Ian Short's Educational Astronomical Images

I created these images to fill gaps in generally available pedagogical line art. These images illustrate fundamental points, mostly pertaining to positional astronomy, that are often neglected in commercial galleries that are bundled with textbooks. They are designed to be of use in introductory level Astronomy courses.

Help yourself

Celestial Sphere:

Celestial sphere: Absolute reference points
Celestial sphere: Observer's reference points: Horizon & Zenith
Celestial sphere: Abolute and Observer's reference points
Diurnal paths & Circumpolar stars: Cel Sphere
Diurnal paths & Circumpolar stars: Sky plane
Terrestrial Co-oords: Latitude
Terrestrial Co-oords: Longitude
Celestial Co-ords: Declination
Celestial Co-ords: RA
Celestial Co-ords: Hour Angle
Equivalency of HA of Vernal Equinox and RA of transiting objects
Tropical & Arctic zones
Mean solar day: Fictitious mean Sun
Local solar time
12 hour clock - Negative HA
Timekeeping: solar day & time zones
Local sidereal time (LST)
Equivalence of LST and RA of Meridian
LST and Solar Time

Planetary Motion:

Planetary orbital periods: sidereal and synodic
Planetary orbits: force and acceleration
Moon's orbit on C. Sphere
Planet's orbit on C. Sphere
Kepler's Law I: Geometry of the ellipse

- Newton's Laws of Motion

Newton's Laws: Mass (Law I), Weight, Volume
Newton's Laws: speed
Newton's Laws: velocity
Newton's Laws:acceleration (Law II)
Newton's Laws: Law III
Newton's Laws: Law III for a planet and the Sun

Ray Optics:

Ray optics: the lens; focal length, object at infinity

Planetary Physics:

Planetary physics: atmospheric pressure
Planetary physics: transit/occultation timing of Jovian moons
Planetary physics: Orbital velocity of Jovian Moon from Doppler shift

Solar pedagogical:

Sun: polarity of spots within sunspot group and global dipole field

Galactic co-ordinates and Rotation curve:

Galaxy: Galactic latitude and longitude
Galaxy: Galacto-centric distance; relation to galactic co-ordinates
Galaxy: H I 21 cm mapping
Galaxy: Rotation curve; applying Kepler III
Galaxy: Rotation curve; massing entire visible disk region
Galaxy: Spiral arms
External spiral galaxy: Rotation curve

Not so unique images: some version of these can be found in most commercial galleries

spectroscopyThe Spectroscopic Principal; Spectral Absorption Lines
specplotPlotting a spectrum; spectral line shapes
stellar1``Peeling'' a star with spectroscopy
novaSemi-detached binary; Nova precursor
binary Eclipsing binary
binary Eclipsing binary - hi res TIF version
globular cluster Globular star cluster
globular cluster Solar diagram

As yet unclassified: