General & Misc. Astronomy

General astronomy (including some resources for lower level courses), (astro)physics education research, and miscellaneous materials.

Textbooks + Longer Articles

• OpenStax Astronomy textbook (first edition here)
• Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics by Martin V. Zombeck
• Open Astrophysics Bookshelf (also on GitHub) – “A collection of open-licensed ‘living’ textbooks on topics in astrophysics” – maintained by Michael Zingale
• Astronomy as a Field: A Guide for Aspiring Astrophysicists from SIRIUS B
• Space science textbooks from the University of Arizona Press Open Arizona initiative

Lecture Notes + Materials

• Astrophysics I lecture notes from Ian Cross’s MIT 8.901 course

Recorded Talk Series

• AAS Journal Author Series
• Aspen Center for Physics Physics Colloquia and Public Lectures
• Astrotalks – compilation of astronomy research talks by David Hendriks
• Caltech Astro Seminars and public talks
• Cambridge University Astronomy
• Cork Astronomy Club
• Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Colloquia
• Harvard-Smithsonian CfA Institute for Theory and Computation talks
• Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology lectures
• Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics talks
• NASA Diffuse Gase in Cosmic Ecosystems Science Interest Group seminars
• Northwestern University Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics
• Royal Astronomical Society
• Texas A&M Physics & Astronomy Talks
• University of Arizona Theoretical Astrophysics Program
• Virtual Astronomy Software Talks
• Space Telescope Science Institute recorded talks

Visualizations

• Animations from Michael Zingale
• PhET blackbody simulator
• ViewSpace interactives
• Various visualizations by Astronomy Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Cosmic Data Stories from the Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
• NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System
• Various interactives by Kevin Healy

Other Resources

• Stellarium, “a free open source planetarium for your computer”
• Astronomy Picture of the Day
• Firefly, an interactive web-based particle viewer by Aaron Geller and Alex Gurvich
• Multiwavelength Astronomy from the University of Chicago’s eCUIP Digital Library collection (Note: These resources were developed for high school classrooms rather than college classrooms.)
• Crash Course Astronomy – video lessons from Phil Plait
• astrobites Educational Resources
• KStars deskop planetarium
• Astronomy Education Journal administered by the IAU
• Harvard Natural Sciences Laboratory Demonstrations
• AstroPix – easily browsable astronomical images
• NASA Community College Network
• Taotie by Song Huang, which compiles research resources of all kinds

In addition to the resoures linked here – and throughout astroteaching.github.io – there are sites with other materials not specifically developed for pedagogy that may be useful in the classroom: e.g., Annual Reviews in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Legacy Survey viewer, JADES interactive map