Classes & Seminars
Introduction to Astronomy
Hello, explorer! You are about to start a journey that will take you to the farthest reaches of space and the innermost depths of matter and from the earliest beginning of time to the future billions of years from now. Introductory astronomy classes have the daunting task of introducing students to the wonders of the entire universe in one short course, often just one semester or one quarter long. Though the places and events you will encounter will sometimes be mind-boggling, I hope you will find it such a fascinating experience that you will want to learn more about those places in another course or in your own free time in the library or in your backyard with binoculars or telescope (or even better, at star parties on a mountain far from the city lights with your local astronomy club).
Embracing the Change
The Time of Global Change is at Hand.
What is the end of the World for some is aNew World for those who realize it is.
To surrender logistical mind into galacticawareness is to surrender fear into Love.
What was, shall no longer be.What was not, can now become.
The time will come when diligent research over long periods will bring to light things that now lie hidden. A single life time, even though entirely devoted to research, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject. . . . And so this knowledge will be unfolded through long successive ages. There will come a time when our descendants will be amazed that we we did not know things that are so plain to them. . . . Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been effaced. Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate . . . . Nature does not reveal her mysteries once and for all.
— Seneca, Natural Questions Book 7, c. first century.
Date and timings of the teaching sessions will be told in Assembly or whenever possible.