Astronomy course - Prof Ronen Plesser, again!

[bojan]

Hi everyone,
I can't resist to let you all know that Prof. Ronen Plesser is lecturing again!
The course begins on Dec 3rd.
Enroll and enjoy!

[malclocke]

It's great to see this course being offered again, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I took it during the first round, and it was a challenge but thoroughly rewarding.

Details of the course are at https://www.coursera.org/course/introastro

Go sign up already!

[Shark Bait]

This is very tempting. I know that my mathematical skills are not going to be up to the task at the moment. If I did attempt this course, I would be spending most of my time understanding the math.

I suppose the worst that could happen, is finding out exactly which areas are lacking.

[malclocke]

Stu, don't let that stop you from signing up. I too was very nervous about the maths before starting, and found it hard going in places but it was not insurmountable and you really get a different understanding of the topics from working through the exercises rather than just watching the lectures. That said, watching the lectures alone will give you a good grounding in astrophysics, relativity and cosmology.

I got a couple of algebra books from the library and did what I could from them in the weeks running up to the course which helped a lot. As the course states, nothing more than high school level algebra is required.

But in the end, there is no obligation if you sign up and the video lectures alone are worth their weight in gold.

Malc

[renormalised]

Good course for anyone just wanting the basics. Maths isn't too onerous :)

[acropolite]

Thanks for the heads up Bojan. Looks like a good course.

[wasyoungonce]

Meh what the heck, signed up. Content looks ok but maths looks a little basic. Still cannot hurt to get the neurons working.

Many thanks for the heads up Bojan!

[wasyoungonce]

I guess the start date is actually the 2nd Dec USA ET? nothing posted yet.

[lazjen]

I signed up for this last night. Lots of cobwebs to clear out in the mind, so we'll see how it goes. :)

[wasyoungonce]

Chris...have you seen anything posted on 1st week syllabus yet? It states started today yet I have not seen anything posted yet.

[lazjen]

No, nothing. For me it said it was starting on Dec 2nd. I expect I might get something either late tomorrow or Tuesday.

[JB80]

My wife and I signed up for this a while ago, I wanted to do last years but got sidetracked with life.

Should be good but we might have a holiday while the course is running and not sure how that would work.

[lazjen]

I just got an email this morning with more details and a heap of links to go through. Some i can't seem to access yet since the course is starting at 12 PM east coast US time.

I've never done an online course before so I'm not sure what I'm in for as yet. :)

[wasyoungonce]

Yeah I got an email this morning but the links point to broken web pages ("class site currently closed")...sigh!

[orestis]

Good to see, its not just me, I wonder what the problem is. Should we inform them or wait until tomorrow. It seems that I have enrolled properly. I was eager to start today.

We will just have to wait and see.
cheers
Orestis

[lazjen]

Someone probably hasn't flicked the switch to "open" the course, so it's "access denied".

[Wavytone]

Maybe someone should tell them...

[wasyoungonce]

Meh...wait till tomorrow, should be fixed by then. :shrug:

[pmrid]

As one who has designed University online course web pages, I would guess that the pages are date and time locked - calculated to switch to open at a set time on the day of the start of the course - and don't forget they will be 14 to 17 hours behind us here.
Peter

[BakerStreet]

Good to know it's not just me. I could not get the links to work on my phone at work so I guessed they will come to life at about 9 tomorrow night.

My physics is now over half a life time ago.:( I will be having a very crash course like a bug on a windscreen.

Can't wait to find out where it will go.:D

[wasyoungonce]

Course appears to be on line now!:D

[lazjen]

Likewise, I think. I've got a couple weeks off around Xmas, so I should know by then how far behind the curve I am and maybe I'll be able to drag myself back to some place functional. :)

[wasyoungonce]

Well week 3 almost wrapped up. Really most is just a revision of VCE physics, luckily I did this not too long ago.

Although, I noticed some differences in Kepler's equations using period 'P' in AU units and in VCE we used time T in seconds.

Had some trouble using formula to compare earth/sun or moon ratios to other planet sun/moon ratios but getting better at this. Enjoying this immensely. Although simplified in some areas.

I do enjoy the homework they are definitely designed to make you think!

[lazjen]

I've only just completed week 2 today and I hope to start week 3 tomorrow.

I've been using this page: https://share.coursera.org/wiki/index.php/Introastro:Equations for a nice list of the formula.

And yes, the homework has made me think. While I've made a number of mistakes, I've eventually got there. I hope it all sticks, but even if it doesn't I'll have (re)learned a lot.

[wasyoungonce]

Hi Chris...I didn't even know about that page...was making my own formula sheets. Doh!

I have found find some that some of the formulas have some caveats like, the formula week 3 Rydberg constant already has hc in it thus need to be aware of this when Hf = Em-En, find for λ, thus hc/λ = 1/λ = Ryhc/hc(1/n^2 - 1/M^2) thus the hc in Ry will cancel, but this is not stated. Appears they want use to research!

Go figure:question:

[lazjen]

Back into the course this week. I just finished this week's homework today and found it a harder going than it really should be. I'd save myself a lot of trouble if I didn't keep making dumb mistakes.

I'm quite impressed with the calculator (https://web2.0calc.com/#c) and its capabilities. I keep a file for each homework section and as I progress through the questions I lay out all the details as I go. Then it's just a simple matter of cut'n'paste to the calculator and out pops the number. :)

[wasyoungonce]

I'm using my old Ti89, works great, but find the screen font is getting smaller each year...or my eyes are going off!:D

I must give this web calc a play

[lazjen]

Coming up to the final couple of weeks for this course. How are we all going?

I've found that I've had to dedicate a lot more time to the course than I thought I was going to need. It seems that I need a lot more time to do the homework. In most cases I've worked out the answers myself. In some cases I've had to get some hints to get started. Very rarely I had to seek out more detailed information. I'm happy enough with that.

Overall, I think it's been a worthwhile course and would recommend it to others to try the next time it comes around.

[mithrandir]

Brendan, a bit of Perl beats using a calculator. You can save all the constants and a simple typo won't completely spoil your day.

[wasyoungonce]

Hi Andrew, I've saved some constants to my calculator memory. I find the screen font way to small for my eyes these days. Have been using my daughters NSpire. Has Backlit display, just the ticket but she's re=-claimed it for school! How dare she!:lol: I saw guys using Perl, looked excellent...hmmm can we teach an old dog new tricks?

So far so good on the course. It's been more testing than I expected and definitely taken more time than expected. The maths content is ok but there is a lot of manipulations, easy to make an error.

The homework is quite testing, halfway thru week 10B atm.

I'd recommend this course but I'd also recommend that people undertaking the course be reasonably confident with maths and physics principles to year 11/12.

Unfortunately there have been a few students just hanging on in the homework forums, repeatedly asking for answers and not explanations nor help to understand the problems. This is a bit of a turn off somewhat. It's different if people ask for assistance and are prepared to follow leads and try it themselves, but, a few (a minor few) just ask for answers and get quite demanding when ignored!

Anyway ....I've enjoyed it and would recommend it but be prepared for more hrs work than they say. Maybe I'm just older and slower than the young'uns!:shrug:

[lazjen]

+1 Brendan - I think I'm way slower now I'm older. I keep telling myself that it's because I don't do this stuff day to day. :)

[mithrandir]

I was going to volunteer to be a Community TA for this year's course.

However a recurrence of melanoma showed up in tests done in October. The surgery wasn't too bad and by the time the course started things would have been OK.

Then the oncology surgeon sent me to the oncology radiologist who said 7 weeks of radiotherapy starting after New Year and that finished off any chance. Less than two weeks to to go now.

[lazjen]

Well, here's hoping you're right for the next one then!

[lazjen]

Last week of lectures. Just in case you missed the announcement - there will be homework, it's yet to be posted. Supposedly it's just one part this week.

[wasyoungonce]

Found week 11.....difficult. Mainly due to the rapid pace of information. Not really getting time to absorb it. Managing so far but this is testing.

[T-Dogg]

Does anyone know when this course will start up again?

I'm hoping its not 2 Dec 2014.

[lazjen]

Yes. I haven't really absorbed it all - just bits, but I just worked through the math without necessarily grasping all concepts. I think for now, since I'm not going to deal with this information on a day to day basis (familiarity/use would help), I'll have to accept that.

Week 12 lectures so far - just as difficult. Very interesting though. :)

[lazjen]

From the forums, there was a post that they were looking to do it again later in the year. I think it was mentioned it would be similar time frames, so early Dec is quite likely.

In hindsight, I think I should have done a refresher course in maths/algebra first to brush those cobwebs aside. I spent far too much energy trying to remember the basics.

[lazjen]

Well, to me week 12 was week 11 on steroids. Very interesting, but hoooly crap, the homework was difficult (for those doing the course, Q6 itself was several hours of confusion). However, I'm done, mentally drained and happy to have completed all the homework for the course. :)

[wasyoungonce]

Finally completed week 12 homework...damn that was...not easy! Good course though! Forgot to say for week 12 Q3...I gave up a derived a'(t) using d/dt f(t,to) then divided a'(t) by a(t) to get the answer. Thankfully this worked.

[lazjen]

At times I wondered if avoiding calculus made it harder than it should have been - mind you, for me that would have been just as fuzzy. :)

[wasyoungonce]

Duke University Introduction to Astronomy (https://www.coursera.org/course/introastro) course is back on again.

Starts 02 December, run by Professor Ronan Plesser..."Legend"! Well recommended course for all types. :thumbsup:

[malclocke]

Seems to say Dec 2nd 2013 ... ?

[wasyoungonce]

Ha.....you have me...had notifications for other courses and I didn't look at the dates...:ashamed:

I'll go back to sleep now...nothing to see here!:face: