I have finally, after months of going back and forth to this, partly due to other study and things to do. Completed the 24 hour OU / OpenLearn Course. I was just doing this casually anyway.
After studying this course, you should be able to:
* Understand facts, concepts, principles, theories, classifications and language used in astronomy
* Understand the range of sizes, distances and motions of objects in the night sky
* Understand the structure, evolution and the main processes operating in stars
* Understand the properties of planets in our Solar System and exoplanetary systems
* Understand the history of the universe.
Really interesting course, lots to think about and learn just from doing some of the research for the questions posed during the course.
Astronomy uses the greek alphabet for star names for example so this post may help.
I have just completed another OU / OpenLearn course, this time on The Evolving Universe. Despite its rather complex subject matter it was very interesting and expanded a little further on the 'How the universe works' course I undertook a few years ago.
The course looked at the early universe, the big bang, how particles, energy, time and temperature all changed over time and how all these are inter-related. How the matter we know today formed and why the universe is mostly matter and not antimatter. The fact there was more matter and what would have happened if the amount of antimatter and matter had been equal. Plus other interesting topics.
How sub-atomic particles such as Bosons, Leptons, Quarks etc interact. How research finds new particles and the huge energy levels required for this to take place.
This is a level 1 introductory course, and like the more formal course mentioned. The course also asks other questions which gets the reader thinking about different scenarios that could have occurred.
