Astronomy Photo Galleries in Japan
日本 の 天体写真館

I have been learning Japanese since 1990. I sometimes like to look at Japanese websites, especially ones about astronomy. I find there are some nice astronomy photo gallery pages. Yet because many are written in Japanese, I suspect most non-Japanese Internet users wouldn't realize they exist.

Therefore, I decided to put together this page with links to some interesting astronomy picture sites. I've included some pages that are written in Japanese but which a non-Japanese person should still be able to navigate. And I have included some other links about Japanese astronomy, spaceflight, and a little culture. I hope this helps bridge some language and cultural gaps.

Some online translation help you can try; the links should open a new window:

• AltaVista Babelfish Online Language Translator
• Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Server Text Word Translation

Contents

Some General Japan Astronomy Sites

Astronomy in Japan
AstroArts Home Page
Tonight's Sky by Hidenori Mitsui
How Comet Hyakutake B2 Was Discovered
about Yuji Hyakutake, @ the JPL Comet website
Links about the Star Festival Tanabata 七夕    
Also see Some Information Resources in Japanese below.

Astronomy Photo Sites

These are Japanese websites which feature astronomy photo galleries. In general, these sites are written by the amateurs who took the pictures themselves. I have divided the websites into two groups:

• The first group's sites are written mostly or entirely in English. Anyone with an English language browser who speaks English shouldn't have any problem reading them.
• The second are written in Japanese, using a Japanese format (i.e., EUC or Shift-JIS). But I have chosen ones with clear page layouts and graphics that still allow someone without Japanese language capability to see where to go. Japanese names, including the original website names in Japanese I sometimes put in brackets [ ].

In English

Astrokay's Stars, Flowers, Birds and Animals
Invitation to the Moon
by Morio Higashida. This is a thoughtfully done arrangement of close-up photographs of the Moon. The website title is very appropriate. His Japanese pages have more information and more topics. (Thank you for writing me.)
Total Solar Eclipse in Thailand
by Toshio Irino
From Dusk to Dawn Starry Photo Gallery [ 星空写真館 ]
By Satoshi Kanda [ 神田聡 ]. Includes some nice astronomy photos with low-lit landscapes. Also total lunar eclipse photos. [ Japanese home page. ]
KARUIZAWA Info
Photography of Comets Hyakutake and Hale Bopp, and the Leonids meteor shower. Some nice local nature photography as well. By Kosegaki Yasutoshi.
HyperTEXT of Deep Sky Object
by Tohru Katayama
Ken Kikuchi's Home Page
Some nice, updated sky charts and some comet photos.
Yuuji Kitahara's Photo Gallery
"Color pictures of the far universe of an amateur; from Nagano."
Kitahara San features Deep Sky photography of galaxies and nebulas. There are also pages in Japanese.
Stellar Scenes Home Page by Naoyuki Kurita
His pages include an extensive gallery of constellation photography, among the best I have seen on the Internet. I sometimes refer to his pages when I tutor on-line.
The Photographic Story of Planets Isao Miyazaki. In Okinawa.
CCD images of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.
K.Nakayama's HOME PAGE updated April 4, 2005 (thank you for writing me).
NGC Homepage Hidenori Nohara.
Astronomy photographs, as well as portraits and some travel pictures.
NTT Digital Museum: Cosmic Gallery
Some photographs, plus an interactive Quick Time celestial sphere to view the constellations that you can set by time and date.
Shigemi Numazawa & Japan Planetarium Laboratory Home Page
Includes images and computer graphics. Some pages in Japanese.
MAF-NET Koichiro Oka - Hanno, Japan. JR1MAF
In English and also in Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.
Digital Astronomy Gallery
by Kunihiko Okano
Comet hunter Tsutomu Seki's web-page
The noted comet hunter's home page. Translated by Eiji Kato. Includes a monthly astrophoto section. There is also a japanese version.
JR1SCO Shimano Home Page by Kazuhiro Shimano, in Fujioka, Gunma.
Solar eclipse pictures from India (October 1995), Comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp, and some nice deep sky photos as well. He also has some elctronics (power amplifier) and amateur radio information. English and Japanese pages.
Kunitoshi Shimizu [ 清水邦敏 ]
Colorful photographs of galaxies, nebulas, clusters, and Comet Hale-Bopp. English and Japanese pages.
Shoji Suzuki's CCD ASTRO-IMAGING
Celestial Spells [ 田子 周作 ]
Moonlit Story by Takahiro Takenouchi. [ 竹之内貴裕 ]
(The menus are in English, while the detailed desciptions are in Japanese.)
TUAT ASTRONOMY CLUB's HomePage Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Beautiful Space Images
by Hirokazu Yamamura

In Japanese

Shinsuke Abe's Home Page
- Comet Hale-Bopp Gallery
Toshiyuki Aoshika　地球と宇宙
His gallery of a variety of celestial bodies is here.
Astro Photos @ Awatani's Home Page
You can identify all the objects on the astro photo page by the jpg or gif name on the link.
Digital Photographer AZUMA (Hidekazu Azuma) Home Page [ 吾妻　秀一(アヅマ　ヒデカズ ) ]
Click PHOTO on the main menu.
Yuichi Chimura's Home Page [ 千村雄一 ]
The Starry Heavens Gallery [星空GALLERY]
Tsukasa Enomoto's gallery, with galleries also of Keisaku Yamada, Kiyohiko Oikawa, Hiroshi Kubota, and Toshiyuki Aoshika.
Ritsuo Fuji: Photo Comet begins several web pages of astronomy photos; there are next and back buttons at the bottom of each photo page.
Planet Page Takashi Ishida.
Pictures of solar system objects.
Star Station by Akihiko Ito.
Junichi Itoh - OZE & DOME SCREEN
See the links on his photo page.
JG6GTR magazine
Star Factory Makoto Kasahara.
The website gallery has separate color and black & white photograph sections.
Osamu Kato [ 星空実験室ホームページ ]
Star Tavern ("Hoshi no Izakaya") is the astrophoto page @ Shinji Kiuchi's Home Page: "Talk Place of Stars & Mountains"; there are 4 astrophoto sections: 1) Nebulas & Star Clusters, 2) Starfield-Celestial bodies, 3) Comets, and 4) Star Scenes. True to his home page title, there is also a nice page of mountain photography at Talk of the Mountain Place which is arranged by season.
Koban's World [ 小林和浩 ]
Once you enter the site you get a real map to navigate with. Visit the telescope for astronomy. The third link in the gallery menu is for astronomy photos.
Hiroyuki Kondo Space Gallery
Site of epion -Home Page of Tomohiko Koyama
The astronomy photographs are at the link following the Photo Gallery Link.
星空写真館 Starry Sky Photo Studio by Hiro Koyama. new url
Photographs of nature scenes with starlit backgrounds, the Leonids, Comet Hyakutake, astronomy and nature phtography from West Australia, and also photographs by his wife, Akko.
Astro Photo Graph: Photo Gallery
by Toshio Koyama
Matsumoto Astro World
by Masao Matsumoto [ 松本　正夫 ]
MASA's Astro & Local Page by Masahiro Mizutani.
His Astronomy Page has some news in Japanese, and a link to his Astronomy Photographs
Galaxy Page Mobara
CCD Photography of Okudogo [ 村田繁利 ]
Nara Virtual Nature Museum [ 井上　龍一（いのうえ　りゅういち） ] new url
The Environment section is about astronomy observation and the prevention of light pollution. Meanwhile, his website explores a variety of nature topics.
Shin-Ichirou Nishizaki Home Page [ 西崎一郎 ]
The middle of the home page begins the astronomy section: eclipse, aurora, and astro photography. His website features other kinds of photographs too.
ASTRO PHOTO GALLERY
by Tsukasa Noda
Nory's Homepage
by Suzuki Noriyuki. [ 鈴木則行 ]
Yutaka Numajiri's Astronomical Photo Gallery
You can identify the pages by the URL names.
Astronomical Images by Ichiro Ohno
Gallery Okada Sumie [ 岡田寿美枝 ]
Some astronomy photos and a nice variety of others. There is an English menu page and some English captions on other pages. You can navigate by thunbnail photos.
Night Sky on Mt.YATSUGATAKE by Yoichi Okamoto. [ 岡本 洋一 ]
Automatic sky camera to watch meteors. Some English pages are available. Thank you for the link.
O. Oshima's Astronomy and Science Home Page [ 天文と科学のホームページ ] [ 大島修 ]
the Milky Way by Nobuo Sakai　[ 酒井信夫 ]
Space Odyssey by Takayuki Suzuki [ 鈴木孝征 ]
You can take off on a space ship first before you view the gallery. : )
Hiroki Takahashi
This is the astronomy section of his home page; this includes Astro Photos, and a Messier List with coordinates (in English).
Aki's Star Diary
by Sadaaki Takata [ 高田貞明 ]. The first two links on the menu are about the telescope equipment and then the astronomy pictures. He also has macro closeup photographs of flowers.

Sky Page by Yasuo Takeda. [ 武田康男 ]
In addition to astronomical pictures, there are aurora, rainbows, clouds and "mysterious" sky pictures.
Ikuo Takeshita Photo Gallery
Taku's CCD Gallery
A very extensive collection of CCD images, the Gallery link is at the home page bottom
星の彩　ー　田代　貞　 Tadashi Tashiro Photo Collection
Photos @ HomePage of Tenken
Y. Tomita (Yatchan)
There is an English page, but the Japanese section has more available.
N.Tsurumi's HOME PAGE
Use the clickable photo map on top. Includes some nice locomotive photographs.
Stars and the Earth by Satoshi Ushiwatari
In both Japanese and English. In Sapporo.
The Deep Space [ 宇宙 by 　宇都和彦　　 ]
Bakeneko House by Y. Yamano: He has some nice astronomy pictures in the Astro and Wallpaper sections. There are also some Japanese landscape pictures and cat pictures-- "neko" means "cat".
Seiichi Yoneyama's Home Page
His astronomy photographs are next to his camera icons.
Kenji Yoshio [ 「天文・教育・雑談」ページ ] ]

More in Japanese

The websites in this section are probably harder for a non-Japanese reader to navigate. I bookmark these here in case you can read some Japanese or are curious.

• Yumi's Room Yumi Ayabe.
• 星空寄り道散歩道 [ 柴原充 ]
• Space Works by Osamu Tanaka [ 田中　收 ].
• 天文楽のすすめ
  The photo collection includes sunsets, Mt. Fuji, flowers & mushrooms, and some astronomy.
• 星空の世界 Starry Sky World JA9PAK [ 高橋秀和（たかはしひでかず） ]
• Kiyoshisa Todaka's Astrophotograph Gallery [ Ｋ．ＴＯＤＡＫＡ’Ｓ　天体写真館 ] Oita, Inukai Machi.
• Hiro's Love [ 博（ひろ）の以上の愛情 ]
  Nature photography, including some nice night nature images.
• 遠州天体写真愛好会ホームページ
  An astronomy photo group, with links to members homepages. I linked to some above.
• 星稜剱岳　－　　The Earth with the Wind Tatsuo Nakagawa. [ 中川達夫 ]
• 天文コラム「星空のかなたに」 [ 中沢　陽 ] 新潟県

Other Amateur Astronomy Topics

• The Star Watching Gear Works [ 星を見る道具の工房 ]
  A website about making your own optical equipment, in English and Japanese. I appreciate the ergonomics section.
• Listen to the satellites by JA1ORH, Haruka Nakamura. In English and Japanese.

Earth and Space Pictures

• The Earth Seen From Space [ 宇宙から見た地球 ]
• The Earth Watching Nobuhiro Kajikawa.
  Pictures he was able to receive himself from the NOAA weather satellites over Japan.
• Image from Space HomePage
• Earth from Above
  Aerial photography by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Fuji Film Japanese site (with some English).
• Art of the Clouds
• NASDA Space Image Gallery
• NASDA Earth Observation Center
• Visible Earth - Japan NASA.

Space Graphics

• Imaginary Space Pictures by Yasuhiro Kido
• COSMO PAGE....ETSUJI-NOSE FANTASTIC WORLD
• Solar System Simulation -Science Live Show UNIVERSE Science Museum, Tokyo. In English and Japanese.

Some Astronomy Observing Groups

• Japan Fireball Network
• The Nippon Meteor Society
• Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers of Japan
• Oriental Astronomical Association
• Communications in Mars Observations
• Skyfull Stars
  An astronomy club in Osaka.

Professional Astronomy and Planetariums

• KOHNO Kotaro Home Page: Radio Telescope and Galaxy Galleries
• Kuma Kogen Observatory They have photo archives of some comets, supernovas, and galaxies; also some nice lunar pictures in the Japanese section.
• Bisei Astronomical Observatory in Okayama Prefecture
  Their Japanese section has some picture pages: Images by 101-cm Telescope
• Astronomical Society of Japan
• NAO - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
• Public Information Office, NAOJ - Image Library
• Subaru Telescope in Hawaii
• Nobeyama Radio Observatory
• Public Astronomical Observatories, Japan
• Department of Astronomy- Kyoto University
• VSNET HomePage variable stars
• Nebulas at Ouda Observatory
• Stars and Galaxies Image taken at Ouda
• Ouda Observatory Nature Scenes (flowers)
• Hida Observatory includes some real-time solar images.
• The Subaru Telescope - Making Use of Cutting-Edge Technology Japan Kids Web.
• A short article about Planetariums in Japan
• Planetarium developer creates Space of Dreams Yomiuri Shinbun article, June 14, 2003.
  The underlying topic of the article is about the Goto Planetarium closing on June 30th. Several planetariums seem to be closing due to the difficult economy.
• Yokohama Science Center
• Scripts of planetarium show stories
  The primary pages are in Japanese. However, some of the Japanese story pages also have links to their English versions.
• Development of Science and Technology in Japan, Depicted on Stamps
  Hokaido University.
• 75th Aniversary of the founding of Tokyo Astronomical Observatory
• 東京天文台岡山天体物理観測所が開所

Japanese Space Programs

In October 2003 Japan merged its two space agencies, together with National Aerospace Lab, to form a new agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
(The two previous space agencies were: NASDA, principally concerned with technology development and manned space flight; and ISAS, responsible for scientific observing in space.)

• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
• National Space Development Agency of Japan Home Page (old website)
• NASDA Space Image Gallery
• Cosmic Information Center
  An school-level reference about space topics.
• Japan Space Station Home Page
• The Portal of Lunar Exploration
• Earth Observation Center
• JAXA Online Video Library
• Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) HOME page
• Links to Yohkoh Soft X-Ray Solar Space Telescope
• National Aerospace Laboratory
• Space Robotics Research at Electrotechnical Laboratory part of MITI in Japan
• Space Robotics Laboratory Tohoku University.
• Space Machines Laboratory Tohoku University.
• Robotics in Japan - Space links compiled by Uwe Zimmer.
• Science & Technology Agency: Aeronautics - Space
• Asian Technology Information Program Space/Satellite Reports for Japan
• Eric's Treasure Trove of Rocketry - Japan
• Also see German Space Net [raumfahrt.de], in German.
• H-II Heavy Lift Vehicle Image
  
• Young Astronauts Club - Japan in English and Japanese.
• Web Japan Sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  A number of sections carry information.
• Japan Atlas: Tanegashima Space Center
• Trends in Japan: Evolving Trends-Technology
• Kids Web Japan
  The news section includes stories about the Japanese astronauts who fly in space.


Several Japanese astronauts have flown on the NASA Space Shuttle. Japanese astronauts are now preparing to fly on the space station. The NASA Johnson Space Center maintains an astronaut biographies website with brief biographies of them. Also see NASDA - Japanese Astronauts and NASDA Astronaut Photo Library.
• Takao Doi
• Mamoru Mohri
• STS-99 Astronaut Mohri's Second Shuttle Flight (NASDA)
• Chiaki Mukai
• STS-95 Astronaut Mukai's Second Shuttle Flight (NASDA)
• There is a Chiaki Mukai Children's Science Museum in her home town, in Tatebayashi, Gumma Pref. (north of Tokyo). The website includes pictures of her visiting the museum, and pictures and information about her space career.
• Soichi Noguchi
• Koichi Wakata

Perhaps also of interest:

• A personal tribute to Japanese-American astronaut Ellison Shoji Onizuka, who died in the Challenger accident. RafuShimpo (LA).

Some Information Resources in Japanese

• NASDA Cosmic Information Center [ 宇宙情報センター ]
• Internet Space Watching Takashi Morimoto / Miyazuki Univ. Astronomical Laboratory
• Mori's Astronomy Page
  Moriaki Kanai's transcription of current astronomy and space news.
• Masamichi Aeronautics and Space Access Point Sekine Masamichi.
• Universe-S
• 星が好きな人のための新着情報 　　
• SpaceRef [ 宇宙開発情報 ] [English version]
• Yokohama Science Center
• AstroArts Home Page
• Monthly Astronomy Guide- [ 月刊天文ガイド ]
• Nikon no Hoshizora Annai
  A monthly online guide by Nikon about the night sky. Includes monthly sky maps and astronomical events.
• お星様とコンピュータ　The Starry Sky & Computer by 長谷川　司　Tsukasa Hasegawa. Also in English.
• 宇宙･物理研究室 - Universe - Physics Research Room
• WNI Cyber Weather World
  Includes night sky information and observing conditions.
• Hydrographic Department of Japan maintains astronomy almanac information.
• Online Astronomical Information Systems Project by Masayuki Takata
• World Nature Network (WNN) - Universe NTT
• Info-Star
• 　星空サーチ
• 多摩六都科学館 Tamarokuto Science Center.
• Osaka Kyoiku University Astronomical Observatory:
• Cosmic Spectrum Museum Features very nice graphics, plus a gallery of spectral images and some sky charts.
• にしわき経緯度地球科学館ホームページ
  Nishiwaki City Earth Science Museum - Terra Dome.
  Includes astronomical monthly sky information and photography.
• Chigakuka - Earth Sciences and Astronomy Home Page Oita University, Faculty of Education.
  Has online educational activities including: learning constellations, SETI, Powers of Ten.
• Sekizaki Kaiseikan [ 関崎海星館 ] Oita.
• Constellations by Toxsoft
• Some pages written with JAVA to help you learn about the night sky.
• [ 天文教育普及研究会ホームページ ] Society for Teaching and Popularization of Astronomy
• JST バーチャル科学館　　Virtual Science Center
  Cool Flash presentations for young people include a return to the Moon online video, the search for life in the universe, stars (plus constellations), comets, aurora and the Moon; also other sciences.
• JST Science Channel
  Includes a space section with a number of programs online.
• About Solar System Simulation -Science Live Show UNIVERSE Science Museum, Tokyo. You can download from the English language page here.
• SONY ExploraScience Plaza
  Includes the Solar System Simulation (above) online and explanation pages of some solar system phenomena.
• The Planetary Society of Japan [ 日本惑星協会 ]
  Includes information about the planets and illustrated descriptions of major planetary missions.
• They have a children's section, こども宇宙教室, also with a variety of information.
• SETI and SETI@Home
• The Nine Planets in Japanese
• Spacecraft Galileo at Jupiter [ 木星のガリレオ探査機 ] Sue Kientz, JPL.
• NASA-Japan
• JANNET - Japan Astronomical Names Net Home Page
• 古天文の世界 - World of Archeoastronomy Shinobu Takesako.
• Potato Planet by Mitsuhiro Ooishita [ 大下　光弘 ].
  Astronomy information at middle school level.
• Asahi Beer Educational Classroom - Aurora, with the Univ. of Alaska. Also in English and Spanish.
• Niigata Science Museum
• Gakken Kids Net
• Yahoo/Science/Astronomy (Japan)
• まねっと Hitachi City Audio Visual Research Center.
  A Japanese Internet directory especially for elementary and junior high school students.
• K-12 Research Links Osaka Kyoiku
• Koji Masushita's Museum of Museums [ 博物館の博物館 ]
• Twinkle
  A graphics website, which includes some space graphics.
• Elementary Particle Dictionary Sadaharu Uehara and Junpei Shiharu, KEK.
• Nikkei Science Magazine Scientific American
• Nature Japan
• CNN.co.jp - サイエンス

Also see on this website:

• My Planetarium Photo Gallery
• Astronomy Homework Help
• Astronomy Picture Links
• Astronomy Space Missions Page
• Observing the Sky
• Amateur Astronomy Links
• Tanabata - Zhi Nü Star Festival Page
• There are some links to Korean amateur astronomer photography at Korea Astronomy Links
• Japan Directory Links to Japan.

More About Japan

More links to Japan...

Okyakusan - Visitors: Since January 17, 1998.

Home

Astronomy Help

Gallery

Japanese Astro Photos

Chinese Bookmarks

Korea Bookmarks

New York

More about Me 自己紹介

Astronomy Photo Galleries in Japan / Created: May 29, 1997, updated April 4, 2005.
このページをお楽しみいただけましたなら、電子メールでお送り下さい。 簡単な日本語でお書きお願いします。 もちろん　英語で書いてもいいです。 : )
Mail to me
For Japanese graphics used for this page see my Japanese Icons Links.