There are many advantages to surfing the Web. A major disadvantage, though, is the time it can take to download images and animations, especially if you can't afford the cost of a high-speed modem or network connection. Now, though, you can explore one of the Web's best resources for information about the solar system even if you have no Internet connection.

The National Science Teachers Association is distributing the Views of the Solar System CD-ROM, which contains all of the text, images, and animation Calvin Hamilton's Web site of the same name. The site, both in online and CD-ROM form, is extensive, with hundreds of megabytes of information, images, and animations about the Sun, the planets and their moons, and asteroids and comets, not to mention some history and data on spacecraft exploration of the solar system.

The CD-ROM is readable by a wide range of computers: Windows 3.1, 95, NT, and Macintosh owners can all use the CD-ROM. The CD comes with a copy of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, although you can use your own favorite browser to view the information on the CD-ROM as well.

The CD-ROM has a fairly up-to-date version of the Web site on it, including information about last August's announcement of past life on Mars. Like any information product in a fixed medium like a CD-ROM, though, it will become more out of date over time, but it will certain still be useful for years to come.

Although designed for teachers looking to provide one the key Internet resources about the solar system to students without high-speed, or any kind of Internet access, Views of the Solar System CD-ROM will be useful to anyone interested in the site who just hasn't had the patience to look at some of the images and animations there.

On December 20 of last year, the world lost a great astronomer and a great communicator of science when Carl Sagan passed away. This site, created by a University of Texas student long before Sagan died, has become a living memorial to the scientist. The site is full of links to information about the life and recent passing of Sagan, and is kept very up to date.

http://wwwvms.utexas.edu/~mrapp/sagan/sagan.html

Windows on the Universe is an extensive, beautifully-designed online resource of information about earth and space sciences and "and the historical and cultural ties between science, exploration, and the human experience." This NASA-funded project is in its second edition, with a third version due out in a couple months. The site is graphics-intensive (and you are warned about this up front at the site), but it's worth any wait, and a CD-ROM adjunct being tested will help people will slow connections still access the graphics. A truly impressive site!

http://www.windows.umich.edu/

The Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics is an online version of a popular printed reference text. There are tables of reference information in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics and well as aeronautics, mathematics, and radiation safety(!). The content of this Web site is images of scanned-in pages from the book, so the information can be a little cumbersome to read sometimes, but otherwise this is an excellent online resource!

http://adswww.harvard.edu/books/hsaa/