Here are 5 important websites for new astronomers, and astronomers of every level to know about and be able to navigate in one form or another. This doesn’t exclude our website, but these websites allow for you to expand your horizons and grow.

Stellarium

Stellarium is a great website for helping astronomers prepare for what can be seen in the night sky based upon any location on the Earth. For astronomers, this is great as it allows one to determine what is going to be visible in the sky and where to look from the comfort of your own home. The website does allow for granularity of the types of objects that one can see, where they are in the sky, and how they move throughout that night. Plus, one can check dates in the future and past to know where objects will be or were in the sky when observing. Stellarium does have Linux and Windows software to use, but the web version doesn’t require downloads and setups.

Clear outside/Weather Website

When one is observing or simply planning to observe, it is crucial to have great weather website that you can use and understand flawlessly. This is because sites like clearoutside.com are crucial to helping understanding where the weather is clear, what the seeing conditions are like, and which spots may be the best to go to based upon weather.

News Site

Having a go to news site for astronomy is crucial. Knowing what will be launching, new discoveries, and exciting celestial events to view are important. Some reasons why is that using a news site helps not only staying up to date with current events to discuss with others, but be able to expand your horizons and deepen your interests. A example that highlights this is when Comet Neowise was visible, as it was news sites that helped provide information as to where the object could be found in the night sky, when it was visible, how to view the object, and what it should look like.

NASA

This might be extremely cliche to post on this list, but it’s a treasure trove of information. The NASA site has a lot of great information, such as mission information, NASA launch schedules, facility information such as tours, and other items such as items for children. This plethora of information about the skies, and media such as photographs, make the site extremely accessible, popular, and helpful. One thing that is awesome to put on your radar is the NASA Socials, which allow the public to interact with upcoming NASA events as they happen!

Reddit /r/Astronomy

Although having Reddit in our list of places to go, this one makes sense in regards to having a place to visit to make virtual friends. Reddit is a place for like minded individuals to discuss topics that they are familiar with and passionate about. Therefore, as Reddit has posts and an associated Discord server, it’s a great place to find others interested in astronomy from all over the world.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and make sure to view our other unique astronomy roadtrips such as this one for more places to view astronomy when on a roadtrip.