Guest feature: Armchair astronomy

By Professor Steve Case

The winter skies are a crowded place. As though to make up for the fact that the cold weather means not many people will venture out of doors to see them, the skies of the winter months are crowded with the brightest stars of the year. The majority of the sky's bright stars can be found in an asterism known as the Winter Circle, which rises in the early winter evenings. We talk more about these stars in Strickler's annual Christmas show, "The Stars of Christmas," playing this Saturday and next at 6 and 7:30.

But – let's be frank – this season is cold, and as tempting as those bright diamonds might be, it's often more tempting to stay curled up inside, under a blanket, with a cup of cocoa at the elbow and the laptop across the knees. You might wonder: Is there any way to enjoy the skies from the comfort of my own armchair?

It turns out there is, and I'll briefly run through a selection of Web sites that do a great job of introducing the wonders of the skies from the comfort of the couch. Be warned though: nothing compares to standing outside on a dark night under a clear sky, regardless of the temperature. If anything, these sites may simply provide motivation to venture (however briefly) out of doors for a good look up.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

I've heard Astronomy Picture of the Day described as the best daily devotional site on the Web. Each day a stunning image from space is displayed, along with a brief description. Imagine it as a daily peek through the world's most advanced telescopes, with an astronomer on hand to explain the sights. If this doesn't whet your appetite for more, I don't know what would.

http://stellarium.org./

There's been a lot of hype regarding Google Earth's astronomy features, but for a night-sky simulation I still prefer Stellarium, the free program downloadable at the above Web site. Stellarium is quick to install, easy to learn and functions as a virtual planetarium on your computer. Wondering where Jupiter, Mars or Saturn will be in the sky tonight? (They're all visible throughout December.) Stellarium is the way to find out. Get acclimated with the sky on your computer, then grab the binoculars and that cocoa and head outside.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

Curious as to whether there will be any meteor showers or auroras tonight? Looking for an update on the trapped Martian rover? Missed an exciting sky event that you hope someone else got a picture of? Spaceweather.com is the site to reference. With information on all sorts of celestial happenings - both natural and man-made – this site helps you keep up to date with what's going on in the sky.

http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/universe/

I found this program during my years as an undergraduate, and I still maintain it's one of the most incredible things on the Internet. While Stellarium shows you the sky at any time of day on any date through the year, the interactive atlas downloadable at the site above actually lets you fly through it. The program is called Digital Universe, and that's basically what it is: the known universe mapped in three dimensions and simulated on your computer. The learning curve on this one is a bit steeper, due to the immense amount of data involved, but once you get the hang of it you can fly from Earth to the edge of our own galaxy and beyond.

Good luck, armchair astronomers!

Stephen Case is an assistant professor of earth sciences and director of Strickler Planetarium at Olivet Nazarene University.