Excellent free online Astronomy course

darkskybondi · #1 27-12-2008, 10:28 PM

The University of California at Berkeley's award-winning Alex Fillippenko gives his "Introduction to General Astronomy" at http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_d...sid=1906978460

Highly recommended. He's a very well-recognized astronomer who has received prestigious awards for astronomy teaching.

Let me know what you think.

AlexN · #2 27-12-2008, 11:52 PM

Downloaded it all.. will have a listen over the next few days between reading books on similar topics.. see how much new stuff I can learn in my holidays!

Cheers for posting this.
Alex.

darkskybondi · #3 28-12-2008, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexN

Downloaded it all.. will have a listen over the next few days between reading books on similar topics.. see how much new stuff I can learn in my holidays!

Cheers for posting this.
Alex.

No worries!

Don't forget that there are also videos of each lecture too!

Ian Robinson · #4 28-12-2008, 03:22 PM

Several unis have their Astronomy and Astrophysics and Cosmology topics' lecture notes and more (as offered in undergraduate Bachelor Science physics courses available for easy download for free for anyone who is interested, not just students enrolled in that uni).

These are usually courses offered at 2nd and 3rd year level so some of the maths and requisit knowledge (of other advanced (2nd year and 3rd year physics electives and maths electives) make these lectures interesting but not for faint hearted. Hey if it was easy everyone would get degrees and they'd be worthless.

To get the most out these materials - acquiring the text book is very helpful as the notes are usually only a guide to the key ideas in these books.

darkskybondi · #5 28-12-2008, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

Several unis have their Astronomy and Astrophysics and Cosmology topics' lecture notes and more (as offered in undergraduate Bachelor Science physics courses available for easy download for free for anyone who is interested, not just students enrolled in that uni).

These are usually courses offered at 2nd and 3rd year level so some of the maths and requisit knowledge (of other advanced (2nd year and 3rd year physics electives and maths electives) make these lectures interesting but not for faint hearted. Hey if it was easy everyone would get degrees and they'd be worthless.

To get the most out these materials - acquiring the text book is very helpful as the notes are usually only a guide to the key ideas in these books.

Indeed. The good thing about Filippenko's course is that it's for first-year undergraduates who aren't majoring in Astro. A perfect beginner's course. Worth checking out.

- DSB

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #6 30-12-2008, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkskybondi

No worries!

Don't forget that there are also videos of each lecture too!

Stupid question No:1 ...how does one download the video's and save to computer in lieu of just watching the webcasts.

darkskybondi · #7 30-12-2008, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wasyoungonce

Stupid question No:1 ...how does one download the video's and save to computer in lieu of just watching the webcasts.

Nah it's a good question! Install the latest version of realplayer. Then click on each video and begin to play it with realplayer. It will give you the option of downloading the clip. Start the download and then move on to the next clip.

Enjoy!

- DSB

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #8 30-12-2008, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkskybondi

Nah it's a good question! Install the latest version of realplayer. Then click on each video and begin to play it with realplayer. It will give you the option of downloading the clip. Start the download and then move on to the next clip.

Enjoy!

- DSB

Ahhh excellent ...thankyou. I was too smart for myself and download the alternative to real player "real alternative". It doesn't allow to save webcast "rm" files......I've downloaded real player now, you just select "record this video" from the File menu.

Mucho Gratis once again

darkskybondi · #9 30-12-2008, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wasyoungonce

Ahhh excellent ...thankyou. I was too smart for myself and download the alternative to real player "real alternative". It doesn't allow to save webcast "rm" files......I've downloaded real player now, you just select "record this video" from the File menu.

Mucho Gratis once again

No worries man. You'll LOVE this course!

There's a Mexico City in Australia? What's the weather like there?

- DSB

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #10 30-12-2008, 09:55 PM

Mexico is...down south. Anything south of the Qld border is Mexico...especially Melbourne ...where the wetbacks live!

Annnd the weather is "wet"!

edit:

ahhh there is a "download" tab that appears in the viewing box when you hover your mouse pointer in the the viewing box area. This allows you to download the web cast with the real player download manager and view it later...aka you don't have to watch and record it like I have been doing.