All being well, I shall be delivering five two-hour sessions on "Astronomy for Beginners" on Tuesday evenings at my local college, beginning on 30 October. This will be for adults.

If the weather conditions are good, I shall use my telescope - a Meade Maksutov-Cassegrain 125mm, and also encourage people to bring binoculars. While indoors, I envisage doing PowerPoint presentations and discussion.

So I shall hopefully have some structured classes, but allow for the possibility of rushing outside at the drop of a hat.

Some topics I thought I'd cover:

"What you can see with the naked eye." Probably a preliminary class. As well as the usual stars, planets and moon this would include weather conditions, light pollution, aurorae, daytime stuff such as the sun, eclipses and so on.

"The make-up of the solar system." This would be primarily visual, with an emphasis on the dramatic aspects, but with handouts that list the more "dry" information. (That way I can make it accessible without dumbing it down.)

I may or may not combine the above with "Space exploration." This topic would include manned and unmanned, real and potential, and probably mention the speed of light as a limit, but also an advantage because of time dilation.

One thing I don't want to cover is the Moon Hoax, as I do not believe it deserves any airtime at all. However, I want to be prepared in case somebody does bring it up. I might have a PowerPoint slideshow ready, or I might just give people handouts. Or maybe I'll just send them here!

"The wider universe." A run-through of what is known about the stars, the rest of the galaxy, other galaxies, double stars, black holes and so on.

"Life in space." The usual - ALH84001, the Drake equation, the Miller-Urey experiment. And just as I hope the Moon Hoax doesn't come up, I hope we don't get a load of "and on my way home from the pub I saw thing strange light" stories.

Anyway, that's broadly my idea. Rather standard, I know, but unavoidable in a beginner class. What I want to do now is think of how I can put a slightly original spin into some of the topics. For instance, I'd like people to imagine what Star Trek would really be like - cramped living conditions, planets with very different atmospheres and gravity and so on.

I'd also like to do it as a journey where the students are made to imagine they are there - starting in a street where you can barely see the sky for all the streetlamps, to a place in the country where the stars look gorgeous, to a Mercury capsule where you're on your own in a can so small you cannot stretch your legs out fully, to a later Apollo mission (emphasising that there was more than one!) where you can go for a drive but have to remain within walking distance of the lander, to a future grand tour of the planets.

I am supposed to submit a course outline in the next day or two - Friday is the deadline. I would welcome ideas for any topics that ought to be included, or suggestions for a better way of organising the existing topics.

After Friday I would welcome any further suggestions for putting an original spin on such a standard range of headings. If anyone has any already-prepared material such as handouts or PP shows, they would be gratefully received. Remember, at this stage the intended audience is probably quite intelligent but knows little or nothing about astronomy, and he or she wants five evenings of entertainment, so beautiful pictures and dramatic facts are a must.

Thanks in advance.

Well, you might be able to find some material (or pretty pictures) from courses I've taught:

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys230/phys230.html
(very little math)

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys301/phys301.html
(math)

or from some popular lectures I've given to our local astronomy club:

http://spiff.rit.edu/richmond/asras/

Good luck!

Thank you very much, StupendousMan! You've got some excellent ideas in there which I migt want to borrow. More later.

Don't forget the Conspiracy Theory.








Or are you in on it?

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PW -- Plant Whisperer

Fred Schaaf, now on the editorial board of (Astronomy? ...or.. Sky & Telescope?), has a couple of excellent books on Naked Eye astronomy...Seeing the Sky, Seeing the Planets, etc. I rec them to elementary school teachers, Jr/Sr high and camp counselors all the time.pete.

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A third rate theory forbids.
A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
A. Lomonosov

One thing that I would suggest is how to use the RA/Declination system. Until I really understood how it was developed, I had no idea why the "time" ran backwards. A friend of mine had similar issues.

When I had to run a group of boy scouts through their astronomy badge requirements I planned out a 4 hour trip to hit all the high points. Starting with naked eye and the difference between asterism and constellation, and how to identify some of the main ones. Then we'd go "out" from Earth. Planets, stars, Globs, galaxies. For stars, I had planned to show them the development stages in the order they happen. Diffuse nebula, open cluster, star, Planetary nebula and so on. They never showed and the scout master never returned my calls so I can't tell you if it would have worked well or not.

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I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.

I placed a few more thoughts about my suggestions of Mars retrograde motion at a different site. I hope this helps. Trope Astronomy