The Solar System:Podcasts

November 25, 2006 4:29 AM

Astronomy 161 - an introduction to Solar System Astronomy. These are a set of lectures in progress now at Ohio State University. All materials are available on line - audio resources (direct or podcast through iTunes), movies and lecture notes. If you are interested in where you live, these beautifully delivered lectures are excellent.
posted by grahamwell (7 comments total)

A mention also to Astro 10P - an Introduction to General Astronomy from UC Berkley. They are much wider ranging but they lack the marvellous clarity of Professor Pogge.
posted by grahamwell at 4:34 AM on November 25, 2006

Anyone know if there are any more advanced classes hiding online? I didn't have the math or physics to get past General Astronomy when I went to college, but I would have liked to have taken some Intro to Astrophysics courses, and maybe some Cosmology.
posted by Mitrovarr at 8:05 AM on November 25, 2006

Hey, I know that name! CalTech used to have (and maybe still has) a series of introductory classes on Saturdays for local middle- and high-school students. I took a introductory astronomy class from Prof. Pogge way back in 1982 or so, when he was a student at CalTech and I was in the seventh grade. I still remember the mnemonic he taught us for the spectral classes of the stars: On Bad Afternoons, Fermented Grapes Keep Mrs. Richard Nixon Smiling.

It's always nice to see a local boy make good!
posted by The Tensor at 9:05 AM on November 25, 2006

Good clear development. Thanks for the pointer!


1. Is there some other name for what he terms the "Great Interruption" (Unit 3)? (5th century fall of Rome to 11th century rediscovery of Classical knowledge?)

"The Big Stupid" seems apropos. I'm thinking of the loss of technical knowledge represented in the Antikythera Mechanism, and the "Archimedes palimpsest", for two well-known examples.


2. Timely of him to note that Islam was responsible for maintaining Classical knowledge during that period:
"the ancient classical learning was to be nurtured and extended by Islamic society while most of contemporary Europe fell into a kind of intellectual slumber."
posted by Twang at 12:36 PM on November 25, 2006

Anyone know if there are any more advanced classes hiding online?

Try this.
posted by neuron at 4:04 PM on November 25, 2006

I'm intriged by the Wikibooks Astrophysics text.
posted by neuron at 4:08 PM on November 25, 2006

Wow. Thanks, grahamwell.
posted by luckypozzo at 1:51 PM on November 27, 2006