What is amateur astronomy? It's looking up and enjoying the beauty of the night sky. It's making sketches of the craters of the moon. It's learning how to pronounce the names of stars and constellations. It's observing one object night after night to see miniscule changes. There are many aspects that make up amateur astronomy. We've tried to include some material that local amateurs and those wanting to get into astronomy might find useful in this section. Watch for announcements and updates of programs as well as interesting things that might be happening in the sky.

Interested in joining a club?

Considering buying a telescope?

Although most of the time astronomers are irritated by the number of manmade objects in orbit about our planet, there are times when seeing these satellites is nevertheless fun for the amateur astronomer. Besides, it doesn't take any fancy equipment to actually see many of the satellites. Best of all, you don't have to stay up too late. Satellites are most visible in the hours after sunset or before sunrise.

Sighting opportunities for ISS, the Space Shuttle, and other satellites and their orbital elements can be found at:

• NASA's Shuttle Web
• JTrack and JPass are interesting graphical views of satellite visibility (including ISS, the Shuttle, Hubble, COBE, and others). Really neat if your JAVA works!!!
• Visual Satellite Observer's Home Page (VSHOP) is recommended for learning more about tracking satellites!
• Heavens-Above Main Page includes ISS visibility dates and visibility of Iridium flares for your location if not in
  • College Park, or at
  • Alexandria, VA.

And then occassionally, satellites come down! For the latest rentry informations, check out www.reentrynews.com/upcoming.html.

Don't know how to read the info at these sites? Then you should come to week 1 of our Learn the Sky Nights program.

College Park is a bit too far south to see the aurora borealis or Northern Lights on a regular basis. Occasionally, we get lucky when there's a strong solar storm. Below are some indicators from other sites that I have found useful for determining if aurorae will be visible at this latitude. The best site to visit to keep updated on solar activity is spaceweather.com. For really neat pics of the sun, try the SOHO webpages.

for more details, please visit, the Real Time Dst Estimate Web Page


for more info about the auroral oval, please visit POES Auroral Activity