The Web Between the Worlds
With the cost of even the most basic books spiraling out of reach, the World Wide Web is becoming ever more important as a means of introducing and educating newcomers to the world of astronomy. Bill Ferris created this useful site, I'm sure, with just that in mind. With pages on deep-sky viewing, planetary observation, a glossary and telescope acquisition tips it is a worthwhile site for the beginner or intermediate level enthusiast, and is certainly cheaper than a visit to the local book store.
http://hometown.aol.com/billferris/
Star Worlds claims to be "the largest searchable directory of organizations, institutions, associations, companies, and so on, involved in astronomy and related space sciences, together with other entries of interest ( currently more than 6,200 entries with all practical details available and about 6,000 hot links )". It is indeed one of the better astronomy related search engines, and includes a number of local entries that are of particular interest.
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/~heck/sfworlds.htm
It has been nearly 30 years since the last large-area near-infrared survey of the sky was carried out; the Two Micron Sky Survey (TMSS)
Neugebauer & Leighton 1969) scanned 70% of the sky and detected ~5,700 celestial sources of infrared radiation. Since that time there has been a revolution in the development of infrared detector technology. New, large format, sensitive array detectors can now detect astronomical objects over 100 million times fainter than those detected in the TMSS.
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/
Databases always have their uses. Here are a couple that members of ASSA have found particularly useful. I wasn't impressed with NED's retrieval form, but it seems adequate for the task at hand. The Digitized Sky Survey comprises a set of all-sky photographic surveys in E, V, J, R, and N bands conducted with the Palomar and UK Schmidt telescopes
NED is built around a master list of extragalactic objects for which cross-identifications of names have been established, accurate positions and redshifts entered to the extent possible, and some basic data collected.
Evan Dembskey