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User:LinkBot/suggestions/Amateur astronomy

An automated Wikipedia link suggester has suggested 6 possible wiki links and 136 possible backlinks for the Amateur_astronomy article:

— LinkBot 09:57, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Outward links

 * Can link Hale Telescope: ...later played a major role in design and construction of the Hale Telescope .... (link to section)
 * Can link field of view: ...is easier to target an object, since it offers a much wider field of view . With the aid of high power lenses (i.e. eyepieces), the a... (link to section)
 * Can link 35 mm: ... camera for Astrophotography. Starting out with a good 35 mm camera with a 50 mm lens mounted on a tripod and using a ca... (link to section)
 * Can link Guy Consolmagno: ...d Alan Dyer, ISBN 0-921-820119 * Turn Left at Orion, by Guy Consolmagno, ISBN 0-521-34090-X... (link to section)

Inward links
Additionally, there are some other articles which may be able to linked to this one (also known as "backlinks"): ...
 * In Archaeoastronomy, can backlink night sky: .... "Guest stars," or star-like objects which appeared in the night sky, were of great interest to the observers of ancient China a...
 * In Arcturus, can backlink night sky: ...where Arcturus would appear directly overhead in the summer night sky . Knowing they had arrived at the exact latitude of the isl...
 * In Aldebaran, can backlink night sky: ...ate]]. Aldebaran is one of the easier stars to find in the night sky, partly due to its brightness and partly due to its spatial...
 * In Politics of Brazil, can backlink night sky: ...d the Federal District) arranged in the same pattern as the night sky over Brazil on the 15th November 1889 (date of the proc...
 * In Boötes, can backlink night sky: ...he fourth brightest star in the night sky, Arcturus....
 * In Cthulhu mythos, can backlink night sky: ...luence to Earth when the star of the solar system is in the night sky, along with the help of cultists performing various rituals...
 * In Carina (constellation), can backlink night sky: ... contains Canopus, the second brightest star in the night sky, and the supermassive star eta Carinae....
 * In Canis Major, can backlink night sky: ...us]], the brightest star in the night sky, and that star is part of the Winter Triangle....
 * In Canis Minor, can backlink night sky: ...he eighth brightest star in the night sky . Procyon means "before the dog" in Greek...
 * In Comet Hale-Bopp, can backlink amateur astronomer: ... beliefs and theories. In November 1996, Chuck Shramek, an amateur astronomer in Houston, Texas, took a CCD image of the come...
 * In Dog, can backlink night sky: ...rius]], the Dog Star''', is the brightest star in the night sky ....
 * In Fermi paradox, can backlink night sky: ...With this speculation, he advised astronomers to search the night sky for unusually colored stars, which, he postulated, could on...
 * In Galaxy, can backlink night sky: ... Galilei]] used a telescope to study the bright band on the night sky known as the Milky Way and discovered that it was composed ...
 * In Gegenschein, can backlink night sky: ...German]] for counterglow) is a faint brightening of the night sky in the region of the zodiac directly opposite the [[Sun...
 * In Hobby, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...s to the professionals. It is not entirely uncommon for an amateur astronomer to be the first to discover a celestial body or [[celes...
 * In KDE, can backlink night sky: ...- Desktop Planetarium (accurate graphical simulation of the night sky )...
 * In Light pollution, can backlink night sky: ...al light levels. Among other effects, this can obscure the night sky enough to hide most stars and other celestial objects f...
 * In Milky Way, can backlink night sky: ...IAU]] in 1959). The fact that the Milky Way divides our night sky into two roughly equal hemispheres reflects the fact that t...
 * In Moctezuma II, can backlink night sky: ...ay. # A pillar of fire (possibly the comet) appeared in the night sky ....
 * In Nova, can backlink night sky: ... ancient astronomers would see a nova become visible in the night sky where no star was visible before, and believed that it was ...
 * In Olbers's paradox, can backlink night sky: ...ent that in a static infinite universe the night sky should be bright. This is sometimes also known as the "dark...
 * In Open cluster, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...le from large distances and one of the preferred objects by amateur astronomers . The "parent" molecular cloud is sometimes still associated...
 * In Paradox, can backlink night sky: ...e on the way to freezing. * Olbers' paradox Why is the night sky black, if there is an infinity of stars ?...
 * In Scorpius, can backlink night sky: ...onstellation)|Orion]] is almost opposite to Scorpius in the night sky . It has been suggested that this was a divine precaution t...
 * In Urban heat island, can backlink night sky: ...warm) buildings blocking the view to the (radiatively cold) night sky . Replacement of high-albedo natural ground with low-alb...
 * In Vega, can backlink night sky: ...Triangle]]. It is the second brightest star in the Northern night sky, and the fifth brightest star all in all....
 * In Zodiac, can backlink night sky: ...would use astronomical observations of the movements of the night sky for divinatory purposes. Some of these appli...
 * In 1859, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...Knox, IL ===March=== *March 26 - French amateur astronomer claims to have noticed a planet closer to the Sun than Merc...
 * In 61 Cygni, can backlink night sky: ...h it is among the least conspicuous of stars visible in the night sky to an observer without an optical instrument, 61 Cygni attr...
 * In Mars (planet), can backlink night sky: ...]]), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky . Mars has two small moons, [[Phobos ...
 * In Jupiter (planet), can backlink night sky: ... since ancient times and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky . In 1610, Galileo Galilei discovered the four large...
 * In Large Magellanic Cloud, can backlink night sky: ...axy]], and M33. It is visible as a faint object in the night sky of the southern hemisphere, straddling the border betwe...
 * In SN 1604, can backlink night sky: ...ova, it was brighter at its peak than any other star in the night sky, and all the planets too, with apparent magnitude &minu...
 * In Krishna, can backlink night sky: ...in Sanskrit means "black" or "dark blue" (the colour of the night sky ); it is related to similar words in other Indo-European...
 * In Royal Greenwich Observatory, can backlink night sky: ... a powerful green laser shining north across the London night sky . Some, however, have criticised its addition for adding to ...
 * In Vulcan (planet), can backlink amateur astronomer: ...], Le Verrier received a letter from a French physician and amateur astronomer called Edmond Modeste Lescarbault, who claimed to have ...
 * In Swastika, can backlink night sky: ...l, with but one wing, one eye, and one leg, hovering in the night sky . As this bird "screams" and "vomits blood":...
 * In Bryce Canyon National Park, can backlink night sky: ...New Mexico]] can be seen. The park also has a 7.3 magnitude night sky, making it the one of the darkest in North America. Sta...
 * In Gamma ray burst, can backlink amateur astronomy: ...e 200 millimeter lenses are modest even by the standards of amateur astronomy, ROTSE-1 has a wide field of view and can be quickly reposi...
 * In Sidereal time, can backlink night sky: ... be observable at a given time. Objects are located in the night sky using Right ascension and declination (analogous to...
 * In KStars, can backlink night sky: ...]. It provides an accurate graphical representation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at any date and time. The disp...
 * In Wavelet compression, can backlink night sky: ... two-dimensional images, for example an image of stars on a night sky . This means that the transient elements of a data signal ca...
 * In North, can backlink night sky: ...of north as prime direction == The visible rotation of the night sky about the visible celestial pole provides a vivid metap...
 * In Pleiades (star cluster), can backlink night sky: ...leiades in folklore== The Pleiades' high visibility in the night sky has guaranteed it a special place in many cultures, antique...
 * In Timeline of cosmology, can backlink night sky: ...ounded space * 1610 - Johannes Kepler uses the dark night sky to argue for a finite universe...
 * In Planetarium, can backlink night sky: ...atre built for presenting shows about astronomy and the night sky ....
 * In Orrery, can backlink night sky: ...netariums are hemispherical theaters in which images of the night sky are projected onto on overhead surface. Orreries can range ...
 * In Philadelphia Experiment, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...arlos Miguel Allende === In 1955, Morris K. Jessup, an amateur astronomer and former graduate-level researcher, published ''The Case ...
 * In H.A. Rey, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...stories.  Whether they are aware of it or not, millions of amateur astronomers see the constellations through Rey's eyes. Before the [[195...
 * In Miaplacidus, can backlink night sky: ...lacid waters") is one of the brightest stars in Earth's night sky, with apparent magnitude 1.68. Its [[Bayer designation...
 * In Great Wall of China, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...uts give varying reports. This variation is not surprising; amateur astronomers know that features on the moon that are dramatically visibl...
 * In The Crystal Palace, can backlink night sky: ...he fire was seen for miles and thousands of people saw the night sky light up due to the flames. Just as in 1866 when a fire...
 * In Hoag's object, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...ring galaxy]]. The sheer beauty of this object has riveted amateur astronomers as much as its uncommon structure has fascinated profession...
 * In Hamal, can backlink night sky: ...apparently an important place when people first studied the night sky ....
 * In Binoculars, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...ollow movements more easily. Binoculars are widely used by amateur astronomers . Their wide field of view is central to their use in [[...
 * In Chinese constellation, can backlink night sky: ...]] astronomy. Ancient Chinese skywatchers divided their night sky in a different way, but there are also similarities. The Ch...
 * In Comet Hyakutake, can backlink night sky: ...arch 24th the comet was one of the brightest objects in the night sky, and its tail stretched an impressive 75 degrees across the...
 * In Edward Sabine, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...cyclic nature had been discovered in 1844 by the German amateur astronomer Heinrich Schwabe. Sabine was the first to recognize tha...
 * In Pune, can backlink amateur astronomy: ...ir are prominent landmarks. Jyotirvidhya Parisansthan is an amateur astronomy club located at the basement of Tilak Smarak Mandir....
 * In Monoceros, can backlink night sky: ...Monoceros''' is a faint constellation on the winter night sky, surrounded by Orion to the west,...
 * In Small Magellanic Cloud, can backlink night sky: ...n]] of Tucana and appears as a hazy, light patch in the night sky about 3 degrees across. It looks like a detached piece of t...
 * In Rio Cuarto craters, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...Captain Ruben Lianza of the Argentine Air Force, an amateur astronomer, provided a report to an astronomy publication that include...
 * In Chicxulub Crater, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...r at the village of Puerto Chicxulub.  Penfield was an amateur astronomer and had a good idea of what he was looking at. Although PEM...
 * In Carlsbad Caverns National Park, can backlink night sky: ... leave the cave in gigantic swarms. Silhouetted against the night sky like a dark, swift-moving cloud, the bats make their most d...
 * In Orion Nebula, can backlink night sky: ...test diffuse nebula visible to the naked eye in the night sky . M42 is located at a distance of about [[1 E19 m|1,600 ligh...
 * In Carte du Ciel, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...Inexpensive software packages for home computers enable any amateur astronomer to determine precise positions for every star in an image i...
 * In USS Thresher (SS-200), can backlink night sky: ...rts. Thresher closed her prey beneath a clear and dark night sky . At 2329, with the range to the near escort at 2000 yards, ...
 * In The Sky at Night, can backlink night sky: ...others. The programme also covers what is happening in the night sky at the time it is being broadcast.  This can be particularl...
 * In Achernar, can backlink night sky: ...i) is a bright star visible in the southern part of the night sky in the constellation of [[Eridanus (constellation)|Erid...
 * In USS Washington (BB-56), can backlink night sky: ...calm sea beneath the scattered cirrus cumulus clouds in the night sky, Washington's radar picked up a contact, bearing to ...
 * In Perseus (constellation), can backlink night sky: ...4 respectively) belong to the most beautiful objects of the night sky for binoculars and small telescopes. Both lie at distances ...
 * In Lacerta, can backlink amateur astronomers: .../lacerta.html GO TO LACERTA] (a constellation guide for amateur astronomers )...
 * In Black Shoals, can backlink night sky: ...into a domed ceiling in a dark room, creating an artificial night sky which visualises the dynamics of the world stock markets.
 * In Guinness book of Astronomy, can backlink amateur astronomy: ...ned in detail. The second part is a detailed sky atlas for amateur astronomy observations: for each constellation, a list of bright ...
 * In Qi Qiao Jie, can backlink night sky: ...te summer the stars Altair and Vega are high in the night sky and the Chinese tell the following love story, of which the...
 * In Southern Hemisphere, can backlink night sky: ...bined with clearer skies makes for excellent viewing of the night sky from the Southern Hemisphere....
 * In Mallt-y-Nos, can backlink night sky: ...s out in misery rather than joy as she hunts forever in the night sky.
 * In Len Lye, can backlink night sky: ...f flashing lines and marks, as dramatic as lightning in the night sky ....
 * In Angular size, can backlink night sky: ...e angular size of galaxies, nebulae or other objects of the night sky ....
 * In Jade Emperor, can backlink night sky: ...r the river. The story refers to constellations in the night sky . Chih'nü is the star Vega in the constellation of [...
 * In Stadium of Light, can backlink night sky: ...s built in to the corners of the ground which beam into the night sky, marking the ground out. A sign at one of the main entrance...
 * In Lechaina, can backlink night sky: ...rounding village of the southern coast are glowing into the night sky to the municipal boundary. The view of mount [[Erymanthus]...
 * In Moltres, can backlink night sky: ...ng flash of flames. As it flaps its flaming wings, even the night sky will turn red. This legendary Pokémon scatters embers with ...
 * In Close encounter, can backlink night sky: ... object]] or objects. Reports of fast-moving lights in the night sky or "flying saucers," unattributable to human technology, ca...
 * In Glowworm (astronomy), can backlink night sky: ...ous trail of a tiny meteor, occasionally visible in the night sky during a meteor shower....
 * In 2MASS, can backlink night sky: ...e of the entire sky. The most ambitious project to map the night sky to date, the final (post-processing) data release for 2MASS...
 * In John Dobson, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...ed piper of astronomy" and the "star monk". He was the only amateur astronomer highlighted in the PBS series The Astronomers....
 * In Dobsonian, can backlink amateur astronomers: ... can be easily transported. This has made it a favourite of amateur astronomers because it can be carried to star parties in...
 * In West Summerland Key, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...e site of the Winter Star Party, an annual gathering of amateur astronomers . West Summerland Key is actually about 10 miles east of [[S...
 * In Blade Warrior, can backlink night sky: ...erything around you. The background is made up nicely drawn night sky, with coulds and hills etc. This, along with nice sounds an...
 * In 5 Astraea, can backlink amateur astronomer: ... of two asteroid discoveries. The second was 6 Hebe. An amateur astronomer and post office employee, Hencke was looking for [[4 Vesta]...
 * In Proto-Indo-European religion, can backlink night sky: ...') was the (Mother) Earth. **Velnos, maybe a god of the night sky, continued in Sanskrit Varuna and Greek Uranos (wh...
 * In USS Jacob Jones (DD-130), can backlink night sky: ... 2000 and then commenced radio silence. A full moon lit the night sky and visibility was good; throughout the night the ship, com...
 * In Kigo, can backlink night sky: ...onger, so you are more likely to notice the moon. Often the night sky will be free of clouds so that also helps with noticing the...
 * In Mellish crater, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...24.0W. It was named after John E. Mellish, an American amateur astronomer from St. Charles, Illinois.  The crater was named after...
 * In Sky & Telescope, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...ul source for locating purveyors of telescope equipment for amateur astronomers ....
 * In McMansion, can backlink night sky: ...wash walls and illuminate landscaping ensure that the local night sky will appear bright, with few children ever knowing the wond...
 * In Fred Lawrence Whipple, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...P1]] Peltier-Whipple, independently discovered by the famed amateur astronomer Leslie Peltier....
 * In List of KDE applications, can backlink night sky: ...- Desktop Planetarium (accurate graphical simulation of the night sky )...
 * In Benmore Peak Observatory, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...as founded in 1996 and is open to both professional and amateur astronomers . BPO is 57 kilometers (35.5 miles) south of [[Mount John U...
 * In Zone of avoidance, can backlink night sky: The Zone of Avoidance is the area of the night sky that is obscured by our own galaxy, the Milky Way. ...
 * In List of asteroids named after people, can backlink amateur astronomer: ... Greek astronomer) *7291 Hyakutake (Yuji Hyakutake, amateur astronomer and comet hunter)...
 * In Fixed star, can backlink night sky: ...s not seem to move (in comparison to the other stars of the night sky ). Hence, a fixed star is any star except for the [[Sun]...
 * In Astronomical League, can backlink amateur astronomy: ...he Astronomical League is an umbrella organization of amateur astronomy societies. Currently their membership consists of over 240...
 * In Aden Meinel, can backlink Night Sky: ...ublications include: *The Near-Infrared Spectrum of the Night Sky and Aurora, Publications of the Astronomical Society of...
 * In The Scary Sleepover, can backlink night sky: ... ball together, romping. reading stories, and gazing at the night sky . When one girl points out her very own star that her daddy ...
 * In History of the announcements of Another World, can backlink night sky: ...dited yet again. As the title of the show mellowed into the night sky, he announced, "Another World. This part is brought to ...
 * In The opening credits of Another World, can backlink night sky: ... have computerized titles. The titles would begin, set on a night sky, with a tunnel of neon-lit interlocking rings, from which t...
 * In 162 Laurentia, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...n April 21, 1876 and named after A. Laurent, an amateur astronomer who discovered asteroid 51 Nemausa....
 * In Farpoint, can backlink Amateur Astronomers: ... is an observatory operated by the Northeast Kansas Amateur Astronomers League (NEKAAL)....
 * In Astronomical clock, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...binet. The clock was designed over a period of 50 years by amateur astronomer and professional clockmaker Jens Olsen.  It was assembled f...
 * In Eyepiece, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...ngth is probably most frequent of properties referred to by amateur astronomers when considering eyepieces. It is usually expressed using ...
 * In Paul Oswald Ahnert, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...ary school teacher. In addition to this he was an ambitious amateur astronomer and in 1923 his first article was published in the scie...
 * In Pleiades, can backlink night sky: ...stellation of Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky ....
 * In Edmund Scientific Corporation, can backlink amateur astronomers: ... Scientific American caught the attention of hobbyists, amateur astronomers, high school students, and cash-strapped researchers. Duri...
 * In Triple Conjunction, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...e. They are unspectacular, but offer a good possibility for amateur astronomers to find these dim planets. The next triple conjunction betw...
 * In Kathleen Ollerenshaw, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...are|Most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares]].  Also a keen amateur astronomer, she donated her telescope to Lancaster University, and...
 * In Taylor University, can backlink night sky: ...e center of campus have spotlights that shine high into the night sky . These lights represent Faith and Learning, respectively. ...
 * In Planet definition, can backlink night sky: ...ander against the field of fixed stars that made up the night sky ; hence, "planetes," or "wanderers." This included not only ...
 * In Image stabilized binoculars, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...anon]] image stabilized binoculars have become popular with amateur astronomers ....
 * In Deep sky, can backlink amateur astronomers: Deep sky is a term used by amateur astronomers to describe mostly faint objects outside the solar system l...
 * In Minor Hogwarts Teachers, can backlink night sky: ...tallest tower of the castle and offers the best view of the night sky . The Astronomy Tower is otherwise out of bounds for student...
 * In Clavius (crater), can backlink amateur astronomers: ...equence of diminishing craters has proved a useful tool for amateur astronomers that want to test the resolution of their small [[telescope...
 * In National Geographic Society - Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, can backlink night sky: ... Survey''' (NGS-POSS) is a major photographic survey of the night sky completed at Palomar Observatory in 1958....
 * In Digitized Sky Survey, can backlink night sky: ... of several photographic atlases of the night sky, and an ongoing project to produce more digital versions of...
 * In Istanbul observatory of al-Din, can backlink night sky: ...ean section of Istanbul and offering a wide view of the night sky . Much like a modern institution, the main building was rese...
 * In Courtney Brown, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...le-Bopp == In late 1996, Brown corroborated claims made by amateur astronomer Chuck Shamek that a large object was located behind [[C...
 * In Equatorial mount, can backlink night sky: ...torial mount for automatic tracking of an object across the night sky.
 * In R. R. McMath, can backlink amateur astronomer: ...ath's father, Francis C. McMath, was a businessman and keen amateur astronomer who, in 1922, embarked with his son on an ambitious pro...
 * In USS Ray (SS-271), can backlink night sky: ...ead in the water and sent a huge mushroom of flame into the night sky as the target disintegrated. ...
 * In 3434 Hurless, can backlink amateur astronomer: Asteroid 3434 Hurless is named for the late amateur astronomer Carolyn Hurless, who was a prolific variable star observer ...
 * In Digiscoping, can backlink amateur astronomers: ...escope]]. Originally used by birdwatchers, now also used by amateur astronomers . Benefits against old style film photographing are:...
 * In Walter Goodacre, can backlink amateur astronomer: ... (1856 &ndash; 1938), was a British businessman and amateur astronomer ....
 * In Ben Mayer, can backlink amateur astronomer: Ben Mayer (? - 2000) was an amateur astronomer perhaps best known for the invention of the [[Blink compara...
 * In Volbeat, can backlink night sky: ...ill use their glowing tails to draw geometric shapes in the night sky ....
 * In Airglow, can backlink night sky: ...ble light]] by the earth's atmosphere, which means that the night sky is never completely dark. It was first noticed in 1868...


text:
Talk:Amateur astronomy

Old talk
An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Amateur_astronomy article, and they have been placed on this page for your convenience. Tip: Some people find it helpful if these suggestions are shown on this talk page, rather than on another page. To do this, just add to this page. — LinkBot 09:57, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Night sky redirects to Amateur astronomy, is that correct, or is there a better place we could point it to? Edward 12:57, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I'm tempted to agree -- Night Sky should probably be a page on its own. Izogi 02:37, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Done. It's only a stub at the moment, of course. Izogi 04:16, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

New article Skygazing
Please note the new article Skygazing, a translation of fr:'s featured articled fr:Observation du ciel. Both articles should linked each other and perhaps a merge be considered. --Pjacobi 15:20, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Good idea -- I'll add a template to the articles. Izogi 07:14, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

 * It looks like Amateur astronomy and Skygazing are both well developed articles. Which one should be the "main" article into which the other one should be merged? 64.191.171.69 18:01, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
 * My opinion is that Amateur astronomy would better be the main since it has a more conventional article name/title. --BorgQueen 22:14, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Amateur astronomy should be the main article since it is the name of the hobby as understood by most people and the most professionally sounding name for it as opposed to skygazing, stargazing or something else like it--Kalsermar 01:58, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Skygazing isn't a commonly used term in most astronomical circles as the term "stargazing" is much more often used. As a result I'd vote that amateur astronomy be the main article. Andromeda321 03:01, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree that Amateur astronomy should be the title of a merged article. I think that both articles have excellent information, and that it's very important that a merge be done carefully in order to preserve everything that's relevant. --DannyZ 06:44, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I actually created the original Stargazing page a year or so ago but it's been redone into a page about a band. Blah. Combining Skygazing with Amateur Astronomy would be good and would probably be better to keep the Amateur Astronomy name. --fboyd 06:44, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

What about ...
It sounds as if there's a lot of support for merging Skygazing with Amateur astronomy. I partly agree with merging the articles (my thoughts have changed as detailed below), preferably to here, but there are at least a couple of considerations that I think should be taken into account before this happens:
 * 1) To me, the Skygazing article reads more as if it's a publicity drive for amateur astronomy than an actual description of what it is.  It'd be good for a library book, but I'm not sure if it's ideal as a descriptive article about amateur astronomy.  The words and phrases used are artistic rather than direct and straightforward, and just by being so, it's arguably not written with a very neutral point of view.  Skygazing is also written from a very instructional stance that assumes the reader wants to try astronomy instead of simply find out what it is.  (Phrases like "We can" and "you can" that are used frequently really emphasise this.)
 * 2) This is in many ways related to the previous point.  In my opinion at least, some of the sections listed in Skygazing don't directly belong in Amateur astronomy, beyond a mention.    This is mostly because the bulk of the text in Skygazing that isn't already detailed on a more specific page tends to be simply instructional, telling people how they can do certain things instead of explaining what they are.  eg. Text that explains things like what a Lunar Crater is might be of interest to someone who wants to do some amateur astronomy, but it's not really of interest to someone who wants to find out what amateur astronomy is.  Besides, if someone—amateur astronomer or otherwise—wants to find out what a Lunar Crater is, the information about it is in the Impact crater article.  If there's anything new in the Skygazing article, then that's where it should be merged to.  Ditto with planets, constellations, and a lot of other things.

Having finished writing this, I'm now wondering if Skygazing should be merged with Amateur astronomy at all. A better action might be to rename it to something like How to get started in amateur astronomy, and then refer to it from here in the See also section.

I really don't want to criticise the Skygazing writing, because it's clearly been translated well, and reads nicely. I just think it reads a bit too instructional to be a descriptive article about amateur astronomy. The amateur astronomy article used to be like this in a few ways, and I rewrote at least some parts of it when I did a lot of refactoring of it some time ago. I'm fully aware that opinions are likely to vary on this, and I'm interested to see what people think.

Thoughts?

Izogi 02:44, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree. Both articles do a nice job of covering their respective subjects, but there's too much that does not overlap to make a merge practical. I wonder whether the suggestion to merge was done in the first place because of the title of Skygazing. Find a way to rename the Skygazing article that does justice to it. Not "How to get started in amateur astronomy," though, because WP:NOT an instruction manual.

I do not agree that the Skygazing article is well developed. There are articles about solar observing under the "naked-eye" heading and an outright false statement about observing sunspots with a telescope. In addition, the formatting of the pictures and text is visually distracting. Not that I could do any better with the layout but the discussion about daytime observing is outright dangerous to the naive. David
 * David, I added a safety note, you can see below this section that i suggested one be added a couple of months back, but almost nothing has been done to the article since, as it is likely to be a wasted effort, with deletion or severe cutting in the wings.moza 22:04, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

The base meaning of the article title is sky
If skygazing can be done during the day then i need to understand how that is a subset of astronomy. I like the article but it requires re-naming if it is exclusively astronomy, but can remain the same if it includes weather, clouds, ice crystals, vapour trails, and other day time sky/atmospheric optical phenomena. Rainbows, halos, etc are sun related, and have a clear link to astronomy. moza 14:40, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
 * further thoughts; If the purely astronomical components (ie space content viewed through the sky) can be integrated into the astronomy articles, then the nearer sky objects/effects that are not really space, could stay? where is the dividing line, is it at some altitude that sky becomes space? Isn't it ALL skygazing, and then day/night sky/space become the subsets? there should be a warning though, skygazing for clouds and optical effects can be hazadous, the UV can burn the eyes, I know because it just happened to me, after 10 days of awesome clouds, iridation, halos, etc, i had the pain and irritation like sand in my eyes, welders get it as well, called 'arc burn'. moza 10:10, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Skygazing should be deleted
A quick perusal of Google brings up no significant links to Skygazing. Skygazing is basically a slang term for astronomy. It is not any defined field in the English language. It is not even a word in some English dictionarys. Large sections of the Skygazing article are redundant; they cover parts that are already entries on their own in Wikipedia (i.e. atmospheric phenomena types, astronomical object types, telescope types. ect). It is full of inaccuracies and incorrect terms. The section/subsection structure of the whole article needs a lot of work. I am not sure this work should even be done. It has some informative sections but those parts seem to violate the "do not instruct" policy of Wikipedia ( What Wikipedia is not). I really think "Skygazing" should be redirected to Amateur Astronomy and parts of the Skygazing article it should be added to the relevant articles. Halfblue 23:44, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree with this. For consistency, though, I also think the Beginning in amateur astronomy section of this article needs re-writing or removing.  It's very instructional.  It used to make up most of the article, and I left it there some time ago when I wrote a lot of other parts around it.  Parts of it might be able to be re-written to be less instructional, but I wonder if now it might be time to just do away with large parts of it entirely. Izogi 06:22, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I disagree with deletion and thats probably because I AM A SKYGAZER for many years, but I accept that the article is far less than satisfactory and yes most of it is redundant and in need of work. But there are plenty of processes to take care of that; peer review? perhaps just get someone who wants it to stay to write new content? thats probably the hard part. much easier to delete and feel warm fuzzies.. I am trying hard to understand though, how you equate skygazing with astronomy? perhaps checkout the sky sometime and you might see quite a lot of noy very astro stuff going on. I would think that the term skygazing is quite easy to understand, and writing an article with content that is literally about gazing at the sky could eb fairly simple and straightforward, so i regard all this chatter as some sort of diversion from the real issues, which could be that there is a lot of work to clean it up, but might be just that we dont wanna get entangled, so how about its simplified down to a list of points, we debate those, vote if really necessary, and we get in their and execute them. How about moving all the astro content to relevant astro pages, and leave non-astro skygazing content, as a simplifying exercise. will anyone squeal if i do that? my favorite skygazing website is MetVUW around a million hits a week, and http://www.atoptics.co.uk/ possibly the best world site, certainly referenced by NASA spaceweather.com. I am thinking that many people less priviledged than you and I are skygazers, for survival reasons, but even less are astronomers. Let s at least agree that the article needs to be fixed when someone can be bothered.moza 12:49, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
 * It turns out there are 17k returns for skygazing in wiki but it maybe of interest that the Robert Moses State Park actually has an official permit; "SEE DIRECTIONS BELOW MAP, REMEMBER, TO OBSERVE YOU MUST HAVE A SKYGAZING PERMIT! To obtain a permit, call the "Permit Department" at (631)669-1000." . There is also a book, 40 years old now, "Telescopes for Skygazing 	Paul H 	American Photograpic 	Garden City 	1966 	160pages" . So lets not denigrate the term anymore, please.moza 13:20, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't think anyone is denigrating the term. The problem is it’s an imprecise term. The precise term for most of the activates listed in the article Skygazing is Amateur Astronomy. The header paragraph of the article describes Amateur Astronomy. You can find citations of "Skygazing" on Google but most of those are shorthand for Amateur Astronomy. Get my drift? For Skygazing to survive as a separate article there needs to be proof that it is separate and distinct from Amateur astronomy, Meteorological phenomena, ect. On the face of it perusing the article I would say Skygazing is just a description of Amateur astronomy with some meteorological stuff thrown in. That makes it redundant and a candidate for deletion and or redirection. 69.72.93.189 20:28, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Skygazing is just a subsection of amateur astronomy (generally using your eyes and visible light, and excluding e.g. amateur radio astronomy). I think the material should just be included in the amateur astronomy page. Rnt20 12:35, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Movement of main template
The astronomical society article looks more like a list of links than something that describes the topic with more detail than this article, so I've replaced the main-article template that User:Joeblakesley added with an inline wiki link. To me at least, it reads batter this way, but happy to discuss as always. Izogi 08:16, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Maybe missing a section: History of Amateur Astronomy
Reading and re-reading the article, I think that most of the Beginning in amateur astronomy section reads as superfluous, and it only seems to be there because it always was since very early on. That section is very instructional and promotional, the suggested reading is a random collection of unverified personal favourites that random people have added over time, and the whole section doesn't really fit well with Wikipedia in general, in my opinion. In it, the article suddenly jumps from explaining what Amateur Astronomy is to telling people how to do it, and it doesn't read well. (If that information is to go anywhere, it should be in a separate article titled something like How to get started in amateur astronomy.

I also wonder if there's an entire section missing about the history of amateur astronomy. Without going into detail, for instance, such a section could glaze over some of the ancient civilisations, more recent self-funded amateurs such as Tycho Brahe (at least I think he was self-funded, from memory), perhaps getting to things like amateur observations of the Moon before recent expeditions and equipment made the majority of that work redundant. It's really only very recently that amateurs have become overshadowed (but not extinguished) by professionals, and I think there's a lot of scope for a major section of the article to summarise a lot of this history, perhaps giving the article a bit of what it seems to be missing at the moment. Izogi 10:52, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Yes this sounds good. Even relatively recent amateur astronomers have sometimes had a big impact -- e.g. Karl Guthe Jansky. Actually, Category:Amateur astronomers is a good place to start.

 * A historical context would help. I added one to Amateur telescope making but that hobby had some clearly definable foundations as a "hobby". The problem I am trying to get around for Amateur Astronomy is does the lack of "professionals" in the field early on mean the people in it could be described as "amateurs"? A lot of early scientific work was done by self taught gentlemen/nobility who had the time and money to fund their own research (like the example given Tycho Brahe), but that was the way "professional" science was done back then and seems to be different from the term "amateur" used in this article. <hmmm modify that and it may make a good intro paragraph ;^) Halfblue 12:41, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Rnt20 12:34, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Looking for a good photo
Does anyone have a good photo of amateur astronomers in action? I was thinking of perhaps one of those dusk photos with silhouettes of people walking around telescopes. The current photos are just photos, which could really be used to demonstrate anything, but imho it'd be great to open with a photo showing amateur astronomers in action. Izogi 10:13, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Added one fresh off a Perseid party (Astronomy Amateur 3 V2.jpg). Hope it fits what you were thinking of. Halfblue 05:19, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
 * That's exactly what I had in mind -- thanks for going to the effort. Izogi 07:41, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

 * I don't want to be unpolite, but there are details in this picture that makes me wonder if it is a photomontage. If that is the case, the associated caption would be misleading. Aldo L (talk) 17:38, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Refactoring effort
I hope nobody minds me attempting a somewhat substantial refactoring effort. I've never thought the headings were quite right and were dividing things up where they'd go better together, so I've removed a whole lot of sub-sections. (Perhaps once it's all refactored nicely, it might be easier to divide it up better.) I think I've left all the information in there, but please feel welcome to edit (or comment) if you think otherwise.

Also, what would people think if we removed the Beginning in amateur astronomy section entirely? Whenever I read it, it reads very badly like instructionalism, and I think that distracts from the whole article. A lot of the content could and probably should be re-written and merged with other sections (so wouldn't be lost), but I think it needs some serious fixing all the same. Izogi 10:53, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Support - I think its fantastic having someone fixing it up. Youre quite right, and it needs it.moza 01:42, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Okay, I think I have the main part of what I wanted done, and hopefully I haven't offended too many people. Some significant parts of the text didn't survive, but in my view they were plainly subjective.  (eg. You should get this type of telescope, and you'll do better to try star hopping before a GOTO, etc etc.)  I'll probably continue to play with reformatting the remaining text in the next short while.

The further reading section

 * It's probably worth noting that I've not bothered trying to save the Related reading section at all (formerly Suggested reading). Most of the books that were listed seemed to be just a tiny part of the vast range of beginning astronomy books that are out there, and I'm not sure how to justify listing a few of them without listing everything.  Plus, looking at the evolution of this article over time, I think that section might have simply become a repository for people to enter their favourite book of the week, rather than something that justifiably belongs as part of the article.  How do people feel about this?  I'm not really averse to having a list of books as a concept, but I do think that anything there should be a seriously stand-out book.  Otherwise it should really be in an article called something like List of amateur astronomy books. Izogi 04:16, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Personally, I agree with the idea of moving the list of books to a separate article, as long as there is link to that article in this one. I have taken the liberty of creating a new article with the title you suggested and transferring the book list exactly as it appeared here to the new article. I have also added a link to the new article in the "See also" section here. This is really a suggestion only, so feel free to go with this idea, re-work it, or delete it. If the list article stands, I would encourage people to add appropriate titles there. -- DannyZ 01:47, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Hi DannyZ -- thanks for taking the initiative to do this. Izogi 00:49, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
 * The List of amateur astronomy books page has been PROD'd, so I took the liberty of merging the books back onto this page to maintain the information. The list looks pretty decent to me, at least in terms of quality. There are comparable lists of useful reading on other pages. But if you want to remove my addition, I have no objection. :-) — RJH (talk) 21:54, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the thoughts. I'm not so much against having a list of additional reading as a concept, but I do think that simply having it, as an itemised list, invites people who pass through to just add their favourite books.  There are so many books about amateur astronomy (especially getting started books), that a lot of them don't get more than a single print run, perhaps get given to lots of people as birthday presents, and then dissappear and become difficult to track down, verify, and whatever else.  I guess my main concern is that the list could get uncomfortably long and messy, and difficult to manage and verify, and to me it'd seemed that this was what was happening.  The best thing about having a separate article is that if it's going to get messy, at least it'd happen over there. :)  (It's not exactly the way that Wikipedia's supposed to work, though, hence someone nominating it for deletion.)
 * I'm not 100% sure how to fix this problem (short of not having such a section at all), but personally, I think the best guideline for why a book should be listed, short of being worthy of having its own article, might be that the article could cite some information from it as an authoritarian source. This way it's absolutely clear why it's worthy of being listed, and it means that if someone finds a better, more authoritarian source, they can replace the citation with a better book that covers the same topic.  But then it'd go into a References section instead of a Further reading section.  It'd be nice to hear what other people think.  Izogi 22:37, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

David Levy and amateurism
An anonymous user has recently added a section for famous amateur astronomers, one of whom is David H. Levy.

I have a lot of respect for David Levy, but is he really an amateur in the normal sense? I know he goes to a lot of amateur astronomy meetings and maybe he'd consider himself an amateur astronomer at times if asked, but I'd always thought his main contributions had been more professional. He certainly seems to make what I'm guessing is at least a large portion of his money from his astronomy-related work. (Books, radio show maybe?, lectures, interviews, columns, etc.) His resume on his website lists an impressive number of boards he serves on, and sizable number of publications (research and otherwise), most of which I presume he's been paid to produce in some way. Or is all of this just brought on by fame for having done so much as an amateur astronomer? He doesn't exactly seem like a professional in the regular sense, either. Izogi 04:42, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Interesting photos of amateur astronomers
I've just removed a couple of images from the article which seemed to be more about particular objects in the sky rather than characterising amateur astronomers. They weren't bad images, but could just as easily fit on at least several other articles. I hope this doesn't offend anyone, and I wouldn't be really offended if someone wants to put them back. More broadly though, I was hoping to make some more space for pictures which I think might fit better. Examples would be photos that are more directly related to the characteristics of amateur astronomy, and would help to differentiate it from everything else space-related. eg. Does anyone happen to have an photo of a typical back yard observatory that might demonstrate the sorts of equipment amateurs often work with? Izogi 02:42, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

External link things
What do people think about external links in this article? I'd kind of like to just purge most of what's there at the moment, but it seems like that'd be quite a dramatic thing to do without consulting. Wikipedia has an unofficial style guide (see WP:External links) which in essense indicates that external links should try to be specific to sites that elaborate on what the article talks about (but possibly cover things that aren't in the article). Since the article's not supposed to be instructional as per other policies, I'm not sure we should really be linking to sites that are inherently instructional. (eg. How to buy your first telescope) The style guide also indicates that links to things like forums and commercial sites should generally be avoided unless there's a clearly obvious reason to link there, and I tend to agree. Izogi 23:44, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, well I've cut out some of the links and I think what's there now looks about right (in my opinion), although I'm still not 100% sure about the Society for Popular Astronomy. Basically it's links to the biggest communities for three different areas of amateur astronomy.  I've removed a heap of other links on the grounds that they should go in other articles that are more specific (if anywhere), that they're very instructional, that they're forums, or that the linked topic is already represented through another more prominent link.  Any thoughts? Izogi 09:00, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
 * A spam attack by someone promoting an astronomical Wiki brought these links to my attention. I have removed pretty much all of the current ones because they do not link specific information re:amateur astronomy. The ones that are notable I include below in case someone has a very good reason to re-include them:
 * The Astronomical League - the world's largest society of amateur astronomers
 * Society for Popular Astronomy - the UK's biggest society for amateur astronomers
 * Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
 * Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers
 * These could (and may) have their own articles... if so they could be a "See also" inclusions but by Wikipedia's definition of and external link (more specifically what should not be linked) these don't belong in "External links" since they only seem to serve the roll of a "directory". Fountains of Bryn Mawr 06:11, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Found that 3 of the above Amateur Astronomy organization had Wikipedia articles so linked them in See also. Fountains of Bryn Mawr 00:34, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

The GoTo debate?
Removed the whole section to talk because there is no reference as to whether such a debate even exists... so no way to tell if parts of this section are just some editors opinion. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 02:03, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

The GoTo debate ''Since the early 1990s, the amateur astronomy community has engaged in some debate, usually light-hearted, about which method is superior. Some astronomers argue that beginning with the lower end of technology and using star hopping techniques is an excellent method of learning the sky, and that a good knowledge of the night sky can be advantageous for people who prefer simpler equipment with less calibration and setup time, and is therefore more versatile. Star hopping involves the use of printed media that is dependent on computer generated sources. The user prints out star maps at home or uses books, atlases, and magazine articles that have computer generated graphics in them to aid in the quest to find an object. ''

''GOTO telescopes, on the other hand, do make the hobby more accessible. They may be preferred by people who are more serious about studying objects, because less time and effort are required for finding objects when they are well prepared. But digital setting circle or go-to systems also provide touring functions whereby the user can set parameters such as magnitude and class of object, and, for example, view a series of planetary nebulae in Cygnus. A user who has discovered that his list of close double stars is impossible to view because of the seeing conditions can select an alternative viewing program within minutes. Many middle-aged and older amateur astronomers discovered that electronic pointing systems not only were convenient but spared them the difficult postures and associated aches and pains that go with pointing a telescope at the zenith (with the common straight-through finder) or near to the horizon (on elevated mounts the finder can be out of reach). The explosion of astrophotography, in which a webcam or CCD camera is mounted on a telescope and downloads data to a nearby laptop, further enhanced demand for robotic systems that would point the telescope while the operator could stay seated and set imaging parameters.''

 * Plausible, uncitable, ridiculous and pretty irrelevant. Good move: be blessed. Rursus dixit. ( m bork3 !) 15:17, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Skygazing
The page Skygazing now redirects to Amateur astronomy per decision at Articles_for_deletion/Skygazing. The old Skygazing page has also been transwiki imported to Wikiversity at Skygazing to develop it into a learning project there. --mikeu talk 20:45, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Anthony Wesley
May not be notable per WP:BLP1E. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 13:08, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Anthony Wesley is no longer a one hit wonder. -- Kheider (talk) 01:13, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Wish List additions
Rursus dixit. ( m bork3 !) 15:21, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * 1) Amateur Radio Astronomy (if exists)
 * 2) More about photography and imaging.

 * For Radio Astronomy:
 * http://www.nrao.edu/epo/amateur/
 * http://www.radio-astronomy.org/
 * http://www.ukaranet.org.uk/
 * http://www.bambi.net/sara.html
 * continue at g8gle
 * Rursus dixit. ( m bork3 !) 15:25, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Re "photography and imaging" - there is Astrophotography which contains a large section on "Amateur astrophotography", something like that? Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 23:33, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

 * Then "Astrophotography" is pretty much fulfilled, except possibly add some little more references in section Imaging techniques. Rursus dixit. ( m bork3 !) 06:23, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Merge various websites and other resources of amature astronomy
I'm thinking that many standalone articles on individual astonomy websites, and on the List_of_astronomy_websites itself, are untenable. They simply don't have sufficient coverage, in terms of discussion of the website as a topic of its own. This should not mean deletion. Just because an article doesn't warrant a standalone article doesn't mean that wikipedia shouldn't provide coverage. The solution I see is to merge these resources to here. It seems to me that they are all resources particular to amateur astronomy. Please see Talk:List_of_astronomy_websites. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 01:37, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Such a list (and putting it here) falls under WP:NOTDIRECTORY. Amateur astronomy is an article that describes amateur astronomy, it should not be used as a directory or resource to find amateur astronomy or find "astronomy". The links in question also fall under WP:NOTDIRECTORY #1 "Lists or repositories of loosely associated topics"... This topic is "Amateur astronomy", the linked articles are "Astronomy". Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 19:12, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * What your saying is right, but simply copying the list to here is not really what I mean. Putting lists into articles is weak article writing.  The exisiting list at the bottom titled “Amateur astronomy organizations” is also poor in that respect. I propose a section titled “Resources for amateur astronomy”.  This section should be written in prose.  It should describe the resources that others (eg popular magazines) have commented on as resources for amateur astonomy.  Several of the websites in the current list should merit mention.  Any amateur astonomy website that is not worth even a mention at amateur astronomy does not merit a standalone article, which means that it doesn’t merit listing in a list article.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 01:11, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
 * The problem is Wikipedia is not a "How-to". "Resources for amateur astronomy" sounds like "Resources on how to conduct amateur astronomy", unless I am missing something. WP:NOT recommends Alternative outlets for such things and I have seen those linked at the bottom of Wikipedia articles. If we are talking about "Resources known to be used by amateur astronomers" that could fly..... but it would need source(s) stating these are common resources used, and something used is a "tool", so it sounds like it would just be a short paragraph on the "Common tools" section. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 01:40, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
 * One problem I am seeing is that only one of the websites listed at "List_of_astronomy_websites" has anything to do with observational amateur astronomy. The rest are Astronomy news sites of one type or another so are "Astronomy", not "amateur astronomy" --- unless we are reclassifying "amateur astronomer" as someone who sits in front of a computer screen and reads about astronomy... which it could be.Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 01:50, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, we need to steer clear of “how-to” concerns. Also, we don’t want to get involved with popular forums. Prominent resources discussed as being used by [amateur] astonomers is an idea that could fly. I predict that most of the content at List_of_astronomy_websites will eventually be deleted or lost to the history behind a redirect.  When I said “merge”, I think “selectively” needs to be inserted.  My intent here is to see if there’s something to be captured before that happens. I think an amateur astronomer is, at a minimum, someone who regularly and deliberately looks through a telescope into space for specific things.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 03:56, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Replace "Amateur astronomy organizations" with a link to List of astronomical societies
I cannot see the purpose of the section "Amateur astronomy organizations" in this article. It is just a subset of the more complete list which already exists at List of astronomical societies, and which is linked from many other articles. I recommend removing that section from this article, and replacing it with a redirection to the List of astronomical societies. Thoughts? Comments? Alternative suggestions? --Gronk Oz (talk) 02:19, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Good idea. The stand alone list and this list will never be anything more than redundant. So this list should be deleted. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 15:10, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

 * ✅ I have integrated the entries from this list into List of astronomical societies, and put links here to that list instead. That should make maintenance easier. --Gronk Oz (talk) 01:38, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

New section on public outreach and education activities?
Most of the amateur astronomical societies which I have been involved with count their outreach and public education activities as a key objective. They hold open viewing nights, give public talks, arrange to visit schools, scouts and other community groups to bring along a few telescopes so people can have a look at the sky. Of course, I can't tell how widespread that kind of activity is around the world-wide community so I am asking for comments: is it worth adding a section about outreach/education to this article? --Gronk Oz (talk) 01:45, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

List of amateur astronomers: notability issues?
This is a little awkward to bring up, but in this section, the article links to a list of amateur astronomers with biographical Wikipedia pages. I glanced at some of these biographies, and I don't think some of them satisfy Wikipedia's notability criteria. For example, I spotted a few that did nothing more than list the person's equipment, observing awards, and history with amateur astronomy. There's very little in this information that's noteworthy. Moreover, I'm fairly sure that some of them are autobiographical, based on the IP addresses and/or usernames of the page creators and editors. While some of these individuals are noteworthy, others are not.

I don't mean to denigrate these individuals or their achievements, but I respectfully submit that Wikipedia biographies aren't the appropriate forums for recognizing them. Reactions? Astro4686 (talk) 05:39, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
 * You may be right on quite a few of these. I can see when it comes to discovering comets/asteroids/nova we may be dealing with people notable for only one event. The list criteria is that they have to have a Wikipedia article. Checking up on your query led me to delete Tim Puckett, he has no article. The procedure from here would be to note/add a template to articles with WP:NN problems. If they are deleted they should then be deleted off this list. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 22:09, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

 * Hi Fountains of Bryn Mawr, thanks for your reply. I'm planning to add notability maintenance tags to a number of the pages, but I saw at least one which has had a notability tag since May 2014. I was thinking that that article might be a good candidate for deletion. Do you concur? It just feels awkward to recommend the deletion of someone's biography from Wikipedia, even though I think that these pages aren't noteworthy per WP:NN and WP:BLP1E. Astro4686 (talk) 03:46, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

 * I just reviewed the biographies and added notability tags to the 22 most problematic pages. Perhaps some of them could be fixed simply by adding sourced explanations of why the individual in question is noteworthy per Wikipedia guidelines. If anyone objects to my tags, I'd be happy to discuss my thinking. Astro4686 (talk) 06:26, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

 * On the contrary, I would like to thank you - this is overdue. Yes, it is awkward, and it needs to be handled carefully because some may just need to document their notability better, but it has become cluttered with non-notable entries.--Gronk Oz (talk) 13:23, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

 * Thanks, Gronk Oz! I just nominated for deletion a biography which has had a notability tag for all but 2 minutes of its existence. I'm reviewing the biographies that I just tagged, and if I'm convinced that a particular individual is non-notable, I'll nominate it for deletion. If anyone else would like to pitch in with this process, it would be most appreciated! Astro4686 (talk) 08:33, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

 * I have nominated 7 biographies for deletion. All 7 discussions are located at the AfD sorting page for astronomy: . I'd welcome your feedback on these nominations as well as your participation in the AfD discussions. Astro4686 (talk) 08:56, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

CCD Emphasis
This article seems to place unwarranted emphasis on CCD imaging; it is not unique in being 'linear' most bog-standard digital cameras are 'linear' and their images can be processed in the same ways. It's even apparent that CCD is becoming a legacy technology as the capabilities of CMOS sensors start to equal or outclass CCD at lower prices. Stub Mandrel (talk) 09:47, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Amateur astronomy


text:
Order of the Golden Kite

The Order of the Golden Kite (金鵄勲章) was an order of the Empire of Japan, established on 12 February 1890 by Emperor Meiji "in commemoration of Jimmu Tennō, the Romulus of Japan". It was abolished 1947 by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) during the occupation of Japan, after World War II.

Background
The Order of the Golden Kite was an exclusively military award, conferred for bravery, leadership or command in battle. It ranked just below the Order of the Chrysanthemum in precedence and was the military equivalent of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers; therefore, it could be considered analogous to the military division of the Order of the Bath in the United Kingdom. The first three classes were roughly equivalent to the three divisions of the Order of the Bath, the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh classes were analogous to the DSO, MC/DSC, DCM/CGM and DSM/MM, respectively.

The order consisted of seven classes. Enlisted rank soldiers were eligible for the 7th–5th classes, non-commissioned officers were eligible for the 6th–4th classes, junior officers for the 5th–3rd classes, field grade officers for the 4th–2nd classes and general officers for the 3rd-1st classes.

A total of 1,067,492 Order of the Golden Kite awards were made over the history of the order, most of them in the two lower 6th and 7th classes. Only 41 of the 1st class and 201 of the 2nd class were awarded.

By conflict:
 * First Sino-Japanese War: about 2000
 * Russo-Japanese War: about 109,600
 * World War I: about 3000
 * Manchurian Incident: about 9000
 * Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1941): about 190,000
 * Pacific War: about 630,000

The award came with an annual monetary stipend, fixed in 1916. This was awarded for the lifetime of the recipient, and following his death, it would be awarded to the recipient's family for one year after. If the recipient died within 5 years of receiving the honor, the stipend would be awarded to the family until the end of the 5-year period. In 1939, the stipends stood as follows:

 * 1st Class – 1500 yen
 * 2nd Class – 1000 yen
 * 3rd Class – 700 yen
 * 4th Class – 500 yen
 * 5th Class – 350 yen
 * 6th Class – 250 yen
 * 7th Class – 150 yen

Since the monthly pay for a private in the Imperial Japanese Army at the time was 8 yen, 80 sen, this amounted to a very substantial reward. The monetary stipend was abolished in 1940.

The honor was sometimes awarded individually, sometimes awarded en masse. In mid-October 1942, posthumous awards were announced following ceremonies at the Yasukuni Shrine. Posthumous honorees included 995 who were lost in combat in the far-flung Pacific War battles and 3,031 who were lost fighting in China. In this instance, Tokyo's official radio broadcast of the list of posthumous recipients of the Order of the Golden Kite was monitored by Allied forces in Asia. The number of honorees was not considered remarkable at the time, but the number of posthumous awards was considered noteworthy by Allied analysts. Specific high ranking naval and army officers were named; and in addition, special mention was given to 55 naval aviators and 9 "members of a special attack flotilla"—presumably miniature submarines taking part in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The order of the Golden Kite was officially abolished by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers of Occupied Japan in 1947.

Symbolism
The badge depicts a golden kite, a messenger of the kami as described in the ancient Japanese chronicle Nihon Shoki, which helped Emperor Jimmu defeat his enemies in battle. The golden kite stands on an eight-pointed star with 32 rays enameled in red. Below the kite are two crossed ancient shields, enameled blue, with two crossed spears with silver heads enameled yellow with red banners each bearing a mitsudomoe. On one side is a chokutō (enameled green with white trappings). The reverse side is plain.

The badge was a gilt starburst for the 1st-5th classes and different design in gilt for the 6th class and in silver for the 7th class. It was suspended on a ribbon in blue-green with a white stripe near the edges, worn as a sash on the left shoulder by the 1st class, as a necklet by the 2nd and 3rd classes, on the left chest by the 4th and 5th classes. The badges for 6th and 7th classes were non-enameled.

The star of the 1st and 2nd classes was similar to the badge as described above, but with both red and yellow enameled rays. It was worn on the left chest by the 1st class, on the right chest by the 2nd class.

First Class

 * Imperial Japanese Army

 * Yamagata Aritomo (1838–1922)
 * Ōyama Iwao (1842–1916)
 * Kuroki Tamemoto (1844–1923)
 * Oku Yasukata (1847–1930)
 * Nogi Maresuke (1849–1912).
 * Kawamura Kageaki (1850–1926)
 * Kodama Gentarō (1852–1906).
 * Terauchi Masatake (1852–1919)
 * Nozu Michitsura (1840–1908)
 * Hasegawa Yoshimichi (1850–1924)
 * Kamio Mitsuomi (1856–1927)
 * Okamura Yasuji (1884–1966)
 * Honjō Shigeru (1876–1945)
 * Mutō Nobuyoshi (1868–1933)
 * Hata Shunroku (1879–1962)
 * Terauchi Hisaichi (1879–1946)
 * Prince Asaka Yasuhiko (1887–1981)
 * Matsui Iwane (1878–1948)
 * Sugiyama Hajime (1880–1945)
 * Nishio Toshizō (1881–1960)
 * Yamashita Tomoyuki (1885–1946)

 * Imperial Japanese Navy

 * Tōgō Heihachirō (1848–1934)
 * Yamamoto Gonnohyōe (1852–1933)
 * Ijuin Gorō (1852–1921)
 * Itō Sukeyuki (1843–1914)
 * Kamimura Hikonojō (1849–1916)
 * Kataoka Shichirō (1854–1920)
 * Suzuki Kantarō (1868–1948)
 * Yonai Mitsumasa (1880–1948)
 * Yamamoto Isoroku (1884–1943)
 * Nagumo Chūichi (1887–1944)
 * Koga Mineichi (1885–1944)
 * Arima Masafumi (1895–1944)
 * Oikawa Koshirō (1883–1958)
 * Hasegawa Kiyoshi (1883–1970)
 * Yamaguchi Tamon (1892–1942)

Second Class

 * Imperial Japanese Army

 * Prince Komatsu Akihito (1846–1903)
 * Prince Fushimi Sadanaru (1858–1923)
 * Yamaguchi Motomi (1846–1904)
 * Kawakami Soroku (1848–1899)
 * Ōshima Yoshimasa (1850–1926)
 * Fukushima Yasumasa (1852–1919)
 * Umezawa Michiharu (1853–1924).
 * Ishimoto Shinroku (1854–1912)
 * Uehara Yūsaku (1856–1933)
 * Nagaoka Gaishi (1858–1933)
 * Akiyama Yoshifuru (1859–1930)
 * Yamanashi Hanzō (1864–1944)
 * Shirakawa Yoshinori (1869–1932)
 * Araki Sadao (1877–1966)
 * Tada Hayao (1882–1948)
 * Tojo Hideki (1884–1948)
 * Ushiroku Jun (1884–1973)
 * Katō Tateo (1903–1942).

 * Imperial Japanese Navy

 * Kabayama Sukenori (1837–1922)
 * Saigō Jūdō (1843–1902)
 * Inoue Yoshika (1845–1929)
 * Hidaka Sōnojō (1848–1932)
 * Saito Makoto (1858–1936)
 * Katō Tomosaburō (1861–1923)
 * Shimada Shigetarō (1883–1976)
 * Takagi Takeo (1892–1944).

Third Class

 * Imperial Japanese Army

 * Emperor Taishō (1879–1926)
 * Prince Chichibu (1902–1953)
 * Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa (1847–1895)
 * Katsura Taro (1848–1913)
 * Tanaka Giichi (1864–1929)
 * Yamaji Motoharu (1841–1897)
 * Andō Sadayoshi (1853–1932)
 * Kusunose Yukihiko (1858–1927)
 * Ōshima Ken'ichi (1858–1947)
 * Akashi Motojiro (1864–1919)
 * Ueda Kenkichi (1875–1962)
 * Mori Ōgai (1862–1922)
 * Ishiwara Kanji (1889–1949)
 * Tanaka Ryūkichi (1893–1972)

 * Imperial Japanese Navy

 * Prince Arisugawa Takehito (1862–1913)
 * Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito (1867–1922)
 * Okada Keisuke (1868–1952)
 * Tsuboi Kōzō (1843–1898)
 * Taketomi Kunikane (1852–1931)
 * Yashiro Rokurō (1860–1930)
 * Yamashita Gentarō (1863–1931)
 * Satō Tetsutarō (1866–1942)
 * Takarabe Takeshi (1867–1949)
 * Eto Kyōsuke (1881–1917)

Fourth Class

 * Imperial Japanese Army

 * Prince Takamatsu (1905–1987)
 * Prince Nashimoto Morimasa (1874–1951)
 * Ugaki Kazushige (1868–1956)
 * Minami Jirō (1874–1955)
 * Hayashi Senjūrō (1876–1943)
 * Masaki Jinzaburō (1876–1956)
 * Koiso Kuniaki (1880–1950)
 * Ishii Shirō (1892–1959).

 * Imperial Japanese Navy

 * Ogasawara Naganari (1867–1958)
 * Abo Kiyokazu (1870–1948)
 * Hyakutake Saburō (1872–1963)

Fifth Class

 * Imperial Japanese Army

 * Prince Takeda Tsunehisa (1883–1919)
 * Hishikari Takashi (1871–1952)
 * Katsuki Kiyoshi (1881–1950)
 * Ōba Sakae (1914–1992)
 * Tsuji Masanobu (1902–1961).

 * Imperial Japanese Navy

 * Kobayashi Seizō (1877–1962)
 * Matsudaira Morio (1878–1944)
 * Nishida Yoshimi (1892–1944)
 * Iwamoto Tetsuzō (1916–1955)

title: Order of the Golden Kite


text:
John Abraham (American football)

John Antonio Abraham (born May 6, 1978) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end and linebacker for 15 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the South Carolina Gamecocks, and was selected by the New York Jets in the first round of the 2000 NFL draft. Abraham also played for the Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals. A seven time All-Pro and five time selection for the Pro Bowl, Abraham is often regarded as one of the greatest defensive ends of the 2000s, and universally cited as one of the greatest defensive linemen in the history of the New York Jets.

Early life
Abraham was born in Timmonsville, South Carolina. In his high school years at Lamar High School in Lamar, South Carolina, he was primarily an athlete in the track program, where he set the current South Carolina record for the 200-meter dash, at 22.6 seconds, and ran the 100 meters in 11.26 seconds. He also competed in the throwing events, recording top-throws of 13.61 meters in the shot put and 43.05 meters in the discus. He played organized football for the first time as a senior in high school.

College career
While Abraham played just one season of high school football, he was nonetheless recruited to play for coach Brad Scott's South Carolina Gamecocks football team at the University of South Carolina. While he was a Gamecock, he amassed 23.5 quarterback sacks, ranking second on South Carolina's career list, and was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection.

New York Jets
Drafted in the first round (13th overall, via pick acquired from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in exchange for Keyshawn Johnson) of the 2000 NFL draft, he made an immediate impact for the New York Jets; in his rookie season, he recorded 12 tackles and 4.5 sacks in only six games before being injured. In 2001, he recorded 58 tackles and 13 sacks, and was named to the AFC Pro Bowl. In 2002, he recorded 48 tackles, with 10 sacks, and was again named to the Pro Bowl. In 2003, he only recorded 37 tackles and six sacks, due to being injured mid-season.

Abraham tied a franchise record set by Joe Klecko and Mark Gastineau with four sacks in a game on November 4, 2001 against the New Orleans Saints.

Abraham was designated Franchise Player by the Jets on February 21, 2006.

Atlanta Falcons
Abraham was traded to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for Atlanta's 2006 NFL draft first round pick (No. 29), which was acquired from Denver Broncos.

In 2008, he had a career high 16.5 sacks through the entire season and ranked 3rd in the league that year. Despite the great numbers he was not elected by voters to play in the 2009 Pro Bowl.

On December 12, 2010, Abraham recorded two sacks against the Carolina Panthers. The two sacks gave him 100.5 for his career, making him only the 25th player in NFL history to eclipse 100. On December 27, on Monday Night Football against the New Orleans Saints, Abraham recorded his first career interception after deflecting and catching a Drew Brees pass attempt.

In December 2010, Abraham was selected to his fourth Pro Bowl.

On June 21, 2012, Abraham signed a 3-year $16.72 million contract to remain in Atlanta.

On March 1, 2013, Abraham was released by the Atlanta Falcons.

Arizona Cardinals
Abraham signed with the Arizona Cardinals on July 25, 2013. In his first season in Arizona, he recorded 11.5 sacks, which ranked seventh in the NFL, and 4 forced fumbles. After a productive first season with the Cardinals, Abraham left Arizona’s week one Monday Night Football game on September 10, 2014, after a concussion. After the game, he spoke with Bruce Arians for several hours discussing if he should retire. On September 19, 2014, Abraham's 2014 season prematurely ended as the Cardinals placed him on injured reserve, effectively ending his career.

NFL

 * 3× First-team All-Pro (2001, 2002, 2010)
 * Second-team All-Pro (2008)
 * 5× Pro Bowl (2001, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2013)
 * NFL forced fumbles co-leader (2001)
 * Ranked No. 69 in the Top 100 Players of 2011

Atlanta Falcons franchise records

 * Career sacks (68.5)

College

 * Second-team All-SEC (1999)

Personal life
Abraham was raised by his mother, Maggie Abraham. Abraham has a daughter, Endraya. He enjoys watching basketball in his spare time and his favorite team is the Los Angeles Lakers. He cites running back Walter Payton and wide receiver Jerry Rice as his childhood heroes. He attended the Jets' May 5, 2003 blood drive to benefit hospitals throughout Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties.

title: John Abraham (American football)


text:
Ned Stark

Eddard "Ned" Stark, known as The Quiet Wolf, is a fictional character in the 1996 fantasy novel A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin and Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. In the storyline, Ned is the lord of Winterfell, an ancient fortress in the North of the fictional continent of Westeros. Though the character is established as the main character in the novel and the first season of the TV adaptation, a plot twist involving Ned near the end of the novel and the end of the first season shocked both readers of the book and viewers of the TV series.

Ned is portrayed by veteran English actor Sean Bean in the first season of Game of Thrones, as a child by Sebastian Croft in the sixth season, and as a young adult by Robert Aramayo in the sixth and seventh seasons. Bean was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television and a Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor for the role. He and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011.

Description
In A Game of Thrones (1996), Ned Stark is introduced as the virtuous and honorable patriarch of House Stark and the father of six children. As the moral compass of the story, he is content to remain far from courtly intrigues and is unwavering in his view of loyalty and honor. His family name, Stark, serves as an indication of his resistance to moral compromise. Still, his boundaries are increasingly tested over the course of the novel. Finding himself a key player in the escalating political intrigue of King's Landing, Ned struggles as his own sense of honor draws him into corrupt goings-on at court. As the story progresses, he begins to see the importance of moral and practical compromises to achieve a just end. He is ultimately forced to choose between his family's safety and doing what is right.

Sean Bean said of the character, "He's a good man trying to do his best in the middle of this corruption, he's a fish out of water, he's used to being up north in Winterfell where people are pretty straight and pragmatic, and he comes down to a place where people are playing games and backstabbing... he's a principled man who tries to hold things together. This is a journey that he makes where ultimately his loyalty causes his downfall."

Development and overview
Publishers Weekly noted in 1996 that, despite the honest Ned Stark's intervention in court politics, "no amount of heroism or good intentions can keep the realm under control." From his very first introduction, Ned is portrayed as a noble hero and set up to be the heart of the story. With fifteen chapters devoted to his point of view, more than any single character in the novel, he is presented as a primary character in the series, and the main storyline of A Game of Thrones, the drama in King's Landing, is told entirely from his perspective. In the London Review of Books, John Lanchester writes that everything about Ned is designed to gain audience sympathy, from his strong sense of honor and moral compass to his compassion towards his wife and children. Readers are led to believe that Ned will be the main character of the series, but ultimately he is, from a literary perspective, a classic decoy protagonist. After struggling to keep himself and the kingdom on a moral path for the entire novel, the only option that remains to save his family is to put aside his honor; he does so, but is betrayed anyway. Calling Ned's execution "shocking", The New York Times noted in 2011 that the novel was "famous for dispatching a thoroughly admirable major character with whom readers have been identifying for most of the book". In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, author George R. R. Martin commented on this misdirection:

"I knew it almost from the beginning. Not the first day, but very soon. I've said in many interviews that I like my fiction to be unpredictable. I like there to be considerable suspense. I killed Ned in the first book and it shocked a lot of people. I killed Ned because everybody thinks he's the hero and that, sure, he's going to get into trouble, but then he'll somehow get out of it."

David Benioff, executive producer and writer of the HBO adaptation, told Entertainment Weekly that when he read the novel:

"I was in shock. From your training in seeing so many movies and reading books, you know your hero is going to be saved ... Someone has something planned, because they're not really going to chop off his head—right up until the moment when they chopped off his head. I was shocked, and then admiring of George's ruthlessness. It's a tough thing to build up a character and make somebody as memorable and impressive as Ned and then get rid of him. But at the same time it leads to a story that is so much more suspenseful because you truly have no idea what is going to happen and who is going to survive."

In a review of the Game of Thrones TV episode "Baelor", James Poniewozik wrote in Time that "the execution of Eddard Stark is crucial to the story and its themes and everything that follows, but it's also a meta-message to the reader: don't take anything for granted here". James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly stated that tricking the audience into thinking Ned is the hero and then killing him makes the series' story better. Writing that "the big twist here isn't that Ned Stark dies, but who the true protagonists of Game of Thrones are", Hibberd pointed out that the series' focus proves to be the "new generation" of leaders, in particular the Stark children but also Daenerys and even Tyrion. He noted:

"Ned Stark doesn't die in vain ... It takes the Stark kids—who are all too young to face these responsibilities—and thrusts them into a struggle where they're forced to quickly grow as characters. Martin busts many cliches in his writing, but this move is traditional Heroes Journey stuff if you consider the kids to be the true protagonists of this story—only by sacrificing the fatherly mentor figure can our heroes come into their own."

Background
As established in A Game of Thrones, Eddard "Ned" Stark is the second son of Rickard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell. Years before the events of the novel, the quiet and shy young Ned is fostered in the Vale by Jon Arryn. During this time Ned becomes close friends with Robert Baratheon, heir to the Stormlands and another ward of Arryn's. Robert is eventually betrothed to Ned's sister Lyanna, but before he can marry her, Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen absconds with Lyanna. Ned's father and older brother Brandon go to King Aerys II Targaryen and demand that Lyanna be freed; the so-called "Mad King" executes both Rickard and Brandon, convinced that the Starks seek to usurp him. Ned, Robert, and Arryn then rise in revolt, securing the support of House Tully with Ned marrying Brandon's betrothed Catelyn Tully. Ned leaves for war the very next morning.

At the decisive Battle of the Trident, Robert manages to kill Prince Rhaegar and scatter the Targaryen army. Robert is injured in the battle, so Ned takes command and marches on the capital. In King's Landing, Ned finds that House Lannister has — through treachery — already sacked the city, and murdered Aerys and the royal family. Disgusted by the dishonorable massacre, Ned departs to lift the siege of the Baratheon stronghold Storm's End, and later attempts to rescue Lyanna but finds her dying; her last words are "Promise me Ned." Ned returns to Winterfell with his bastard son Jon Snow in tow; meanwhile Catelyn has delivered their son and Ned's heir, Robb, conceived on their wedding night.

Six years after the end of Robert's Rebellion, Balon Greyjoy, the Lord of the Iron Islands, declares independence from the Iron Throne. Ned aids King Robert in putting down "Greyjoy's Rebellion". Balon surrenders, and his sole surviving heir, Theon, is taken back to Winterfell as Stark's ward and hostage. Ned rules the North for nine more years before the events of the novel.

A Game of Thrones
As A Game of Thrones begins, Catelyn informs Ned that his mentor Jon Arryn had died, and that King Robert intends to offer Ned Jon's old position as Hand of the King. Content to be far from court intrigue, Ned is reluctant to accept the offer until he receives a letter from Arryn's widow, who believes that her husband had been poisoned by the Lannisters. Ned subsequently agrees to the appointment to protect Robert. He then travels south to King's Landing with his daughters Sansa and Arya. Catelyn later comes to the capital in secret, under the protection of her childhood friend Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, to tell Ned of an assassination attempt on their young son Bran. Ned's longstanding mistrust of the Lannisters is further fueled by Littlefinger's confirmation that the dagger used by the would-be assassin once belonged to Tyrion Lannister. Increasingly disgusted by the political intrigues at court, Ned finally resigns his position when Robert insists on having Aerys' only surviving child, the young Daenerys Targaryen, assassinated in exile. Meanwhile, Catelyn has taken Tyrion hostage at the Eyrie, and in retaliation Jaime Lannister attacks and seriously injures Ned in the street before he and his daughters can depart King's Landing. Visiting a wounded Ned, Robert reappoints him as Hand.

Ned eventually concludes that all of Robert's heirs with his wife Cersei are illegitimate, the product of her incest with her twin brother Jaime. Further, Ned suspects that Arryn had been poisoned to conceal the truth. Ned confronts Cersei with his discovery and gives her the chance to escape with her children into exile. Before Ned can tell the king, Robert is fatally wounded while hunting and names Ned Protector of the Realm, to function as regent until his "son" Joffrey comes of age. Ned alters Robert's will, replacing Joffrey's name with "my rightful heir" to make the succession ambiguous. With the palace in chaos, Ned rebuffs multiple offers to increase his own power, instead opting to crown Robert's brother, Stannis Baratheon, as king. Cersei, however, outmaneuvers Ned, and the duplicitous Littlefinger has the city watch arrest Ned instead of Cersei. With all of his entourage slaughtered, Sansa a hostage and Arya escaped but alone, Ned is charged with treason. A deal is struck in which Ned will be spared and sent into exile if he declares Joffrey the rightful king. Fearing for his daughters, Ned makes a public confession of his "treason". The sadistic Joffrey, however, has Ned executed anyway for his own amusement and forced Sansa to watch Ned's severed head mounted on a spike.

Later novels
Ned's execution sparks an all-out conflict between House Stark and House Lannister, with other houses and pretenders also joining in against the crown, leading to a major civil war later called the War of the Five Kings. After Tyrion Lannister is sent to King's Landing to salvage the political mess, he returns Ned's bones to his widow Catelyn, but it is not confirmed whether they have ever arrived at Winterfell. Lady Barbrey Dustin of Barrowton, who holds past grudges against Ned, later claims that she personally will never let Ned's bones to be returned and laid to rest in Winterfell's crypt if they are found on her fief.

When Cersei Lannister is sentenced to the walk of atonement by the Faith, she is frequently haunted by the imaginary vision of Ned silently mocking her in the crowd.

Ned is mentioned in a flashback along with his friend Robert Baratheon in the follow-up novel A Clash of Kings, and also repeatedly by other characters in the subsequent novels, including the surviving Stark children (who all remember him fondly), Stannis Baratheon, Jorah Mormont (who both affirm his honor), House Manderly and numerous members of the Northern mountain clans (who all continue to hold great love and respect to his name). The mountain clansmen, in particular, only join Stannis' march on the Bolton-controlled Winterfell in honor of Ned's legacy.

TV adaptation
In January 2007 HBO secured the rights to adapt Martin's series for television. When the pilot went into production in 2009, one of the first casting announcements was Sean Bean as the "lead" Eddard Stark. As the show premiered in 2011, the Los Angeles Times called Bean's Ned "the strong and brooding headliner of the series".

As in the source novel, Ned is beheaded in the ninth episode of season 1, "Baelor". Though praising the character's demise for its role in propelling the story, James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly later noted that: "This is probably the first time a U.S. drama series has ever killed off its main character in the first season as part of its master creative plan … it's just … not done. You don't cast a star, put him on bus stops and magazine ads marketing the show, get viewers all invested in his story, and then dump him nine episodes later just because it arguably makes the story a bit more interesting."

Hibberd echoed the show's producers' statement that "the move lays down a dramatic precedent for the show: Nobody is safe". He called it a "risky" move that would probably lose the show viewers who had tuned in for Bean, but would hopefully attract others impressed by the boldness of it. Executive producer and writer D. B. Weiss told Entertainment Weekly in 2011 that when he and Benioff pitched the series to HBO, the fact that "main character" Ned was slated to die "was a selling point for them". Noting that the network has killed off characters in other successful series, he said that this sense of jeopardy "completely ups the ante for any moment when a character is in a dire situation if you know another character didn't survive a similar situation". HBO programming president Sue Naegle concurred, saying that Ned's death made the show creatively more attractive, adding that "The book series was filled with unexpected twists and turns. I loved this idea we'd bring together the group of characters, then once you started to believe all the tropes of heroes, you pull the rug out from under them. It's the opposite of feeling manipulated". Noting that the story and world of the series is bigger than any one character, Naegle said, "Sean brings a giant following, but Thrones is not just about the promise you're going to see one of your favorite actors week in and week out. The star is the story". Bean noted that Ned's death "was as much a surprise to me as anyone" and called it "a very courageous move for a television company".

The image of Bean as Ned Stark sitting in the Iron Throne is featured on the covers of the 2011 Season 1 DVD and Blu-ray Disc sets, released in March 2012.

The character makes a return in the sixth season, under a recurring capacity, via flashback visions of his youth and childhood seen by Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven using Greensight.

Season 1
In season 1, King Robert Baratheon travels to Winterfell and asks his old friend and closest ally Eddard "Ned" Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, to assume the position of Hand of the King after the sudden death of their mentor, Jon Arryn. Not interested in politics or the intrigues of the court, Ned accepts out of duty, as well as to discover how Arryn died. Ned travels to King's Landing with his daughters Arya and Sansa, the latter of which is betrothed to Robert's eldest son, Prince Joffrey. Meanwhile, Ned's wife Catelyn has Tyrion Lannister captured, believing he was responsible for sending an assassin to kill Bran and that the Lannisters also killed Jon Arryn. Ned and Robert soon find themselves at odds regarding Daenerys Targaryen, and Ned steps down as Hand in defiance against Robert's wishes to have her killed. Soon after, Ned and his guards are attacked by Tyrion's brother Jaime Lannister; Ned is injured and his men are murdered. Robert reappoints Ned as Hand and commands him to have Catelyn release Tyrion and make peace with the Lannisters. While Robert departs for a boar hunt, Ned discovers that Tywin Lannister and his forces are laying siege to the Riverlands, the homeland of his wife's house, the Tullys. He demands Tywin present himself in King's Landing and sends a force to bring his bannermen to justice.

Robert is killed just as Ned discovers that his three children by Cersei were actually fathered by the queen's twin, Jaime. Before Ned is able to neutralize Cersei and place Robert's brother Stannis on the throne, he is betrayed by Littlefinger, and the queen has him imprisoned for treason. Ned's eldest son Robb calls in his father's banners and marches an army south in an attempt to rescue his father. Ned makes a public confession to save his daughters from Cersei's wrath, but Joffrey has Ned beheaded anyway.

Seasons 6 and 7
In the season 6 episode "Home", Bran sees a vision of Ned (Sebastian Croft) as a child with his sister and brother, Lyanna and Benjen. In the following episode, "Oathbreaker", Bran witnesses the battle between a young Ned (Robert Aramayo) and the knight Ser Arthur Dayne at the Tower of Joy. In the episode "The Door", Bran watches Ned bid Benjen and his father, Rickard, farewell as he departs for his fosterage at the Vale. In the following episode, "Blood of My Blood", Bran briefly glimpses Ned's hand amongst someone's blood, revealed in the season finale, "The Winds of Winter", as belonging to Lyanna (Aisling Franciosi), dying of childbirth in the tower. She makes him swear to protect her son - Jon Snow. Bran revisits this moment in the season 7 finale, "The Dragon and the Wolf", where Lyanna whispers Jon's true name to Ned - Aegon Targaryen.

Recognition and awards
Bean was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television, a Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor, and an EWwy Award for Best Actor, Drama for the role. IGN named Ned its Best TV Hero of 2011, and Bean won the Portal Award for Best Actor.

title: Ned Stark


text:
Gjøa

Gjøa was the first vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. With a crew of six, Roald Amundsen traversed the passage in a three-year journey, finishing in 1906.

Construction
The 70 by square-sterned sloop of 47 net register tonnage (4700 cuft) was built by Knut Johannesson Skaale in Rosendal, Norway in 1872, the same year Amundsen was born. She was named Gjøa after her then owner's wife. For the next 28 years the vessel served as a herring fishing boat.

Purchase by Amundsen
On March 28, 1901, Amundsen bought her from Asbjørn Sexe of Ullensvang, Norway, for his forthcoming expedition to the Arctic Ocean. Gjøa was much smaller than vessels used by other Arctic expeditions, but Amundsen intended to live off the limited resources of the land and sea through which he was to travel, and reasoned that the land could sustain only a tiny crew (this had been a cause of the catastrophic failure of John Franklin's expedition fifty years previously). Her shallow draught would help her traverse the shoals of the Arctic straits. Perhaps most importantly, the ageing ship was all that Amundsen (who was financing his expedition largely by spending his inheritance) could afford.

Amundsen had little experience of Arctic sailing, and so decided to undertake a training expedition before braving the Arctic ice. He engaged Hans Christian Johannsen, her previous owner, and a small crew, and sailed from Tromsø in April 1901. The next five months were spent sealing on the pack ice of the Barents Sea. Following their return to Tromsø in September, Amundsen set about remedying the deficiencies in Gjøa that the trip had exposed. He had a little 13-horsepower marine paraffin motor, connected with a winch, for navigation in light winds and to facilitate handlings. Much of the winter was spent upgrading her ice sheathing, as Amundsen knew she would spend several winters iced-in.

Journey through the Northwest Passage
In the spring of 1902, her refit complete, Amundsen sailed Gjøa to Christiania (now Oslo), the capital of Norway. At this time Norway was still in a union with Sweden, and Amundsen hoped the nationalistic spirit which was sweeping the country would attract sponsors willing to underwrite the expedition's growing costs. After much wrangling, and a donation from King Oscar, he succeeded. By the time Amundsen returned, Norway had gained its independence, and he and his crew were among the new country's first national heroes.

Amundsen served as the expedition leader and Gjøa's master. His crew were Godfred Hansen, a Danish naval lieutenant and Gjøa's first officer; Helmer Hanssen, second officer, an experienced ice pilot who later accompanied Amundsen on subsequent expeditions; Anton Lund, an experienced sealing captain; Peder Ristvedt, chief engineer; Gustav Juel Wiik, second engineer, a gunner in the Royal Norwegian Navy; and Adolf Henrik Lindstrøm, cook.

Gjøa left the Oslofjord on June 16, 1903, and made for the Labrador Sea west of Greenland. From there she crossed Baffin Bay and navigated the narrow, icy straits of the Arctic Archipelago. By late September Gjøa was west of the Boothia Peninsula and began to encounter worsening weather and sea ice. Amundsen put her into a natural harbour on the south shore of King William Island; by October 3 she was iced in.

There she remained for nearly two years, with her crew undertaking sledge journeys to make measurements to determine the location of the North Magnetic Pole and learning from the local Inuit. The harbour, known as Uqsuqtuuq ("much fat") in Inuktitut, has become the only settlement on the island – Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, which now has a population of over a thousand people (1,279 at the 2011 census).

Gjøa left Gjoa Haven on August 13, 1905, and motored through the treacherous straits south of Victoria Island, and from there west into the Beaufort Sea. By October Gjøa was again iced-in, this time near Herschel Island in the Yukon. Amundsen left his men on board and spent much of the winter skiing 500 miles south to Eagle, Alaska to telegraph news of the expedition's success. He returned in March, but Gjøa remained icebound until July 11. Gjøa reached Nome in Alaska on August 31, 1906. She sailed on to earthquake ravaged San Francisco, California, where the expedition was met with a hero's welcome on October 19.

San Francisco
Rather than sail her round Cape Horn and back to Norway, the Norwegian American community in San Francisco prevailed on Amundsen to sell Gjøa to them. The ship was donated to the city of San Francisco, and the ship was dragged up the beach   to the northwest corner of Golden Gate Park, surrounded by a low fence and put on display. Amundsen knew that because of the fame that his exploits aboard Gjøa had earned, he would be able to gain access to Nansen's ship Fram which had been custom-built for ice work and was owned by the Norwegian state. Therefore, Amundsen left Gjøa in San Francisco. He and his crew traveled back to Norway by commercial ship. Of the original expedition members, only Wiik failed to return to Norway, because he had died of illness during the third Arctic winter.

Preservation
Over the following decades Gjøa slowly deteriorated, and by 1939 she was in poor condition. Refurbishment was delayed by World War II, and repairs were not completed until 1949. Being displayed outdoors and having faced 66 years of high winds, ocean salt and sand, the boat once again suffered deterioration, until in 1972, with the help of Erik Krag, a Danish American shipping company owner of San Francisco, Gjøa was returned to Norway. Krag was knighted by the king of Norway for his efforts in shipping home Gjøa.

Gjøa was displayed in the Norwegian Maritime Museum (Norwegian: Norsk Maritimt Museum) in Bygdøy, Oslo. In May 2009 the Norwegian Maritime Museum and the Fram Museum (Norwegian: Frammuseet) signed an agreement for the Fram Museum of Bygdøy to take over the exhibition of Gjøa. It has been displayed in a separate building at Fram Museum.

A bauta (memorial pillar) now stands near Gjøa's former home in San Francisco. Gjøa was also featured as a filming location in the 2005 documentary, The Search for the Northwest Passage, in which Kåre Conradi played Amundsen.

title: Gjøa