Explorations in Astronomy

Dave Snyder

Observing

Ordinary people can do astronomy without a telescope. (Dark skies and binoculars are very helpful.) Here are some articles I wrote on the subject:

See also this presentation...

Telescopes

Here are couple articles I wrote on unusual telescopes:

Unmanned Space Missions

The following describes a talk by Roger Tanner. He was working on camera that was to be part of a Mars Mission:

Nucleosynthesis

Nucleosynthesis is the process where hydrogen has been converted into heavier elements. This has taken place in a variety of locations: the Big Bang, stars, neutron star collisions among others.

It is a complicated process. Most of the steps in this process were determined about 60 years ago; however a number of details have only been fleshed out in the years since, and a handful of corrections have been made. Because of its complexity, some people have felt a temptation to skip steps or simplify the process, and this has led to certain misconceptions.

I discovered these misconceptions early on: I started to research the subject on my own terms, and subsequently wrote a series of articles. Pointers to these articles are as follows:

Cosmology

Two articles I wrote on the subject of Cosmology:

Other

Some other articles...

Links

Modified August 21, 2025