Our writers recommended these independent websites as background information and content supplements for Our Solar System lessons.

General

http://ology.amnh.org

Check out the astronomy area of this American Museum of Natural History site. It's the usual fun facts but done in an excellent manner.

http://www.planetary.org

Offers extensive up-to-date information and pictures of the most current happenings in astronomy.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Each day a different picture from space is shown with an information sheet to go along with it.

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html

This child-friendly NASA site offers an enormous amount of information about astronomy for children to explore independently.

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/

View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

Sun’s Daily Pattern

http://www.worldtimezone.com

Use this site to locate the time zones around the world.

http://www.worldtimezone.com/datetime.htm

This page shows current areas of the world that are experiencing daytime and nighttime.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html

Use this site to obtain sunrise and sunset data for one day.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

World clock showing the current time in cities around the world.

Sun’s Annual Pattern

http://www.griffithobs.org/skyfiles/skysunspath.html

This site provides the teacher with additional information about the sun’s apparent movement across the sky during different times of the year.

http://www.susdesign.com/solpath

This site shows the path of the sun’s apparent movement across the sky for different times of the year at different latitudes. Click the corners of the catalogue to change the month. Move the slider on the globe to change latitude. (Sample latitudes in the United States are: Augusta, ME about 44˚N; Boston, MA about 42˚N; Washington, DC about 39˚N; Atlanta, GA about 34˚N; Miami, FL about 26˚N; Fargo, ND about 47˚N; Chicago, IL about 42˚N; Denver, CO about 40˚N; Houston, TX about 30˚N; Seattle, WA about 47˚N; Las Vegas, NV about 36˚N; San Diego, CA about 33˚N.)

Moon’s Cycle

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-moon.html

Follow this link to a gallery of NASA photographs of the moon’s surface. Click on the thumbnail image you like most to get a full-screen view of it.

http://www.almanac.com/astronomy/moon/

View an illustrated calendar of the moon’s phases for the month and year that you choose. The calendar will show what your class’s moon phase observations should look like.

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/moon.htm

Offers potpourri of information about the moon and missions to the moon.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/

Phases of the moon and moon illumination data for any place and year.

Objects in Our Solar System

http://www.astc.org/resource/exhibits/dussault.htm

Details community solar system walks across the country including Peoria, IL; Eugene, OR; Boston, MA; Gainesville, FL; and Washington, D.C.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/events/solrwalk.html

Details solar system walk in Cleveland, OH.

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ep/starreport.html

This Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics site provides current sky information about visible planets and stars. Information is updated daily.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/sky_calendar.html

Click the Planets tab to find out what planets are currently visible, and when and where to look for them.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/

This National Space Science Data Center site contains detailed images of the planets taken from lunar probes. It also contains fact sheets about each planet.

http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html

An overview with text and images of each of the planets and moons in our solar system.

Stars Outside Our Solar System

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html

Detailed images of star clusters beyond our solar system.

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/stars.php

This informational site for teachers provides lots of facts about stars as well as links to other star sites.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/skychart

Launch the Interactive Star Chart on this site to create star charts for your location and date. Once the star chart is showing, clicking on the “plus” hours will cause the stars and planets to move across the screen. Using the Interactive Star Chart requires registration and login, which is free.