The Best Astronomy Sky Map and Photo site I've ever seen..

[K1JJ]

http://www.wikisky.org/

This "Wiki" astro site is the most advanced I've ever come across.  Click on the right side and get stunning astroshots that look like Hubble photos as the star map in the center takes you there. Then magnify or decrease.

Move your curser to the icon in the middle top that shows the current time and click to input your location - it will show you a detailed sky map of your own sky above. It has a + - tab on the left corner to zoom in or out, just like Google map.  Click on any object and get a whole array of pics to look at. Input a search and goto any object. Try a search for "M5" globular cluster and click on that to see unbelievable pics. Try some of the other features too.

I still go outside to view my own black and white "real" photon light stuff with the telescope. But this sites is for knowing what it really looks like.  Go to areas of the sky where the galaxies hang out and magnify. Unreal.

Just 20 years ago this site would have been science fiction magic.

T

It lets you take snap shots of the screen too. Here's a cluster of galaxies I just "discovered" as I rambled around the sky...  The bright glare is a closer galaxy - while the distant ones are 400 -600 million  light years away.  Gonna name it the "Dr. Love Cluster"  

[K9ACT]

http://www.wikisky.org/

This "Wiki" astro site is the most advanced I've ever come across.  Click on the right side and get stunning astroshots that look like Hubble photos as the star map in the center takes you there. Then magnify or decrease.

That is pretty cool but I have too problems with it.

First of all, barfing it up to the point of confusion with the "buy a star" bit is not so cool.

Secondly, I can not find any credits or attributions for any of the images.  As most of them are probably done by amateurs, it would be nice to know their names.

The first place I went was to Barnard because we have sold or given away the rights to my image hundreds of times.  It was for years the only current image.  The one here is rather humbling and I suspect will cut into our sales in a big way. Especially as people just steal them anyway off Wiki.

Thanks for the link,

Jack

[KA8WTK]

Galaxies, bah. Give me Orion or the Pleiades any day!

That's a cool site.

Bill

[W1RKW]

Jack, Tom,
years ago when I got my first SC scope and scanning the eastern sky around Leo ( I think) I came across a pair of stars. One was a bright blood red and the other a deep bright blue. They were so close to each other one could call them a double star though probably not considered a double. But the neat thing about them was the contrasting and brilliant color against the dark sky when sometimes discerning color under dim light can be difficult.  To this day I have not been able to find this pair.  I was wondering if you have and/or know where in the sky where they may exist.  Like other objects in the sky, seeing these two together is amazing.  I'm wondering if the red star is a variable like R-Leporis and because it varies just not have been able to make the connection.

[K9ACT]

Several come to mind:

Albiero, Gama Andromedae, Alpha Herculis for starters.

I attached one of them but for more details and pics see:

http://schmidling.com/doubst.htm

js

[W1RKW]

It looks like Gama Andromedae is the one I remember.

Nice pics, BTW.