Online Astro.... Courses

[50Plus]

Has anyone else taken the courses available through coursera?

http://coursera.org

I completed one last year on the Search for Extraterrestrials. It was from the University of Edinburgh and presented the ways in which astro-scientists search for carbon based life forms.

I am currently taking a course on the Diversity of Exoplanets being offered by the University of Geneva. Its much much much much much more science based and very strong on the astrophysics aspects. And it is totally fascinating.

I am an engineer and my understanding is such that I can appreciate what they are saying and could likely perform the calculations, but with the right assistance.

Any other 'astro' courses that others have taken?

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Sorry, never took an online course in anything. However this does sound fascinating, so maybe I can do a bit of bumping to get this thread back on the front page.

Surely all of these kids born into the world of interwebs have the answer.

[East]

I have never taken one either but I have always thought it would be great to learn ...

I had one friend who was a very accomplished computer programmer (from the early days) and quite scientific minded who told me one day he wanted to "do my chart" but he needed my specifics on time and place of birth...he was also a bar customer of mine...

So I gave it to him and forgot about it and a while later he came to me with pages and pages of graphs....

...and then he laid it all out for me and it was amazingly accurate to a degree I never expected. I felt like he was spying on me or else he was psychic and just figured it all out...but he went into very detailed explanations to explain each thing...lasted for hours...

I didn't even know what sign I was 'til I was 22 or so...never really paid any attention to it...and this was when I was maybe 25 he did this. I thought a few things about Leo were right but most of it didn't really apply and then I thought a few things about every sign actually applied...

.....I actually took his advice on some things and it has worked out magnificently. He never told me himself but I suspected he was a genius...and it was confirmed by his friend afterward that he was. I am better for knowing him.

[Bookworm]

Thanks for the link. I've never done any 'astro' courses but I'm fascinated by those types of subjects too, despite not really understanding the Physics/Mathematics/engineering aspects - Science wasn't my strong suit at school. I'll have a browse of those courses, thanks again.

[50Plus]

Book - some can be awesome, others can be waaaay over my head. The one I am taking now is heavy on astrophysics and somehow I am understanding it.

Have even done the day dreaming about going back to university and getting a new degree. Not that I want a job, but it would be so much fun to learn (plus all the young guys that would be there).

[Eromir]

I once took an optional course in astrophysics, but it sucked majorly.
I much prefer to study on my own, although that way it's easy to loose ones way. The Road to Reality is a good book for getting started as it has a good overview of relevant subjects. Penrose does spend a lot of time on basic stuff like Euclidian geometry and some of the more advanced chapters lack fundamental explenatios, but if you use suplementary texts it's really awesome as a roadmap.

[50Plus]

I once took an optional course in astrophysics, but it sucked majorly.
I much prefer to study on my own, although that way it's easy to loose ones way. The Road to Reality is a good book for getting started as it has a good overview of relevant subjects. Penrose does spend a lot of time on basic stuff like Euclidian geometry and some of the more advanced chapters lack fundamental explenatios, but if you use suplementary texts it's really awesome as a roadmap.

Not totally astrophysics, but have you watched the movie What the Bleep? Thought it was a great intro to quantum physics.