Astronomical Concepts – Week 8 (Final)

For this final week of the course the focus was cosmology. The main topics of learning we looked at included: Galaxies Quasars Dark matter Dark energy The Big Bang Theory Gravity Expansion of the universe and inflation Galaxies There are three main types of galaxy: spiral, elliptical and irregular. Our Milky Way galaxy is a …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 6

This weeks topic was the stars. Their are billions of stars in our galaxy and there are billions of galaxies in the universe. There is an unbelievably huge amount of stars out there and the stars are separated by huge distances. How do we measure the distances to the stars? The closest star to Earth …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 5

The main topic this week was the Sun. Here are a few facts about the sun: It is a hot ball of glowing gas It is a yellow dwarf, main sequence star Approx. 150 million km from Earth (this distance is known as 1 astronomical unit (AU)) Formed 4.5 billion years ago Formed from a …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 4

This week's main topic was light. James Maxwell James Maxwell was a Scottish scientist who lived from 1831 to 1879. He is well known for the research he did on electromagnetism and light, building on the work of Michael Faraday. He produced a set of equations that explain the properties of magnetic and electric fields …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 3

The main theme of this week's session was the outer part of our solar system. This includes: Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Asteroids Comets Oort Cloud Kuiper Belt Oort Cloud This has never been directly observed but it is believed to exist and it is an area of space on the edge of our solar …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 2

The main topics this week were the solar system, gravity and the tidal effect. I have previously written on my blog about the solar system so for this entry I will just write about gravity and the tidal effect. The two main theories of gravity come from Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, both are used …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 1 Introduction

Thursday 13th October was the first week of my new astronomy course at Sydney Observatory. Like the first course I attended earlier this year it is presented by Dr Paul Payne. This course aims to expand on the first and build on some of the main concepts of astronomy, including the solar system, gravity, the …

Exploring the Heavens – Final Week

For the final class the topic was Telescopes. We covered the history of telescopes and the different types. We were meant to go outside and use some telescopes, but due to the heavy Sydney rain this was not possible tonight. The advantage being we got to stay inside out of the cold and were able …

Exploring the Heavens – Week 4

The main focus for this week was 'The Characteristics of Stars'. For this lass I was back to my usual Tuesday class time, and I had been looking forward to this session for quite some time. The session started outside at the observatory waiting for the ISS to fly across the Sydney sky at 30,000 …

Exploring the Heavens – Week 3

The topic for this week was 'The Characteristics of the Solar System'. The main items covered were the formation of the solar system, the planets and other celestial bodies such as comets and asteroids. Due to being ill this week I attended the Thursday class instead of my usual Tuesday class, but the format was …