory 

 MICHIGAN ELECTRONICS LIBRARY
A fine links page with, currently, 24 links (8 are on Michigan
societies). Covered are a wide range of topics for
amatuers including telescope making and buying,
a directory of observatories and planetariums,
magazine sites etc, etc.

 ASTRONOMERS ON LINE
This is the home page for the Astronomers Group,
It is intended for advanced astronomers.
and covers a wide range of subjects. It is a UK
site provided by Astronomers Magazine


 NEW JERSEY ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION
This site has a unique feature. It provides a bulletin board where
anyone can post questions about astronomy and recieve answers.
Of course you can also read what others have posted. Just click on "Star
Talk" on the main page. It also has info on various astronomical topics,
on their association and membership.

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 TELESCOPES SECTION
----------------------------------
FIVE SITES OF VARIOUS TYPES

 BRADFORD ROBOTIC TELESCOPE

This is a totally automatic telescope in Yorkshire England that decides when the weather is good eneough to take pictures
then proceeds to operate by itself. Anyone can register
andask to look at a specific  object. The event is then sched-
uled on a prioritized basis. The site also provides a short
course via movie and audio about various astronomical
object types and facets.

 ESO VERY LARGE TELESCOPE (VLT)
ESO - (European Southern Observatory) is building the largest telescope in the world in northern Chili. This is an array of  seven telescopes, four of which are 8.2 meters in diameter This site provides pictures, dissertations and statistics for the system.


THE LINKS BELOW ARE FOR TELESCOPES IN HAWAII
Each of the following sites provides views of the telescope
installation,views from the mountain, weather conditions
and various information links

 CURENT VIEWS AT MAUNA LOA OBSERVATORY
 CURRENT VIEWS FROM UKIRT ON MAUNA KEY
(United Kingdom Infra- Red Telescope)



 AMATEUR TELESCOPE MAKING
A telecope page for amateurs which covers almost  all aspects
of telescope making  including: Optics, Mirrors, Drives, Mounts,  Eyepieces,
Focusers, Collimation, etc and a listing of Liturature and a Bibliography

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 NOTES ON COSMOLOGY & ASTRONOMY

The text in this section has been temporarilty removed to
speed up site selection operations. I intend to make major
archatechure changes to the overall page which will
greatly reduce the load time for the site index. Also
the  long index length was making updating extremely slow.
 
 
 

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REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDED
READING BOOKS USED
--------------------------------------------------------------
              A) The Cambridge Atlas Of Astronomy,(1994 Edition)
        ( A comprensive atlas on all aspects of the macro world
                 of astronomy and cosmology)
                Original edition:         Le Grande Atlas de l'Astronomie
                English Language Edition Publisher: Press Syndicate of
                 the University of Cambridge
                Editors:Jean Audouze and Guy Israel

               B) OUR EVOLVING UNIVERSE
               AUTHOR: Malcolm S. Longair, Jacksonian Professor of
              Natural Philosophy, Cavendish  Laboratory , University of
              Cambridge
              ( A moderately technical treatist on the evolving universe)
              Publisher:Cambridge University Press

           C) THE PRINCIPLES OF RELATIVITY
                A collection of original papers on the special and General
                General Theory of Relativity  with Notes By A Sommerfeld
                Authors:   Albert Einstein , H.A. Lorentsz, H. Minkowski,
               and H. Weyl  ( A HIGHLY MATHEMATICAL TREATIST)
               Published By Dover Publications, Inc

           D) THE SEARCH FOR INFINITY
               Authors: Gordon Fraser, Egil LIllestol, Imge Sellevag
               Introduction By: Stephen Hawking
                   ( A mildly technical book linking the microworld of particles
              and the macroworld of stars and galxies.)
    z

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MY OBJECTIVES
     My objective in presenting this page is to make information on
    Astronomy  available to the public and thereby permit them to increase
    their knowledgeof the magnitude and glory of our Universe. I havevery,
    very strongfeelings  about  the importance of this knowledge and I will
    outline this in subsequent   paragraphs.

    There was a time 2600 years ago when only a handful of brilliant men
    hadany concept at all of our universe. They did not know of America
    and onlyhad rumors of other lands. Although some brilliant men in
    Greece hadsome very basic insights of the universe the facts were kept
    from thegeneral public.

    This situation prevailed for the most part, with little correct knowledge
    added until Copernicus presented his sun centered universe theory in
   the 16th  century. Up to that time the earth was considered thecenter of
   the universeand any concepts  to the contrary were suppressed.

    In the 16th and 17th century the work of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo
    started a revolution in astronomical viewpoints and scientific methods
    which  have persisted and accelerated our thinking and knowledge of the
   universe. The advent of the computer , space telescopes, new telescope,
   types and new science and technology is allowing  astronomers  to press
   further and further into the universe toward the origin of space and time.

    In the last 400 years science has progressively discovered that earth
   is  not the center of the universe, nor our sun, nor is our galaxy the
   center. Instead our galaxy is but one of hundreds of billions. Indeed,
   the latest discovery but certainly not the last, shows that these galaxies
   are layed out in a vast seemly endless cobweb of galaxies.

   Back to my objective. Everyone does not need to be anastronomer, but
   we certainly ought to have a basic knowledge of what this universe that
  we live in is like.

   JUST WHERE ARE WE IN THIS UNIVERSE?

   My favorite saying is "WE are but a speck of dust, on a speck of dust, on
    a speck of dust , on a speck of dust, on a speck of dust, on a speck of
    dust, infinitum.

     Relative to our earth we are insignificant and , from a size perspective
    only  specks of dust.

    If stand out of  doors at night we can only see the nearest planets. The
    hugeplanets uranus and  neptune, and the planet pluto are all invisible.
    Therefore the earth is a  speck of dust in our solar system.

   The nearest star, alpha centauri , is 24 trillion miles away and is just a
    speckof dust , although bright,  so similarly our sun and  the solar
    system are just  specks of dust,  completely invisible to the eye of any
    creature on the other side of our galaxy.  Our galaxy the milky way
    contains over 100 billion stars and our sun is just an  average star.

    The nearest  major galaxy, visible to the naked eye is the andromeda
   galaxy . It is12 million trillion  miles  away and visible to the naked eye
   only  underthebest "seeing" conditions. It has twice as many stars as our
   galaxy,  containing roughly over 200 billion stars. Our galaxy and
   andromeda are  members  of the local cluster, and it in turn is a member
   of a supercluster  and it in turn is a member of the great "web" of super
   clusters that make up our universe.

   I  have yet to find an adjective which adequately describes our  universe.
   Huge , mind  boggling, enormous, humungous--   none of these is
   adequate.

  I could go on and on, telling about my life as  boy in upper Michhigan ,
  walking out at  night with the brilliant canopy of stars hanging just
  over myhead so close I felt I could reach up and grab a handful .The
  auroraborealis was hanging in the sky, folding and unfolding in drapes
  of  multicolored light. These inspired me  to study science and astronomy.
  I could  complain  to you about the fact that in urban areas all this  has
  all been  hidden  by air pollution and the incessant increase in outdoor
  lighting. I  might also complain that astronomy sites anywhere near a city
  aredegraded by these chemical and light pollutions.  But that is another
  subject.  I will  leave it here with  the hope that I have inspired my readers
  to take a greater interest in astronomy.

  I SINCERELY HOPE THAT MY WEBPAGE WILL PARTIALLY
  COMPENSATE  FOR THIS GREAT LOSS BY MAKING MORE OF
  THISINFORMATION  ACCESSABLE TO EVERYONE !

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GREAT ASTRONOMERS AND SCIENTISTS
------------------------------------------------------------
The following is a set of 21 links to biographies and works for the
scientists and astronomers who made the greatest contributions
to astronomy.Note that some of these date back to the year 600 bc,
to the cradle of science and astronomy in ancient Greece. This
set certainly does not include all of them,there are just too many,
but I will most likely add more later.


TYCHO BRAHE
            Brahe was the Imperial Mathematician for the holy roman
         empire. He had built for him large precise instruments for
         observing stellar objects and their positions. He compiled
         tables of stars and their positions. This allowed his sucess-
        or  Johann Kepler to formulate his laws of planetary motion.
 BRAHE


SUBRAHMANYAN CHANDRASEKHAR
This great great scientist, was born in east india. Among his
many contributions to Astronomy was his "Chandrasekhar Limit"
which defines the maximum mass for a white dwarf.

 CHANDRASEKHAR

COPERNICUS
-----------------------

 Copernicus developed the theory of the sun centered universe. He in a
       sense was the astronomer who set the world on the correct course
        toward modern  astronomy.
 COPERNICUS

ALBERT EINSTEIN
     Einstein was without a doubt the greatest scientist of the 20th
    century. His works included not just the special and general
    theories of relativity but the quantum theory of light, he explained
    brownian movment, equated acceleration and gravity etc etc.
   The following two sites delve quite deeply into his life and
   science.
 EINSTEIN
Outlines his personal and scientific life but does not discuss
his marriages and divorce.
 NOVA ON LINE, EINSTEIN REVEALED

A somewhat detailed outline of his life including  a chronology
of his personal and scientific life. Includes also a discuss-
of his theories of relaivity.

GALILEO GALILEI
Made many discoveries in physics and astronomy, principle
of which was his designing and using the first astronomical
telescope. He used this to, among other things discover the
moons of Jupiter & the stars in the Milky Way and to verify
the validity of the Copernican System. He was way ahead of
his time and consequently condemmed by the Catholic Church
to house arrest at the age of 70.

   GALILEO

A biography of his life and discoveries with links
 IMSS-MULTIMEDIA CATALOGUE-BIOGRAPHY, GALILEO GALILEI

 A brief discription of his accomplishments in science and
astronomy with many links to many words  in the text plus
links to various aspects of his discoveries. Note if you are
Italian there is a link to the Italian version. THERE IS ALSO
A LINK TO THE RESCINDING DOCUMENT HE WAS
FORCED TO  SIGN.

 STEPHAN HAWKING
The following site presents  a brief biography of his work.
Stephan Hawking has make numerous contributions in the
field of black holes, general relativity, and quantum theory as
related to black holes . He has recieved many awards for his work.

 BIOGRAPHY-STEPHAN HAWKING


WILLIAM HERSCHEL
One of the greatest astronomer. He is probably best known for
his discovery of Uranus.Herschel made many more discoveries
relating to doublestars, suns motion in space etc.
As a side note I would like to repeat a comment, to the effect that the
discovery of Uranus impacted on a great deal of mysticism associated
with the number seven.This stemmed from the presence of seven
visible solar system objects , which clearly behaved differently from
stars. The days of the week, number seven,and were named after
these objects, etc.
 BIOGRAPHY- WILLIAM HERCHEL

(SPORUS) HIPPARCHUS OF RHODES
  Hipparchus was an ancient Grecian astronomer who made many great
contributions to both mathematics and astronomy. Among other things
he measured the distance to the moon, discovered the precession of the
equinoxes, etc etc etc.
 HIPPARCHUS- BIOGRAPHY /#1
Emphasizes his Mathematical contributions
 HIPPARCHUS BIOGRAPHY #2
Emphasizes his Astronomical contributions


JOHANNES KEPLER
Kepler dsicovered and defined the three laws of planetary
motion . He did this impirically using data which he inher-
ited from Tycho Brahe.
 JOHANNES KEPLER WAS BORN ON DEC 27, 1571
A biography of his life and accomplishments , with
historical links.

 JOHANNES KEPLER-- THE LAWS OF PLANETARY MOTION

 Elaborates on Keplers laws ,with links ,equations and diagrams.


HENRIETTA  LEAVITT
Miss Leavitt was a brilliant scientist . Her very  important
contribution to astronomy, among others, was the discovery
and establishment of a period - luminosity relationship for
cepheid stars. Cepheids are a class of variable stars. Her
discovery and work allowed them to be used as standard
candles for determining the distance to their host galaxies.

 HENRIETTA LEAVITT, FROM A SCIENCE ODYSSEY, PEOPLE AND DISCOVERIES,


CLERK MAXWELL

Clerk Maxwell was an authority on electromagnetism and its
fields. His major contribution, "Maxwells Equations" could be
considered the next major development after Newton's work.
'His two papers on this subject, "On Physical lines of force",
and "A Dynamical Theory  Of The Electromagnetic  Field"
were a turning point in science.

         NEWTON'S LIFE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

HUBBLE, EDWIN POWELL
Hubble established that not all nebulae are part of the
Milky way galaxy but are actually other galxies. Probably
his greatest contribution, made with the assistance of
Milton Humanson, was that all galaxies are receding from
us at a rate proportional to their distance. This formed the
basis for the expanding universe theory and eventually
the big bang theory.
 HUBBLE, EDWIN POWELL

HARLOW SHAPLEY
 Determined the approximate size of the Milky Way galaxy
and the location of its center. To do this he used the
star clusters which surround our galaxy.

 OBITUARY OF HARLOW SHAPLEY, THE GREAT DEBATE


EUGENE SHOEMAKER
Eugene Shoemaker was the leading discoverer of comets
in this century. Probably his greatest discovery was the comet Shoemaker- Levy which he discovered together with his two colleagues,- his wife Carolyn and David Levy.

GENE SHOEMAKER (1928-1997)

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CREDITS SECTION

GALAXY M100 BY AURA/ST Sci and NASA
Images included on this site were created with support  to
Space telescope Science Institute , operated by the
Association of Universities for Research in  Astronomy
Inc., from Nasa contract NAS5-26555, and is reproduced
here with permission from AURA/STSci
To see the entire before and after version of this image with text
and others click on the following link
 STSci/HST PICTURES

 NOTE BY AUTHOR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I take no credit for the wonderful content of the sites
I have linked. That must be attributed to the great
individuals and teams who manage these sites
and to the great astronomers who provided
the images and text items

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ASTRONOMY HISTORY DIRECTORY
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 HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY, PART 1 YEARS 240 BC TO 1782 AD
. HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY, PART 2. 1784 TO 1895
. HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY, PART 3, 1896 TO 1927
. HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY, PART 4, 1929 TO PRESENT
. HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY, BIBLIOGRAPHY
. ASTRONOMY CENTRAL, START PAGE
. ASTRONOMY CENTRAL, MAIN DIRECTORY

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