The Great Courses

As I mentioned on the main page The Great Courses offers several classes, hosted online at their site and at Kanopy, and the Cincinnati Public Library also carries many of their classes on DVD. Here are my detailed thoughts.

The Remarkable Science of Ancient Astronomy by

The official course description is below. Most of the Observatory programs include the opportunity to look their one of their vintage telescopes, which is pretty cool, but they also offer this on "Astronomy Thursdays, Fridays, And Saturdays" for a small (like $5-7) fee. That alone is pretty cool, and they offer Sunday tours of the Observatory as well. I've not taken that tour, but my sense is this is a very little bit more extensive, including checking out the vintage high precision clocks in the basement. Knowing what I know now, I'd probably just do the Sunday tour and pick a clear Friday to drop in and view through the telescopes. Click here to register.

In a world without artificial lights, the night sky was ablaze with over a thousand stars, whose patterns illustrated stories people had heard since childhood. Thus, ancient people viewed the sky differently than we do. Skywatching was crucial to daily life, since the motions of the heavens served as timekeeper, calendar, compass, and almanac for planning when to plant and harvest. The perfect regularity of celestial cycles was the only guaranteed aspect of life and inspired a wide range of religious and philosophical views, as different cultures struggled to grasp the unseen forces that govern the cosmos.