A Great Introduction to Astronomy

[glenc (Glen)]

Here is a good place to get a feel for the size of the universe.

AN ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE. Created by Richard Powell.
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/

"This web page is designed to give everyone an idea of what our universe actually looks like. There are nine main maps on this web page, each one approximately ten times the scale of the previous one. The first map shows the nearest stars and then the other maps slowly expand out until we have reached the scale of the entire visible universe."

This is a list of the 300 brightest stars made using data from the Hipparcos catalogue.
The stellar distances are only fairly accurate for stars well within 1000 light years.
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/stars.html

Below is a list of the 250 most prominent open clusters in our corner of the Galaxy.
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/openclus.html

Below is a list of most of the globular clusters that surround our galaxy.
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/globular.html

Below is a list of the brighter diffuse nebulae.
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/nebulae.html

This is a list of the one hundred brightest planetary nebulae:
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/plannebs.html

This is a list of the 200 brightest galaxies according to the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies.
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galax200.html

[Paddy (Patrick)]

The mind truly boggles!

[glenc (Glen)]

Another great web site is Galaxy Map by Kevin Jardine.
http://galaxymap.org/drupal/node/45

[rmcpb (Rob)]

That site sums up part of astronomy, you simply cannot get your head around the size and power of the things out there.

Great sites

[glenc (Glen)]

Here are some lists of objects from Venezeula.
http://www.oarval.org/Cat.htm#Catalogs