The Constellations
by William Cullen Bryant

O constellations of the early night,
That sparkled brighter as the twilight died,
And made the darkness glorious! I have seen
Your rays grow dim upon the horizon's edge,
And sink behind the mountains. I have seen
The great Orion, with his jewelled belt,
That large-limbed warrior of the skies, go down
Into the gloom. Beside him sank a crowd
Of shining ones. I look in vain to find
The group of sister-stars, which mothers love
To show their wondering babes, the gentle Seven.
Along the desert space mine eyes in vain
Seek the resplendent cressets which the Twins
Uplifted in their ever-youthful hands...

Constellations in Depth

These links are useful in your
Constellation Project:

       
         Print your constellation project handout here.

Hawaiian Astronomical Society

The Constellations

Heavens Above

SEDS Constellations
 

Freeware to download (like Starry Night), sky simulation software:

   Cartes du Ciel  for Windows (non-Vista) only

   Stellarium   for Linux, Mac, Windows

   Celestia   for Linux, Mac, Windows

   A comprehensive list of all sorts of astro software can be
   found here.  (This is not all freeware!)
 

Can you find Saturn's rings in this picture?  This is a view from the Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn.  Why does one half look blue?

More info and credits can be found here:  http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060503.html

What's Up?

The University of Michigan is offering a series of evening lectures on Astronomy topics ranging from new telescopes to black holes to the "end of the universe".  Here are some links to the dates and details:  Astronomy lecture series  and Eyes on the Universe.  A good one is scheduled for Friday Jan 30!

Sky Online
From the makers of Sky & Telescope magazine, this site is updated often with information of interest to amateur sky watchers.  Check out the News Bulletin, and What’s Up in the Sky for starters.

Catch Comet Lulin (if you don't mind getting up at a ridiculously early hour!)

Spirit and Opportunity  (the Mars rovers) just celebrated their fifth birthdays!  Read about it on the
Mars Exploration home page

News from Saturn at the Cassini Equinox home page

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy.  Why?

Life on Mars?  A smoking gun...

Our galaxy is bigger than we thought.

B:  6-12
W: 5-7, 14-17
plus study your class handouts!

Deep Sky Objects

Check out the Messier and Caldwell Catalogs for a great start to learning deep sky objects!

Who was Charles Messier?  
What's a Messier marathon?

Who is Caldwell?

A link to planetary nebulae: http://zebu.uoregon.edu/pn.html

For the utmost in interest + beauty, check out the Astronomy Picture of the Day Gallery.

McNeil's Nebula (pictured above)  is a new nebula that was discovered by Jay McNeil in January, 2004.

Image Credit: Adam Block, NOAO, AURA, NSF