NCHALADA LXIII
History of Astronomy on the World Wide Web
Saturday, February 1, 2003, 10:00 AM
Chabot Space and Science Center, Oakland, California

The discussion will be about resources on the web relating to the history of astronomy. Directories and sites will be covered, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I expect some discussion about what's missing as well as about what's there. As a starting point for research, I offer the following list of directories and sites. I invite participants to bring their own experiences to the meeting as well.


General Purpose Directories

There are three major general purpose directories on the web, all of which purport to have a section concerning the history of astronomy. To avoid conflict of interest, I must refrain from saying which one is clearly the best. See them all and judge for yourselves.

Science:Astronomy:History on the Open Directory Project, http://dmoz.org
Google, AOL, and many smaller directories are derived from this. The content is generated by a group of volunteers and is distributed freely on the condition that it be properly attributed.
Library > Sciences > Astronomy & Space > Reference Shelf > History on Zeal, http://zeal.com/
Microsoft and many smaller directories are derived from this. The content is generated by a group of volunteers and distributed by LookSmart along with their commercial directory. The distribution is cheaper than free, they pay sites to carry it.

Science > Astronomy > History on Yahoo, http://dir.yahoo.com
To the best of my knowledge, the content here is unique to Yahoo.


Specialized Directories

History of Astronomy, http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/astoria.html is by far the most comprehensive history of astronomy resource on the web. The main disadvantage is that many of its links are to sites which no longer exist.

AstroWeb, http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/astroweb.html is a collection of astronomy links, many of which deal with history. Finding the ones of interest can be a chore, but typing "history" in their search box is a good start.


Mail Lists and Forums

HASTRO-L The History of Astronomy Discussion Group.

Historiacoelestis A Yahoo group moderated by Stuart Williams, FRAS.


A Few Sites of Interest

The Galileo Project A comprehensive web site from Rice University about Galileo, his life, his times, and yes, even his daughter.

Big Ear Radio Observatory A lot of information about the history of SETI, focusing on work at Ohio State.

History and Philosophy of Western Astronomy The history chapter of an introductory astronomy course.

Understanding Tidal Friction A brief article on gaining understanding of changes in the Moon's orbit.


How Bad Can It Get?

The Earth is not Moving Read all about the Copernican and Darwinian Myths.