Z · E · N · I · T · H

(ZEE-nith) noun, the point of the celestial sphere vertically above the observer; the culminating point: acme.

The Zenith is the home of loftier pursuits, and loftiest pursuit of humanity is astronomy. Visit some of the following links off-site, or read about my own work or check out my Frequently Asked Questions about astronomy careers. Balanced precariously between Zenith and Nadir is my parody of science in the movies: Hollywood Instant Data Reduction Software.
 

Astronomy sites

General Interest

• Bad Astronomy and what to do about it.
• The Nine Planets and their satellites, too.
• The International Dark-Sky Association fights wasteful nighttime lighting, light pollution, and space debris.
• Assuming humanity survives the Y2K crisis, here's the next thing to worry about. Sun users beware! It's the Year 5 Billion bug!
• Infrared interferometry makes it possible to image the beautiful spiral created by Wolf-Rayet 104.
• Sky and Telescope Magazine Online tells you about This Week's Sky
• Sunrise, sunset, lunar phase, and much much more can be found at the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department. Since the USNO AA's Directorate of Time is responsible for maintaining the official time scale for the United States, this site also contains the last word (as far as I'm concerned) on whether the new millenium begins on Jan. 1, 2000 or Jan. 1, 2001.
• The Earth and Sky is a brief program on astronomy and other sciences that you can hear on many radio stations. Their web site is very cool, and has text and audio of all their shows, as well as other keen stuff.
• For the last time, that thing where you send money to get at star named after you or a loved one is a scam. Here's the Straight Dope on the subject.
• What better way to impress primitive natives or terminally bored adolescents than to predict the passage of a satellite through the sky? Heavens Above will tell you when the brightest satellites will be visible in your area, and also provide other useful prognosticative details. "Keep an eye on it, kids, because it's going to wink out right . . . about . . . now!"

For astronomers

• The NASA Astronomy Abstract Service
• The IDL Astronomy User's Library
• The NASA Rings Node

Astronomy and me

I am a graduate student at Cornell University in astronomy. I study the rings of Saturn.
     I came from the University of Iowa where I double-majored in physics and astronomy. When I was there, I worked at the Automated Telescope Facility when it was just a telescope on the roof of Van Allen Hall. That project has spawned the Iowa Robotic Telescope Facility. I also did research on the Demon Star, Algol with Bob Mutel. I was a summer student at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Array Operations Center in Socorro, New Mexico, working with Dale Frail. We used the Very Large Array to look for pulsar wind nebulae.

You are now at the Zenith. Where will you go from here?
North: Crafts
East: Games	Origin	West: Thoughts
South: HTML