About the Site
Welcome to the Astronomy Education Review! Our goal is to design a site that makes it easy to find, read about, and use new ideas and resources for teaching and outreach in astronomy and space sciences.
On the home page we will list the most recent 10 or so postings with a date so that you can see immediately what’s new since the last time you visited the ÆR site. The navigation button labeled latest issue will take you to the Table of Contents for the full issue that is in progess; the Table of Contents lists the articles on the home page along with all the earlier postings for the current issue. Clicking on the navigation button labeled Back Issues will allow you to browse completed issues of ÆR.
We do test this site on several browsers: Internet Explorer 5 and up for Mac and Windows, and Netscape 4.5 and up (including Netscape 6 and Mozilla based browsers) for Mac, Windows and Unix. We also check how things look in the Opera browser. We have chosen to use standards based code, and therefore the site looks best in those browsers that support the standards (version 5 and higher of the above mentioned browsers). However, it is still usable and all the content is accessible, in older browsers, even text-based browsers such as Lynx. We recognize that it may look different on your browser depending on which one you use and what default settings you have chosen.
We have provided for printer-friendly reformatting of articles and search tools. There is also a mechanism on the home page for becoming a registered subscriber. Subscriptions are free and no subscription is required to access the journal. Subscribers will receive a short e-mail newsletter when we complete each issue describing the contents of that issue.
This site is very much a work in progress. If you have suggestions for making the site easier to navigate and use, or for additional features, send them to aer@noao.edu.
Site Design
We have chosen a design that will give ÆR the look and feel of a journal. The background is taken from Uranometria, which is one of the classic stellar atlases.
The constellations that form the background of the ÆR design are reproduced from “Uranometria,” the influential celestial atlas compiled by Johann Bayer in 1603. Bayer (1572—1625) was a Bavarian lawyer whose atlas was notable for its accurate indication of star positions and brightness, as well as its beautiful illustrations. Each engraved plate used to print the atlas is quite large at over 37cm across and is overlayed with a coordinate grid. The atlas itself depicts the positions and magnitudes of over 1,200 stars, and includes all the stars from Tycho Brahe’s catalog of 1602.
“Uranometria” contains 51 star charts: one engraving each for the 48 constellations described by Ptolemy (85-165 AD, approximately), two maps of the sky, and, most significantly, a chart of 12 southern constellations that had only recently been observed by Dutch navigators. Bayer was the first to represent these stars (the positions and constellation names came from a catalog by Pietr Keyser, who mapped the southern sky during a voyage in the year 1595-1597). In addition to illustrating new constellations, Bayer used his atlas to introduce an innovative system of stellar nomenclature that is still used today. He combined Greek letters with the constellation name to indicate the brightest stars in each constellation (e.g., the brightest star in the Centaur is Alpha Centauri, the second brightest is Beta Centauri, and so on). Because of its accuracy and design, Bayer’s “Uranometria” is considered the first modern star atlas.
Several additional plates from Uranometria are reproduced below. Click the image to enlarge.
