Here are some useful links to information about practical astronomy and historical astronomy.

• Astromart contains a list of more links than the beginner will ever need to purchase astronomical equipment. For those wishing to buy a telescope or binoculars, some of the big names featured here are Meade and Celestron.

• Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts) is a free, downloadable program to create sky charts to show the positions of constellations, planets, stars, nebulae and more.

• Celestron is a reputable telescope manufacturer.

• ClearDarkSky offers national charts depicting the forecasted cloud cover for an area.

• History of Astronomical Calendars discusses the differences between lunar and solar timekeeping and how ancient (and not-so-ancient) civilizations used one or each.

• Interactive Maps for all Solar Eclipses in the 20th and 21st Century for amateur astronomers bent on burning their retinas out—just like Galileo!

• International Dark Sky Association promotes control of light pollution. Its site offers many resources, such as descriptions of the problem, methods to control light pollution, links to lighting laws and places to find dark sky.

• Kids Astronomy teaches gradeschool kids (and the rest of us) the basics of the solar system, the universe, the moon and space exporation. It also has a teacher's corner with printable worksheets. This Website is easy to navigate.

• Meade is a reputable telescope manufacturer.

• Latitude and Longitude of U.S. and Canadian Cities offers geographic locations requested by many star charts to choose the appropriate time and angle for viewing.

• The Night Sky in the World uses data from satellites to create nocturnal light maps. It contains imagery showing the brightest and darkest nighttimes of the world. I believe the Website originated in Italy, but there is this English version.

• Sky and Telescope Magazine offers understandable astronomy articles for the amateur and offers current astronomical happenings. The magazine itself includes monthly star maps.

• The Telescope offers the history of the telescope starting with the first lenses (for spectacles), moving on to Galileo Galilei and ending with the Newtonian reflector.