mission statement
This website is a selection of links to important, interesting and popular websites
of particular value to the amateur astronomer and space enthusiast and for students of space sciences.
It does not remotely pretend to be a fully comprehensive list for professional astronomers!.
I have tried to avoid including commercially-inclined sites as far as possible in this compilation.
Also, although my choice of sites naturally reflects a bias towards English-language ones,
I have tried to make it as international and global in scope as possible.
You are welcome to send me any comments and suggestions you may have -
either about this site or about other astronomy and space websites on the internet
(just click on 'Contact' below) - and to give me your news and views in general.
However, please keep all your contributions sane, sensible and relevant only!
Thank-you for visiting this site. Bruce Woods (Greenwich, London, UK)
of particular value to the amateur astronomer and space enthusiast and for students of space sciences.
It does not remotely pretend to be a fully comprehensive list for professional astronomers!.
I have tried to avoid including commercially-inclined sites as far as possible in this compilation.
Also, although my choice of sites naturally reflects a bias towards English-language ones,
I have tried to make it as international and global in scope as possible.
You are welcome to send me any comments and suggestions you may have -
either about this site or about other astronomy and space websites on the internet
(just click on 'Contact' below) - and to give me your news and views in general.
However, please keep all your contributions sane, sensible and relevant only!
Thank-you for visiting this site. Bruce Woods (Greenwich, London, UK)
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about myself
(IN RELATION TO THIS WEBSITE)
(IN RELATION TO THIS WEBSITE)
Just a word about myself.
I am an amateur astronomer and space enthusiast.
I live in Greenwich, London, England, just a short walk away
from the Old Royal Observatory - the historic heart of British astronomy,
one of the great past centres of European astronomy and now a World Heritage site.
The Old Royal Observatory, founded by King Charles II in 1675 for England's first Astronomer
Royal John Flamsteed, was one of the earliest official observatories in the world using telescopes.
However, I became seriously interested in astronomy only a few years ago
at the dawn of the new millenium. My greatest interest throughout my life so far has,
in fact, been history and I finally graduated in that subject at Birkbeck College, University of London,
as a mature student over ten years ago. It has been since then that, for a number of reasons, my childhood
enthusiasm for space exploration has been reborn and rekindled. It has happened partly through visits to the Old
Royal Observatory, partly by watching wonderful television documentary series such as the BBC's 'The Planets'
(broadcast in 1999), and partly through being excited and inspired by recent events in the news - news of
ground-breaking space missions to Mars and beyond. Unfortunately I missed the brilliant 'TV
series 'Cosmos', created by Carl Sagan, when it was broadcast in Britain in 1981.
If I had seen it, I might have been inspired about twenty years earlier!
All this brought back to me my childhood excitement and wonder about
space exploration back in the 1960s. The first major world event I can remember
was the launch of the first man in space - Yuri Gagarin - in 1961 when I was eight years of age
(I've now given my age away!). Before the end of that decade came the landing of the first human beings
(Neil Armstrong and 'Buzz' Aldrin) on another world in 1969 - a day I shall remember for the rest of my life.
These were events that stirred my imagination. Then, like most of my generation, when the lunar
landings finally came to a end in the early 1970s my interest waned and it remained
dormant for a long time afterwards . . . until recently.
So, to cut a long story short, as a result of this rebirth
of an old enthusiasm I attended an excellent astronomy evening class
course run by Dr Martin Heath at Greenwich Community College and then joined
the Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA). I am now a member of the Flamsteed Society in
Greenwich (based on the Old Royal Observatory) and aim to study the subject at an academic level.
Like countless other ordinary people around the world who are not and never will be professional astronomers,
I now have not only an interest in but also a passionate commitment to a subject which is of infinite meaning and
vast significance for all humankind - and which, ultimately, is all about our future as well as our distant past.
I feel lucky to be living and (hopefully) to have many more years of life ahead of me at this moment in time.
In the first decade of the 21st century, there has never been a more exciting time to take up astronomy!
BRUCE WOODS
(JANUARY, 2008)
I am an amateur astronomer and space enthusiast.
I live in Greenwich, London, England, just a short walk away
from the Old Royal Observatory - the historic heart of British astronomy,
one of the great past centres of European astronomy and now a World Heritage site.
The Old Royal Observatory, founded by King Charles II in 1675 for England's first Astronomer
Royal John Flamsteed, was one of the earliest official observatories in the world using telescopes.
However, I became seriously interested in astronomy only a few years ago
at the dawn of the new millenium. My greatest interest throughout my life so far has,
in fact, been history and I finally graduated in that subject at Birkbeck College, University of London,
as a mature student over ten years ago. It has been since then that, for a number of reasons, my childhood
enthusiasm for space exploration has been reborn and rekindled. It has happened partly through visits to the Old
Royal Observatory, partly by watching wonderful television documentary series such as the BBC's 'The Planets'
(broadcast in 1999), and partly through being excited and inspired by recent events in the news - news of
ground-breaking space missions to Mars and beyond. Unfortunately I missed the brilliant 'TV
series 'Cosmos', created by Carl Sagan, when it was broadcast in Britain in 1981.
If I had seen it, I might have been inspired about twenty years earlier!
All this brought back to me my childhood excitement and wonder about
space exploration back in the 1960s. The first major world event I can remember
was the launch of the first man in space - Yuri Gagarin - in 1961 when I was eight years of age
(I've now given my age away!). Before the end of that decade came the landing of the first human beings
(Neil Armstrong and 'Buzz' Aldrin) on another world in 1969 - a day I shall remember for the rest of my life.
These were events that stirred my imagination. Then, like most of my generation, when the lunar
landings finally came to a end in the early 1970s my interest waned and it remained
dormant for a long time afterwards . . . until recently.
So, to cut a long story short, as a result of this rebirth
of an old enthusiasm I attended an excellent astronomy evening class
course run by Dr Martin Heath at Greenwich Community College and then joined
the Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA). I am now a member of the Flamsteed Society in
Greenwich (based on the Old Royal Observatory) and aim to study the subject at an academic level.
Like countless other ordinary people around the world who are not and never will be professional astronomers,
I now have not only an interest in but also a passionate commitment to a subject which is of infinite meaning and
vast significance for all humankind - and which, ultimately, is all about our future as well as our distant past.
I feel lucky to be living and (hopefully) to have many more years of life ahead of me at this moment in time.
In the first decade of the 21st century, there has never been a more exciting time to take up astronomy!
BRUCE WOODS
(JANUARY, 2008)
