Astronomy Page

This page offers a broad (and necessarily idiosyncratic) range of selected topics from the fields of astrophysics and deep sky observational astronomy, with emphasis on the southern hemisphere.

I have tried to provide complementary material to the usual fare available to fellow non-professionals. For example, a thousand web sites and most every amateur astronomy book ever written will tell you all about the Chandrasekhar Limit, so I’ve taken that as read and, instead, discuss topics such as the Humphries-Davidson Limit.

This site is constantly under construction. In particular, links enclosed in <angle brackets> are still very much in development and have yet to be checked back against the original references. These pages may include errors of fact.

Great site: NASA Astrobiology Institute Feature Archive

Introduction

Basics

General Topics

<Sources of Astronomical Data>

Telescopes

Start Without One

Anybody with an interest in astronomy wants to immediately rush out and buy a telescope; it's only natural. But you can – indeed you should – travel a long way down the path before having to plunge in and spend up large on a telescope of your own. (Read more.)

Magnification Doesn't Matter

<The Stellar Zoo>

The Morgan-Keenan Spectral Classes

O-Type
B-Type
<A-Type>
F-Type
G-Type
K-Type
M-Type
<L-Type>

Rare or Unusual Stars

Non-Stellar Star-Like Objects

<Active Galactic Nuclei (incl. BL Lac objects, blazars, quasars, Seifert galaxies)>

The Messier Objects

Another Messier Catalogue

Some Southern Objects

Introduction to the Southern Sky

Hot Luminous Stars (overview)

Galactic (Open) Clusters (<overview>)

Globular Clusters (overview)

(More southern deep sky objects)

Peripatus Home Page

Astronomy Page

Contact me.