Space is something that fascinates many.  Every day there are technological advances, new research being carried out and even historical space related anniversaries.  Where would we be without those valuable space dedicated blogs and websites?  There are so many sources of information readily available at our fingertips these days, and I am sure you have your favourites, but here is my top 10 list of astronomy blogs and websites.  I would love to hear if you have any others that are not on my list, website and blogs that I can try out too!

 

10 – Our local Astronomy groups websites

Northern Ireland Amateur Astronomy Society 

Irish Astronomical Association 

In the North of Ireland we are lucky to have two astronomical societies dedicated to night sky viewing, providing telescope advice and generally bringing astronomy to the masses!  These sites provide a great source of information on events both at home and abroad and have forums to help with any night sky or equipment queries.  From personal experience both societies are brilliant and excellent at what they do.  If you haven’t visited their respective websites they are well worth a visit!  Tell them Sinead from the Planetarium sent you!

image of logos

 

9 – www.kidsastronomy.com

If you have children, or are a big kid yourself this website is for you!  With both videos and games, the kids will have hours of fun whilst learning more about our world and the Solar System at the same time.  It even has information on topics such as comets and meteorites.  Working in the education team at the Planetarium I know that one of the most common questions from children is “How does a Black Hole work?”  Well today I learned from this website that a black hole uses the power of gravity to pull things towards it, even adults can learn from this website too.  The site is very easy to navigate and the information is in digestible chunks.

image of kids astronomy

 

 

 

8 – www.astronomynow.com

Astronomy Now is a great monthly magazine available to purchase, but they also have a very good website with astronomy news.  You could read some of their articles online, and it could inspire you to take a subscription.  Their archive of articles is extensive and is well worth a visit.  They also provide a really nice printable star chart.

image of astronomy now

 

7 – www.universetoday.com

Looking to be kept up to date with all the latest space related news?  If the answer is yes then Universe Today is for you.  This blog is jammed packed full of all the latest astronomical news and events and encourages comments from visitors.  It also boasts a great way for other blogs/website to get involved through its Carnival of Space feature.  Each week a different webmaster or blogger hosts the carnival. Here they get the opportunity to showcase articles written on the topic of space.  If you are just starting out it is a great way to reach the masses with your articles.

image of universe today

 

6 – www.slate.com

Formally known as Bad Astronomy on the Discover website, this blog now resides at slate.com and contains interesting and through-provoking stories.  The popularity of the blog can be seen through how many comments are left after each article, tweets on Twitter and likes on Facebook.  As an example the story about black holes posted 2 days ago already has 422 comments, 2995 likes on Facebook and has been tweeted 535 times!  That is an amazing amount of feedback in just 48 hours.  To get to the Bad Astronomy section on this website just click on “Health and Science” on the homepage where you will find other related stories and blogs.  Then just look for the Bad Astronomy link.

image of BA logo

 

5 – www.space.com

Launched in 1999, space.com claims to be the world’s No. 1 source for news of astronomy, skywatching, space exploration, commercial spaceflight and related technologies.  It does truly have the latest discoveries, missions, trends and futuristic ideas.  This is one of my favourite sites for the look and feel of the website.  I love the black background with what looks like meteors; it gives it a nice “spacey” feel.  It is also really easy to navigate around and has a really nice shop to get some ideas on astronomical gifts for birthdays, Christmas, or as a special treat for yourself!  Their stories are short, sharp ad to the point which is great and a feature I really enjoy is their “Image of the Day”.

image of spacedotcom

 

4 – www.skyandtelescope.com

Sky and Telescope is a magazine available to purchase, but it also has a great website full of information, interesting articles and up-to-date space related news.  What I like about this website is that it gives you beginner guides in all things astronomy from stargazing to astrophotography.  Another really nice feature on his website is “This week’s sky at a glance”.  Here you can study objects that you can expect to see in the night sky if it is nice and clear.  It gives information on easy to spot constellations, the Moon phases and contains a Planet watch.  It is number 4 on my list for a reason…. Give it a visit!

image of sky and telescope

 

3 – www.heavens-above.com

Ok, I will let you in on a little secret….. this is my secret obsession!  I love this website!  You can get star charts, information on the Solar System and so much more.  It looks very basic, but the reason why I speak so highly of Heavens Above is because it gives up to date information on the greatest man-made structure in space, the International Space Station.  All you have to do is input your location and it will tell you when the space station will appear.  There can be weeks when it won’t be visible overhead, then all of a sudden you will have weeks filled full of ISS spotting.  The website also gives information on the brightness of the ISS, the height and how long it will be visible for.  When you see the space station from Earth it will look like a tiny bright star moving across the sky.  Some people mistake it for an aeroplane and some even could believe it is a UFO!  If you do nothing today please visit this site and see if the space station is visible tonight.  When you spot it, just think that there are astronauts and cosmonauts looking right back down at you!

image of heavensabove

 

2 – www.nasa.gov

My list would be incomplete if I didn’t list the official NASA website in my Top 10.  There is so much information on the site that it would take an eternity of sift through and read everything.  There is information to suit amateur and professionals alike interested in all things space.  My favourite parts of the site are the videos and images.  NASA provides an “Image of the Day” feature which produces some amazing and wonderful images and NASA TV is also a favourite alongside their Twitter feed containing Tweets from astronauts.  This is the ultimate website for space fanatics!

 image of nasadotcom

 

1 – Armagh Planetarium’s Astronotes

www.armaghplanet.com/blog

I have put the Astronotes Blog from the Armagh Planetarium at number 1.  If you are reading this article and have a glance through the other articles on the blog you will see why it’s number 1.  Our Astronotes blog has all the latest news and views from the fascinating worlds of astronomy and space exploration.  The articles are written by the staff here at the Planetarium and the blog is produced and maintained by our Science Communicator Colin Johnston.  Articles are categorised into 6 heading; Solar System, Our Galaxy, Universe, Space Flight, Monthly Sky Notes and Weird and Fun.  We always try and produce relevant news, interesting stories and have a bit of fun at the same time.  I hope you agree that it is great.  We always welcome comments and love answering and queries and enjoy debate produced through our blog.  So if you are reading our articles, leave us a comment!

image of astronotes

 

(Article by Sinead McNicholl, education Support Officer)

 


58 Comments

abhishek · September 2, 2020 at 08:42

Interesting sites

Shahidur Rahman Sikder · August 13, 2019 at 19:08

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Michael · July 31, 2019 at 23:43

One site that is not on your list, but is an excellent site for students to learn about space exploration and astronomy is RocketSTEM. The nonprofit organization promotes STEM education and the exploration of outer space. They publish a FREE magazine and make it available for viewing online or for download as a PDF. They also do not have any paid advertising on the website or in the magazine.
You can visit their website at: https://www/rocketstem.org

Telescopes Lab · February 23, 2019 at 16:10

Finding some good astronomy blogs. Just got your web page from search engine. You reviewed really top class Space and Astronomy Site here. Thanks for sharing this info!

here · October 18, 2018 at 19:48

What’s up mates, how is all, and what you desire to say regarding this paragraph,
in my view its actually amazing designed
for me.

Daniel Cummings · July 30, 2018 at 03:32

Thank you for listing this astronomy education websites. I created this website in 2018 and I would love it if you would add it to the list. The goal of the site is to introduce kids at primary school level to astronomy and science thinking.

Daniel · July 14, 2018 at 19:13

Another great post, really enjoying this website.

Chinthaka Nanayakkara · June 13, 2018 at 09:24

‘Nicely done web site. very useful. It is really to important to raise awareness about asteroids. They are a serious threat to the existence of human kind.

I have organized a story writing project through the popular mobile publishing platform Sweek focusing on Asteroid Day on 30th June 2018! Interested? Join me to raise awareness on Asteroid Day and about armaghplanet.com too! https://youtu.be/JKiMRQzbFgQ?

Imran Khan(Mr Explainer) · May 17, 2018 at 05:49

Thanks Admin, I am really very happy to read ur articles. that! awosome.

Dominic baker · May 9, 2018 at 14:19

hi this is a cool place to learn about astronomy websites.

Venus · February 27, 2018 at 23:14

Thanks for sharing Heather, it good to keep the space sharing going. I can see you started this a long time ago so I hope you still have an active interest. I enjoy astronomy videos the best.

    admin · February 28, 2018 at 11:48

    Hi Venus, thanks for the comment. I am actually the latest in a line of admins for this blog. The original admin, who is no longer with our facility started this in 2010 and had a keen passion for astronomy. After that all admins have been required to have a keen interest, and I like to think I keep up with the times 😉 I also enjoy astronomy videos. Maybe I can produce an article with some of the internet’s best astronomy videos!

John Barnes · February 6, 2018 at 05:48

Thanks for writing such a thoughtful piece. It’s really useful to see the astronomy sites out there – I’ll be having a good read of them all. You’re right, can’t leave NASA out 🙂

Kelly · October 22, 2017 at 05:14

does anyone know why I havent been able to see the moon in almost 2 weeks ?

    admin · October 23, 2017 at 10:22

    Hi Kelly, can we ask your location? Where we are in Northern Ireland, there has been a lot of cloud, and the moon has been hidden behind that 🙂

    Daniel Thompson · December 28, 2017 at 19:29

    It really depends on the weather in your location. It’s a sure bet moon was still there somewhere like the sun is always above clouds when your airplane takes off.

    Brooke · January 7, 2019 at 21:52

    The moon goes through certain phases into which could be one problem of why you can’t see it.

    One of the new phases is the new moon. This is when the moon isn’t facing the sun so no light is reflecting upon it.

    Another reason that you may not be seeing the moon is because there may be clouds.

    Clouds can cover the night sky so you can’t see much of anything.

    I’m a happy astronomer myself. Sometimes clouds only cover the moon, and then they move. It just all depends on the type of weather.

    If you’re only looking outside for a couple minutes and this happens again, try looking for some stars. If you see some, but not many, then it may be cloudy. Try looking for an illumination. If there is one, then the moon may be peeking behind one of the clouds. Let it pass and then you can see the beautiful moon! 🙂

    -Brooke

Rhett Shufelt   · May 19, 2017 at 06:26

good article,

Jim Cundiff · January 4, 2017 at 19:08

Hi do you have infor for me to be able to get the best space live time interaction software for viewing what’s happening in our solar system and beyond thru the earths observortories and satalites and the ISS. Live feeds is what would be cool and this is to use on my iPad i just purchased. Thank you for your help.’
Jimmy jack cundiff

    Joseph Weydemann · January 24, 2018 at 22:35

    http://iss.astroviewer.net/
    This will show you the current position and a map of where and when it will be in an area we you can see it.

Jim cunidff · January 4, 2017 at 19:01

Hi do you have info for me to be able to get the best space interaction software for viewing space thru earths observortories and from satalights and iss for my Ipad? Please help.

Erik Winther · November 2, 2016 at 14:34

Thank you for this great list! I try to read as much about astronomy as I can and here you have helped me. Thank you!

Seetha Ram · October 17, 2016 at 12:54

It is very useful.. and it make new educational webnsite with lots of videos. Is this true???

SpaceTV · October 5, 2016 at 11:12

Hey we have made a new educational website with lots of videos about space. Check it out at http://www.spacetv.net 🙂

jillu · June 1, 2016 at 07:16

i have to buy a space observing telescope for my space research process which company telescopes are the best and please suggest me their names and websites and also about their cost and where i have to buy them.

jillu · June 1, 2016 at 07:12

it is really very interesting and also useful

Carol · May 12, 2016 at 16:17

Is it true that the signs of the zodiac have changed? Have Leos moved backward to become Cancer?

    admin · May 16, 2016 at 09:41

    Dear Carol, thank you for your question. Yes, you are correct. The zodiac used today was drawn up about 2000 years ago. The positions of the stars appear to slowly move over the years because of a 26 000 year long movement of the Earth’s axis called precession. This means that the stars are in different positions now (viewed from Earth) than they were when the zodiac was laid out. Like most science, astrologers either do not understand this or pretend it doesn’t matter.

    I hope this has helped you.

wim · April 11, 2016 at 09:36

Hi from the Netherlands!

Just checking out websites 🙂

kaitlyn · April 4, 2016 at 19:55

some of the are very cool

Philip J. Le Bel · April 3, 2016 at 14:31

Dear Astronotes:

Re: A Deductive Explanation of Dark Energy in Three Propositions

This proposal offers a possible answer to the question of dark energy. This proposal offers three propositions:

if it is true that photons, which travel at the speed of light, have lifespan that is a billion billion years, as recently reported; (1)

if it is true that photons, while having zero rest mass, do have a relativistic mass because they have momentum and energy; (2)

and, if it is true that these photons, having a relativistic mass traveling at the speed of light, create gravity; (3)

then, these same photons, that have existed for the last 13+ billion years and that all are still traveling at the speed of light, these photons have created the gravity necessary to expand the universe at an increasing rate.

Thank you for any interest you may give these ideas,
Cordially

Philip J. Le Bel

    admin · April 4, 2016 at 09:15

    Dear Philip, thank you for your speculations. While your thoughts are interesting, the equivalent mass of all the photons ever cleared (as starlight etc) was originally formed in the Big Bang so is part of the roughly 4% of observable mass/energy in the Universe, so cannot account for dark energy.

      Human Being · April 14, 2016 at 17:50

      Idiot, the Big Bang Theory is completely fake

        admin · April 15, 2016 at 09:35

        Dear Human Being, thank you for your comment. I am sorry that you feel that the best way to start a dialogue is with an insult, but I have let it stand as it is relatively mild and I am thick-skinned. Similar remarks directed to other users here will not be published.

        Turning to your assertion, do you have any evidence to support your claim?

Bauke Jan Douma · August 30, 2015 at 20:44

Are you nuts!
Agreed on 1-3.

But the rest, from what I see here, are ADS sites!
This is 2015 friends — ads are OUT!
Trying to avoid those like the plague, you almost got me there.

scarlet · July 8, 2015 at 22:32

Moonrise and Moonset info is given here: http://www.timejones.com/moon/today

Emma · February 27, 2015 at 00:09

i love this website it helped me so much with a school project

Emma · February 27, 2015 at 00:08

hey i love this website it helped me sooooo much n my school project keep up the good work

louise woods · February 13, 2015 at 20:50

I am surprised that this website is not on your list for astrophotographers

louise

Martina · December 2, 2014 at 02:10

Great list, up to date too and good summary of sites (many online lists don’t take the time to go that extra step with write ups). I’ve checked them all out. Bad astronomy was a new one to me – it’s definitely worth a visit. And of course, you can’t go past NASA for all those amazing photos. Martina.

Garry · November 19, 2014 at 16:17

Great listing, thanks.

davy mclean · July 18, 2014 at 19:17

great site

davy mclean · July 18, 2014 at 19:16

dedicated forum for the advancement of video astronomy..live broadcasts..live chat

Danial Quek · July 17, 2014 at 02:36

Great lists! I would never have found all these sites even with Google search

Luke · July 12, 2014 at 08:36

interesting

Paul Robinson · May 26, 2014 at 17:50

Oops, Egg on my face–it does but not in the same place– next to the # as with the others!

Paul Robinson · May 26, 2014 at 17:49

Great write up! Good set of resources!

I did notice, though, that, unlike the others, #1 did not have a clickable link!!

Björn Davidsson · March 14, 2014 at 00:44

Great site! Since you’re looking for other astronomy blogs, why not check out mine 🙂

http://www.thehistoryofthesolarsystem.wordpress.com

Cheers,

/Björn

Shannon M · January 29, 2014 at 04:39

Hey, I had to find a cool astronomy website as part of my Astronomy class at UW-Eau Claire. It’s the third astronomy course I’ve taken through the Physics department because I love it so much, but I’m actually an art major. This list was very helpful to know what information is on each website and what format their in.

It’s especially interesting to read about and visit the ones in blog format. I’ve never read a blog about astronomy nor am I a big blog person in general, but you make them sound interesting and I like the collection of different kinds of sites.

Thanks for the article!

    Sinead Mackle · February 4, 2014 at 14:28

    Hi Shannon,

    Glad you found he article useful, and perhaps you have found a few cool new sites to visit!

    Sinead

    fEF · March 4, 2015 at 21:47

    cool

lino . V . Bonnichi el Romano · June 19, 2013 at 06:11

well, the Space has a very limitent World for me, and for all the peoples.

my wishes that we are watching a mass landing on Mars, and the moon on the future.

Top Niches Markets in 2019 – 7 Unique Writing Gigs You Should Consider – Numerology News · December 29, 2018 at 14:16

[…] are several sites on Astronomy that accept and pay for articles written by freelancers. Each has their own set of guidelines and […]

Quora · November 15, 2015 at 13:35

What are all the basic astronomical terms?

Go to this link. May be it gonna help you. https://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/the-10-best-space-and-astronomy-sites.html This link contains name of some websites which deals with the basic astronomy. So this can help you, I think so.

Quora · November 15, 2015 at 05:47

Are there other academic sharing sites in addition to Quora for more specific scientific topic discussions about issues with space travel and manned missions to other moons and planets?

I have a link . See whether it can help or not. https://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/the-10-best-space-and-astronomy-sites.html

10 Most Popular Astronotes Stories of 2014 | Astronotes · January 8, 2015 at 11:32

[…] 5. The 10 Best Space and Astronomy Sites on the Internet […]

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