Links and Documents

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Title	URL	Notes/Comments
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Title	URL	Notes/Comments
Today's APOD	http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
APOD by Year and Month	http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
Stellarium	http://www.stellarium.org/
LaTex Lab	http://docs.latexlab.org/	Google Doc "plug-in" that lets you insert LaTex tags into your google doc and easily compile and preview the output. It's in Beta right now.
LaTex Tutorials		Just a Google Search, but lots of links
Design of Technical Posters	http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/posters.html	Basic ideas on how to structure the the layout of a technical poster. Posters are more than just PowerPoint slides on a piece of cardboard. Also look at the attachments below to see a bunch of posters from the UW Astronomy department.
Assertion+Evidence PowerPoint Design	http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/slides.html	This is the slide standard you'll use in Astronomy (and FbD!). This is a way to design slides that avoids "bullet vomit" and helps the audience pay attention to your presentation and what you have to say so they're not just reading your slides.
Technical Writing - General Advice	http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/technical/reports/index.html	Technical and scientific writing is very different from humanities paper writing. Learn the difference! See the attachments below for a Word template you can use for writing scientific papers in this class
Excel - Working with data, formulas, and functions	http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/excelformulas/ss/2010-12-25-excel-2010-basic-tutorial-pt1.htm	You'll use Excel a lot in this class, especially if you don't know calculus. Here's a starter guide.
Microsoft's Excel Tutorials	http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/CH010369467.aspx	You'll use Excel a lot in this class, especially if you don't know calculus. Here's a starter guide.
Write LaTex	https://www.writelatex.com/	LaTex is document formatting tool for technical documentation and is and industry standard for academic work. Documents formatted in LaTex are gorgeous - way prettier than anything Word or Google Docs can do. Very cool online LaTex editor. Free, with paid upgrades.
Significant Figures Tutorial	http://www.chem.sc.edu/faculty/morgan/resources/sigfigs/index.html	All the sciences use significant figures rules to specify the precision of computations. "Sig-Figs" are used to avoid calculator vomit when reporting numeric results.
Structure of Formal Reports	http://www.craftofscientificwriting.com/formal-reports.html	from the same guy who brought you Assertion-Evidence slide design.