Resources Page

A great resource which provides visual information about current and expected weather and seeing conditions for astronomers. Click on the chart itself to go to the Bradley IL Clear Sky Chart page, which provides a legend for understanding the various colors and numbers.

PeotoneWeather.com

The most accurate weather reporting for Peotone IL residents!!

Save money by fighting light pollution!

PLEASE think about how your outdoor lighting affects the night sky. Any light that spill "up" into the sky is completely wasted, and only serves to light up the bottom of planes. See the Illinois Coalition for Responsible Outdoor Lighting for more information.

See the International Space station, space shuttle or satellites just by clicking on this link and entering your zip code. Site tells you what you can see, when and where to look, and how bright it/they will be. Obviously dependent on orbital mechanics and such, but you'd be surprised at how often the ISS and bright satellites are visible. Check back often - it's pretty cool!

Think there isn't any "real science" that can be done with a backyard telescope anymore? Think again! The AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) is an organization that collects variable star estimations from amateur astronomers the world-over - some of which can be done without a telescope OR binoculars!

Because "massive telescope" time is so precious to professional astronomers, they rely on amateurs using their eyes, binoculars or small telescopes to constantly check and estimate a large number of variable stars. This is a REAL contribution to science, and considering there's only a few thousand people in the whole world that even do it, YOUR variable star estimations really can make a difference in astronomy. I've downloaded some charts and will be submitting my own estimations starting in early 2009. Wanna join me?

Astro Acres - A private observing location under "green" (yes, GREEN!) Bortle scale skies, about 75 miles south of Chicago. There's not too many "green" skies much closer than that to the south side area of Chi-town.

There are also a couple of other areas near Chicago: This Braidwood site is technically under "orange" skies, but apparently the area has wide open horizons in pretty much all directions, despite the few light domes. Also, to the west is Dixon IL, which is "green sky" country, and gets raves from a few folks I've spoken with who go there.

Some astronomy time information is provided according to Greenwich Mean Time (which is the time on the Greenwich Meridian, in Greenwich, England). This is done to simplify the time-recording process, because 6:00PM in Greenwich is obviously not the same as 6:00PM in, say, Los Angeles California, or Tokyo, Japan. Here's clocks that show local time and GMT.

CST:     GMT:

I hope to have more information here soon on the phases of the moon, sunspots, and other cool features. Let me know if you find anything, and I'll consider adding it.

One last thing: Please be sure to turn off your outdoor lights, or if you must have an outdoor light on, be certain it is a full cut-off fixture, and the minimum wattage required. No sense in lighting the underside of planes at night - it just ruins the night sky for everyone else! Besides, doing so really will save you money on your electric bills. For more information about light pollution, please visit the International Dark Sky Association.