How many stars ... really?

There's so much going on up the in sky, and so much research producing zillions of files of data every day. It's overwhelming. Yet I've been fascinated with astronomy for my whole life, and keep getting drawn back to it. It seems like there are a ton of beginner sites, and some sites with lots of raw numbers on blank pages, and then a ton of research sites. But nothing intermediate.

So, this will be my two cents worth. A collection of information, links and ponderings that I hope will help make the sky more enjoyable for you. Here are some of the things you will find here:

Stardial my findings: variable stars & asteroids	PMDO Sky Survey my findings: mostly variable stars	Bradford Robotic Telescope My photos.
My guide to the sky IN THE WORKS, but sample sections are ready...	COMING SOON. Explorations with: Sloan Digital Sky Survey Close star pairs & dwarf galaxies.

(on hold):

• My Faint Survey -- looking for faint stars with high proper motions on DSS+2MASS plates. Note: the USNO B1.0 catalog has more proper motions than I could ever get on my own
• WDS Neglected Stars -- confirming a heap of those "Neglected Stars" from the Washington Double Star Catalog. Note: they've done a major update, with tons of new measurements.

My Other sites

• SCV Tales - my writing home page: sci-fi, horror & weird tales to entertain you while you're waiting.

Software
Well, I did write a bunch of software tools for my own astro projects, but they've all become obsolete since then. My AstroCat catalog browser pales in comparison to the Vizier catalog query site. I have a little program called "Flasher" for flashing plates and doing RGB stacking, but now I use Aladin for this.