Welcome to Astronomical Adventures

Astronomy. It's the study of the universe beyond the boundaries of the Earth's atmosphere. Whether you are talking about individual stars or galaxies composed of hundreds of billions of stars, the field of astronomy has always been a challenging one because of the remoteness of the objects being studied and the limited number of tools available to astronomers.

The purpose of the Astronomical Adventures web site is to provide information to help people to better understand a variety of astronomy related topics.

The Astronomical Adventures web site is organized into the following sections:

Astronomy: Articles about various astronomical concepts.
Java Simulations: A small collection of Java applets that are relevant to astronomy.
Meteorites: Articles about meteorites, the only samples of extraterrestrial materials available for study until the space age and the Apollo missions to the Moon.
Observatories: Information about some of the observatories that I have visited.
Planets: Information about the planets of our Solar System.
Telescopes: Some basic information about telescopes.
Contact: Information on how to contact me.
Search: A site search tool.

I would like to leave you with the following thought from the Greek philosopher Plato who in 342 B.C. wrote in The Republic that "Astronomy compels the soul to look upward, and leads us from this world to another."

Find out how you can have a NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador speak to your group in the Chicago area

JPL Solar System Ambassador Speaker Program in Chicago