Start with a question: what can I see, what does an image measure, or how strong is a discovery’s evidence? These guides connect observations with the steps and assumptions needed to interpret them.
Plan observations and read telescope images
Roman Space Telescope: Follow and Interpret Its Results
Follow Roman mission updates, understand its surveys and planet detections, and evaluate the evidence, calibration and uncertainty behind its results.
Comets: What You See and How to Plan an Observation
Understand comet tails and brightness, use an ephemeris for your location, and plan a realistic night-sky observation.
Solar Dynamics Observatory: How to Read Solar Images
Choose AIA and HMI products, compare timestamps and solar features, and distinguish image observations from space-weather forecasts.
James Webb Space Telescope: How to Read Its Images and Spectra
Read Webb image colors, filters, scale bars and spectra, and trace an astronomical claim back to its observation.
Infrared Telescopes: Wavelengths, Thermal Background and What Images Reveal
Compare infrared observations through wavelength, sensitivity and resolution, with examples from VISIR and Webb.
Moon Topography: How to Read Lunar Terrain Maps
Read lunar elevation, slope and illumination maps, compare terrain products, and calculate relief with a worked example.
Magnetic Reconnection: Energy, Auroras and the MMS Evidence
Understand how magnetic reconnection transfers energy, what MMS measures, and how the mechanism relates to space weather.
Radio Telescope Antennas: How Arrays Make an Image
Understand baselines, resolution, sensitivity and missing spatial scales, then read an ALMA image with the right context.
Laser Guide Stars: How Adaptive Optics Sharpens Telescope Images
Follow an adaptive-optics correction loop and compare sharpened images through wavelength, reference stars and residual blur.
The 2010 Solstice Lunar Eclipse: How to Read Eclipse Timings
Interpret lunar-eclipse contact times, convert the calendar and time zone, and build a local observing plan.
Allen Telescope Array: How a Radio SETI Candidate Is Tested
Read a frequency-time display, understand interference checks, and interpret the limits of a radio technosignature search.
Explore water, ice and planetary systems
Water on the Moon: Ice, Molecules, Measurements and Resources
Distinguish lunar ice, water molecules and hydroxyl, compare the evidence, and evaluate claims about usable deposits.
Europa: Ocean Evidence, Ice-Shell Questions and Europa Clipper
Follow the evidence for Europa's ocean, understand ice-thickness uncertainty, and see which questions Europa Clipper can address.
Enceladus: What Its Plumes Reveal About an Ocean World
Connect Cassini's plume measurements with ocean evidence, phosphorus and chemical energy, while distinguishing habitability from life detection.
Saturn's Rings: Structure, Changing Views and the Age Debate
Understand ring particles and gaps, changing viewing geometry, Cassini's findings and the assumptions behind ring-age estimates.
Exoplanet Carbon Dioxide: How to Evaluate an Atmospheric Detection
Read an exoplanet spectrum, distinguish transit and eclipse observations, and assess the evidence behind a carbon-dioxide detection.
Water on Other Planets: Measurements, Models and Habitability
Separate water-vapor measurements, water-loss models and possible oceans, using TRAPPIST-1 as an evidence-reading case study.
Dawn at Vesta: Surface Discoveries and the Changing Interior Model
Connect Dawn terrain, mineral and meteorite evidence with Vesta history, including the 2025 reanalysis of its interior.
Methyl Chloride in Space: What One Molecule Says About Life
Separate molecular detection, chemical formation and biological interpretation through the ALMA and Rosetta methyl-chloride findings.
Phoebe: What Cassini Revealed About a Captured Moon
Read Cassini images and composition evidence while distinguishing measured terrain from models of Phoebe’s origin and interior.
Exotic Substances on Super-Earths: Reading High-Pressure Predictions
Understand predicted planetary compounds, pressure units and the limits of connecting a crystal calculation to an exoplanet interior.
Understand distant galaxies and stellar mergers
The Most Distant Galaxies: Redshift, Lookback Time and Confirmation
Understand cosmic distance and redshift, separate galaxy candidates from confirmations, and assess farthest-galaxy discoveries.
Merging Neutron Stars: Following the Evidence from Waves to Light
Follow GW170817 from its gravitational-wave chirp to gamma rays and a kilonova, and understand what each observation established.
High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos: From an Alert to a Possible Source
Trace IceCube detector evidence, alert revisions and telescope follow-up into a qualified astrophysical source association.
Galaxy Interactions: How to Read the Signs of an Encounter
Use NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 to interpret tidal features, star formation and gas measurements while separating observations from models.
Microquasar Jets: Following Cygnus X-3 Across Wavelengths
Compare radio, X-ray and gamma-ray timelines while keeping observed lags separate from physical models of jets.
Antennae Galaxies: How to Read a Collision Across Wavelengths
Compare optical, infrared, X-ray and molecular-gas views of the Antennae with explicit colors, coverage and distance assumptions.
Work with astronomy data
10 Ways AI is Aiding Astronomy
Explore how AI helps process surveys, detect candidates, calibrate data and support forecasts, with scientific validation throughout.
WISE: How to Explore an Infrared Sky Survey
Find WISE archive images, compare infrared bands, choose between coadds and single exposures, and recognize common artifacts.
Fermi Gamma-ray Telescope: How to Read Its Sky and Alerts
Choose LAT or GBM products and interpret catalog entries, light curves, upper limits and burst reports.
SOFIA: What a Flying Telescope Measured and How to Use Its Archive
Understand airborne infrared astronomy, choose SOFIA data levels, and preserve a repeatable archive search.
Plan space exploration
Interplanetary Logistics: A Worked Supply and Inventory Plan
Model demand, delivery delays, reserves and cargo capacity with an explicit, repeatable space-logistics example.
Historical technical report
This report preserves the software capabilities and terminology of its 2005 publication date.
Flight simulation graphics
2005 report. A 2005 account of Aerospace Blockset 2 and desktop vehicle visualization.