About Me
Hi there and welcome to Astronomy Central, a site packed with up to date and useful astronomy information, astronomy news, a lively community, and more.
I’m an amateur astronomer, and have been interested in astronomy and space for probably all of my life. There’s nothing quite like seeing the Milky Way arching overhead in superb dark skies…part of the Galaxy’s spiral arm laid out right there for you, packed with star clouds and star clusters. I remember a lot of years back when I first looked at Jupiter through some binoculars, at the time I wasn’t even completely sure it was Jupiter, and I thought the four pinpoints of light around it could be stars of some kind in the background. Back then it never actually dawned on me that they were its moons, and would never have thought you could see them with just a normal pair of binoculars. Ok, in my defense they were pre internet days and a walk to the local library soon put me straight, that was Google back then and the search time was really slow!
After that I got a look at Saturn for the very first time through a small refractor. I could not believe I could actually see Saturn’s rings with a small scope…just about yes, but there they where, 800 million miles out there in space. Wanting to see further and with more detail I then built a 10 inch aperture Dobsonian telescope, a light bucket, perfect for teasing out those faint galaxies, millions of light years away floating in the darkness. I now also own an 8 inch Skywatcher Explorer 200p reflecting telescope, a Solarmax 2 BF10 solar telescope, as well as various pairs of binoculars.
About Astronomy Central
Astronomy Central is responsive, so looks great fitting into all screen sizes from large screen, to tablet, to smart phone. You can also now join, login/out of the discussion forum, read and post messages all from your smart phone while on the move.
With this site I aim to educate, inspire, and communicate the sheer weirdness, violence, and beauty of what’s out there in space. Together with this I give useful information about finding interesting objects in the night sky. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a complete beginner who wants to learn the night sky with your naked eyes or binoculars, or you’re a more experienced observer, there’s always something here for you. You’ll find accurate and up to date astronomy resources, including some pages that get updated daily. The posts you’ll be wanting to access most frequently being conveniently located in the blue menu bar at top, “Discussion forum”, “The Sky Tonight”, “Handy Astronomy Info” etc. If you’re looking for something specific, try the search bar at top right to search the main website, then there’s the Astronomy Central Discussion Forum which also has a search function all of it’s own. Browse through site Categories and Archives in the side bar using the drop down menus.
If you want to know what planets you can see in the sky tonight then go here Planets To See In The Sky Tonight, or for some really amazing facts on the stars you can see this evening, try Stars To See In The Sky Tonight. Want to know what to look at in the sky with binoculars?… The Night Sky With Binoculars Tonight. Also check out this year’s meteor showers with all the info you’ll need to see them for 2012. There’s every object in the Messier Catalogue here too. There’s lots more on the site, but these are some pointers to get you going. All website content is written by me in a style that fully explains, while also making it enjoyable for you to read.
Click on the buttons in the sidebar to subscribe to the Astronomy Central RSS feed (any reader), and to follow me on Twitter.
Discussion
Dying to share your astronomy thoughts or questions, or to check in to see what others are talking about and make friends? No problem, we have a lively, friendly and growing community in the form of our Discussion Forum. If you’re a complete novice be sure to check out the category “Beginner’s Corner”, always a good place to start. You can quickly get access to post your comments and chat to other members by signing up.
John Brady.