Astronomy Demostrations, Animations etc.

Preview: The Cosmic Landscape
Chapter 1: History of Astronomy
Chapter 2: Gravity & the Moon
Chapter 3 Light & Atoms
Chapter 4 Telescopes
Chapter 5 The Sun, Our Star
Chapter 6 Measuring the Properties of Stars
Chapter 7 Stellar Evolution
Chapter 8 Stellar Remnants: White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, & Black Holes
Chapter 9 The Milky Way Galaxy
Chapter 10 Galaxies
Chapter 11 Cosmology
Chapter 12 The Earth
Chapter 13 The Moon
Chapter 14 Survey of the Solar System
Chapter 15 The Terrestrial Planets
Chapter 16 The Outer Planets
Chapter 17 Meteors, Asteroids, & Comets
Life in the Universe

Preview: The Cosmic Landscape(back to the top)

View from the Largest to the Smallest

An animation which starts with a view of the Galaxy from 10,000,000 light years and then zooms into see successive smaller things until we reach the subatomic particle scale.

Chapter 1 History of Astronomy(back to the top)

Maya Calendar and a few other calendars

An Introduction to the Maya Calendar with colorful description of what these symbols mean.

A Pictographic Maya Calendar Converter from Charles Hartley allows you to generate a Maya date for nearly any date you enter

View the Earth from Above

The Earth and Moon Viewer; pictures of Earth & Moon from various satellites around the world from the people at Fourmilab, Switzerland.
Computer constructed pictures of the Earth from positions above the Earth from the people at Fourmilab, Switzerland. You can see how the Earth is lighted at various times of day and year. I used these to construct the "Earth Lighting" handout.

View from inside the famous stone circle at Avebury

Here is a panoramic view of the largest stone circle in the world. Place your pointer on the picture, click and move it left or right. With pointer on picture you can zoom in and out using the "shift" or "ctrl" keys. Courtesy Paola Arosio/Diego Meozzi - Stone Pages & copyright by them. Learn more about Avebury. You need that Quicktime viewer again.

Make your own Sundial

from Charles Hartley this very sophisticated Sundial. All you need is a paper clip and a printer.

Orbit of the Moon and Eclipses

An animation of the motion of the Moon around the Earth illustrating the occasions of solar and lunar eclipses.

Everything you ever needed to know about past, present or future solar and lunar eclipses from Fred Espenak at NASA. Plan a vacation around a solar eclipse!

Eclipse of the Sun as Seen from Space

See an animated photograph of the shadow of the Moon passing over Europe on August 11, 1999 from the EUMETSAT people. More information about the image. At the time the photographs were taken I was located in Amasya, Turkey which is located at the right edge of the picture at the southern side of the Black Sea. See me?

Beautiful animations of Ptolemy vs Kepler

Ptolemy ; hit START and watch epicycles move with their little planets and see the line of sight from Earth to the planet.

Kepler ; hit START and watch the planets move around the Sun and see the line of sight from the Earth to the planet.

Comparison ; green circles show the size of errors associated with the predicted positions of the planet while the red path shows the actual positions of the planets. Change from Ptolemaic to Keplarian theories and also change the source of data. See how Brahe made considerable improvements on the observational data.

Brahe & Kepler

Everybody is interested in Tycho Brahe's nose. Legend has it that he lost his nose in a duel and had a silver replacement made. Here is a portrait of Tycho showing is famous nose.

The fine people at NASA have a wonder site with everything you ever wanted to know about Kepler, his laws and his friends, including this cool animation of his laws.

Chapter 2 Gravity & the Moon(back to the top)

Astronauts on the Moon

Here is a movie (you have that Quicktime viewer, don't you?) of astronauts in a little car racing across the surface of the Moon. Just amazing! From those folks at High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center. There is gravity on the Moon!

Chapter 3 Light & Atoms(back to the top)

Doppler Effect

I stole a nice animated illustration of the Doppler effect this from a page on "The Doppler Effect and Sonic Booms" by Daniel A. Russell, Kettering University.
A very nice Doppler effect animation from Rob Scharein at the University of British Columbia. "Run animation" and then grab the green thing and start moving it around. Also turn on the source motion enabled button and play with that next item.

Proper Motion of Stars; they really move

From Richard W. Pogge at Ohio State University this very excellent animation showing the shifting patter of the Big Dipper.

Chapter 4 Telescopes(back to the top)

Hubble Space Telescope Gallaries of pictures from the telescope in space.

Chapter 5 The Sun, Our Star(back to the top)

Sun, Sol, Helios

Exciting animation (you do have the Quicktime viewer) of magnetic field loops that were photographed in 1992, from those fine folks at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Space Sciences Laboratory

Your graph of the Sunspot cycle; from 1750 to the present.

Daily Solar Images from the Big Bear Solar Observatory. Weather permitting. In several
wavelengths with details of some features.

Daily Solar Sketch and Photographs from the Mt. Wilson 150-Foot Solar Tower. Weather permitting. Several images and sketch of sunspots.

Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment from SpaceWeather.com Lots of pictures, graphs, forecasts, about the Sun, sunspots, aurora activity and more.

Animation of Nuclear Fusion

An animation showing the fusion of hydrogen. Click on the "show data" button. Add some more hydrogen. Notice you get a little helium 3. You need to increase the temperature to get helium 4. From Rob Saccharin at the University of British Columbia. Very nice!!!!

Chapter 6 Measuring the Properties of Stars(back to the top)

Chapter 7 Stellar Evolution(back to the top)

Animation of a Supernova Explosion

Really hot explosion! Star collapses, explodes and leaves a pulsar behind; all seen from a distant planet. From those fine people at the NASA High Energy Astrophysics Science Archives Research Center; my god, can't they find a shorter name?

Chapter 8 Stellar Remnants: White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes(back to the top)

Chapter 9 The Milky Way Galaxy(back to the top)

Chapter 10 Galaxies(back to the top)

Collisions of Galaxies

Watch two simulated galaxies collide and form spiral galaxies. First hit RESET then START. For the more advanced you can change the masses of the galaxies and see which one wins; be careful.

Hubble's Deepest View of the Universe Unveils Bewildering Galaxies across Billions of Years

See the photo of about 1500 galaxies very far away.

Chapter 11 Cosmology (back to the top)

Flatland

Read the book by Edwin Abbott. If you don't like this site try the Google search for "abbott" & "flatland

Hyperbolic Surface

For my Astronomy and Light & Relativity students a hyperbolic surface viewable from various angles

Animated Graphic of Gravitational Potential

A 3D graphic representation of the1/r gravitational potential with an object orbiting in an elliptical orbit.

Chapter 12 The Earth(back to the top)

Chapter 13 The Moon(back to the top)

Chapter 14 Survey of the Solar System (back to the top)

Chapter 15 The Terrestrial Planets Meteors, Asteroids, & Comets (back to the top)

Mars Exploration Rover Mission

Those little robotic vehicles, Opportunity and Spiri,t which roamed around Mars looking at rocks, taking pictures, and studying the scene. Great photographs etc. at the official NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory site.

Chapter 16 The Outer Planets(back to the top)

Chapter 17 Meteors, Asteroids, & Comets(back to the top)

Stardust (one of those interplanetary robotic spacecraft) Grabs Dust from Comet Wild 2

See animated closeup photographs of nucleus Comet Wild 2.
Visit the Stardust WEB pages for more information on this very long mission to return to Earth pieces of dust from this comet.

Life in the Universe(back to the top)