Exceeding Your Expectations

The Sky at Night Magazine

Stargazing with a smartphone
Thanks to smartphone apps, you can now keep a wealth of astronomical knowledge in your pocket. Jamie Carter reviews some of the best available right now.

The International Cartographic Association (ICA

The International Cartographic Association (ICA) Commission on Planetary Cartography was officially established as a continuation of the ICA Planetary Cartography Working Group (1995-1999) at the ICA Congress in Ottawa in August 1999. The working group was established during the 1995 ICA congress in Barcelona, initiated by Kira Shingareva (Russia), Manfred Buchroithner (Germany), and Jim Zimbelman (USA).

Our 2015-19 aim is to

in general

• connect planetary scientists working at different national agencies, universities and research institutes;

• encourage cartographers, researchers, graphic artists, and students to join the planetary cartographic community even in those countries that have no space mission.

• provide access to feature databases and base maps to map publishers and encourage them to publish planetary themed maps in their atlases and portfolio

• help the development of international standards in planetary cartography

• document and promote planetary cartographic products and activities

Illustrated Deep-Sky Observing Guide

This work is a printable field guide and an observing list of deep-sky objects. It provides basic information about 7000 objects (up to magnitude 14) and features additional 650 select DSO, with negative thumbnail images. See screenshots.

I made it using SAC database as main source of data, excluding objects with declination lower than -60º (south). Most of the images were taken from "NGC/IC project" site, and a few of them are from other sources (see copyright information).

This field guide has two parts:

1. Observing list of 650 best deep-sky objects, with thumbnail images and some basic information. The list is sorted by constellation and magnitude (sorting by name is also available). List includes all Messier, Herschel, Caldwell, SAC's best of NGC, and ~150 additional DSOs.

2. List of 7000 deep sky objects under magnitude 14 (which, under dark skies, are in reach of a moderate telescope). The list provides basic information about each object: magnitude, number of stars, page in Uranometria 2000, comments, common name, etc.

The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)

The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is a non-profit worldwide scientific and educational organization of amateur and professional astronomers who are interested in stars that change in brightness 'variable stars'.
The AAVSO was founded in 1911 to coordinate variable star observations, which were made largely by amateur astronomers, for Harvard College Observatory. The AAVSO was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1918 as a non-profit scientific and educational organization. Today, as an independent, private research organization headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with active participants in more than 100 countries, and an archive of over 34 million variable star observations, it is the world’s largest association of variable star observers.