SkyEye: Archive

SkyEye started life in a collection of personal web pages of L.M. Stockman at Queen Mary & Westfield College (now Queen Mary University of London). Since its inception in 1995, it has grown from a simple page describing the wonders of the night sky to a fully-developed astronomy web site with additional information to educate and entertain its visitors. SkyEye soon outgrew its original collegiate host and in 1998, David Harper and L.M. Stockman decided to register their own personal domain. In September of that year, Obliquity.com was born and in October, SkyEye made its debut in its new home.

In the following pages, some of the links have been removed since the destination pages have changed, moved or no longer exist. Still-working links mostly point to current pages, not archival ones. Check the copyright date at the bottom to be sure.

1998: Welcome to SkyEye at Obliquity! These first pages are written in what was then state-of-the-art HTML 3.2. SkyEye consists of the front page which describes the happenings in the heavens for the current month and a number of supporting pages which include sky maps for different times of night (for latitudes 45° north and 30° south), constellation maps, information about the planets, minor planets, meteor showers and eclipses, and lists of interesting stars, star names and deep sky objects. There is also a resources page with links to other astronomy- and space-related web sites. (The world wide web is in its infancy at this time and all-encompassing search engines are still in the future.) The earliest versions of SkyEye also include an ecliptic strip chart which shows the positions of the planets mid-month. This feature vanishes after this year, not to return until 2018.
1999: There is no real difference between the SkyEyes of 1998 and 1999 other than the elimination of the chart showing the planets' positions at mid-month. Even the banner image is the same. The supporting pages are updated with new information as necessary.
2000: The big addition this year is the inclusion of a glossary of astronomical terms. A link to a moon phase calculator is also added to the main page.
2001: No changes this year beyond keeping all of the information current.
2002: This is the last year we use HTML 3.2 to construct the SkyEye web pages. The main page of SkyEye also gets a facelift with the inclusion of a calendar of important events.
2003: Same banner image but now the pages are written in the more modern HTML 4.01.
2004: The calendar of events continues to evolve and the paragraph for each planet clarifies the planet's position against the background stars over the course of the month. A new colour scheme is introduced as well.
2005: The site is once again refreshed by being rewritten in XHTML 1.0. A new banner image and yet another change in colour scheme complete the look.
2006: The section describing the planets is redesigned. Pluto doesn't make the cut and only appears in the monthly page when it is at opposition.
2007: The calendar is modified slightly to accommodate the fact that the Moon rises and sets at different times in the southern hemisphere than in the north. The layout of the section on the planets is altered slightly. There are also minor changes to the stylesheet which defines the look of the page, including a different banner image.
2008: Happy tenth birthday, Obliquity! To celebrate, there is a new banner image and the constellations listed in the planet descriptions become links to the appropriate constellation chart.
2009: Beautiful Saturn graces the banner image this year. The only other changes are updated information throughout the SkyEye site.
2010: Yet another new banner image and some minor cosmetic changes define 2010 SkyEye.
2011: No changes this year beyond another new banner image and keeping all of the information current.
2012: A section describing a few highlights from the next month is added below the calendar and the banner image is changed once again.
2013: The banner image now changes every month.
2014: HTML 5.0 brings a whole new look to SkyEye. A stellar background replaces the banner image and the entire site is redesigned. One casualty, however, is the section describing next month's highlights. Also swept away are all of the old GIFs. These are replaced by superior SVG images.
2015: No changes this year beyond keeping all of the information current.
2016: No changes this year beyond keeping all of the information current.
2017: The calendar gets a makeover to reflect at a glance the amount of moonlight on any given night during the month.
2018: Happy twentieth birthday, Obliquity! The mid-month planet positions chart is reinstated for the first time in 20 years. The calendar is once again redesigned to aid readability. More sky maps are added to include a wider range of latitudes (now 40° south to 60° north in 10° increments). And a whole new section, Solar System Phenomena, is introduced where each planet has its own page showing where it is and describing what it's doing throughout the year.
2019: More educational material is added to the More Information section.
2020: All of the old SkyEye monthly pages are once again made available via this Archive.
2021: No changes this year beyond keeping all of the information current.
2022: The site undergoes a slight reorganisation, with Solar System Phenomena moving to this Archive.
2023: No changes this year beyond keeping all of the information current.
2024: As SkyEye begins its twenty-sixth year at Obliquity, the entire site is given a makeover.

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to the Internet Archive for helping us recover a few lost files. Our recreation of old editions of SkyEye is all the more accurate with this assistance.