Astronomy

The Volunteer State Community College astronomy offerings are designed to meet the general education science requirements for associate’s and bachelor’s degrees. Courses are offered in a variety of formats including traditional, hybrid and video. There is a strong emphasis on observation, with students in the traditional sections working regularly with five-inch refracting telescopes. There are also opportunities for independent study courses for motivated students. Previous independent study students have done projects such as measuring the diameter of the earth and recording data during lunar eclipses to study earth’s atmosphere.

Links

• Area amateur astronomy clubs:
  • Gallatin's Cumberland Astronomical Society
  • Nashville's Barnard-Seyfert Astronomical Society
• Here are a couple of calendars for lunar eclipses  and solar eclipses.
• A few flight profiles for a typical Space Shuttle Mission: Profile 1, Profile 2
• Vanderbilt's Dyer Observatory will have public nights (extra credit) in 2007.
• Astronomy Picture of the Day - A new, "cool" picture each day!
• Lunar Picture of the Day - A new, "cool" picture of the Moon each day!
• Some Geocentric vs. Heliocentric helps:
  • More about Ptolemy...
  • A simulation of deferents and epicycles...
• SEDS and JPL have very nice, comprehensive information about the Solar System.  SEDS also has a nice deep sky catalog (Messier catalog).
• Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazines have comprehensive websites for observers and amateur astronomers.
• For help pronouncing all those Greek, Latin and Arabic words, check out the Astronomical League's Star and Constellation Pronunciation Guide and Solar System Pronunciation Guide.
• Folks have some fun with the stellar spectral classes.
• The Atlas of the Universe shows the universe at various scales from a few light years to 10 billion light years.