S194 - EMA

I finally submitted my EMA on 14th January. I have to say that parts of it were quite challenging and needed some good thinking and research. But it was generally very enjoyable. In fact, having read through the S194 forum I can see that a number of people have found it interesting and challenging - sometimes very challenging - and a number are going for the April submission.

So, now this course is finished and, more or less, out of the way, what did I actually think of it? Well, it's the first OU Short Course that I have done, and wasn't really part of my degree plans, but I have to say that I thought it really great - and as you may know, I am going to do some more short courses later. Apart from the forums, you are pretty much on your own. So you just read, understand, try things out, research a bit (books and web). Think some more, write some notes, write more notes, change your mind, change it again. And gradually it all falls into place. It was a great introduction into a topic(s) that was fairly new to me. The problem now is that I feel that I want to pursue this astronomy lark even further - but I must stay focussed on the current degree plan!

S197 - How The Universe Works

Well, that's done it, I have signed up for S197 starting in early February. I'm just putting the finishing touches to my EMA for S194 (ie; checking that the answers I have given are the right ones for the questions being asked! That the word counts are with 10% of the requested number, that kind of stuff). I plan to submit that this coming weekend.

I have already started reading the first block of M362 - which looks to be quite enjoyable. Oh, and work has suddenly become much busier. So time management is going to be essential.

Contracting

My last post on this blog was dated 12th November - the day before the S194 officially started. The course has two finishing dates - Jan 31st if you study 10 hours per week, or Apr 23rd if you do far fewer hours per week. Either way, it is the same course, same material, but the ECA obviously has to have different questions. I decided to to the 12 week version and finish on 31st January. But, I pushed myself because I wanted to work at the 60point rate to get myself back into the habit of serious study. As it happens I finished the last question of the ECA this evening (3rd January) so I have actually finished 4 weeks early (which on a 12 week course is quite good).
I should stress that I have not skimped on anything and have read through all the course texts thoroughly, carried out all the practical work, researched outside the course and so on. In fact I have had a bloody good time - I realy realy enjoyed this course. I have gone far deeper that any of the popular astronomy books. To give you a flavour, however brief, here is an outline of what the course covered:

• The Sun: Observation, composition, measuring. Visible wavelengths, invisible wavelengths, morphology.
• The planets: Orbits, centripetal motion, moons, phases, eclipses, terrestrial planets, gaseous planets, icy bodies, planetary formation.
• The stars: Astronomical coordinates, planispheres, distances, constellations in two-dimensions, constellations in three-dimensions, temperature and wavelength, composition and wavelength.
• Lifecycle of stars: Intersetllar medium, star-forming regions, protostars, open clusters, globular clusters, reg-giants and white dwarfs, supernovae, pulsars, black holes, cosmic recycling.
• Life beyond earth: Chemical elements and compounds, potential habits, extra-solar habitats, planetary spectra.
• Galaxies: The Milky Way, Other galaxies, classification of galaxies, doppler effect and moving galaxies, peculiar galaxies, clusters - the local group, super clusters.
• The Universe: Expanding, Distance Redshift rRecession speed, General Relativity, the Early Universe,  Hubble constant, Dark Matter, Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Dark Energy.

Well, thats the course just about done and dusted. I shan't be submitting the ECA until the due date just in case I get some flash of inspiration that means I need to make changes.

I also feel inspired to sign up for S197 'How the Universe Works' that starts in February. If I do then I will be studying that alongside M362 which I have already signed up for, so I will probably decide to do the long version so that I can commit the time to M362.

Expanding

My knowledge of Astronomy is already expanding! The S194 officially started 5 days ago, but as the course book arrived three weeks ago I started reading then. So, according to the study calendar, I am now at the point where I ought to be on 4th December. That's good. This is the first of the OU short courses that I have done - and it differs from the other L1, L2, and L3 courses in two ways - firstly it is all studied online (and books of course), there is no assigned tutor, there are no face to face tutorials, secondly, the course has two different completion dates - this means that you can study it over 2 months (if you can spare 8 hours a week) or over 5 months (if you can only manage a couple of hours). Well, since the whole point of me doing this course is to get back into the swing of studying and ensuring that I can manage my time I have elected to do it in two months.

The EMA (what we used to call the ECA - but courses are now called Modules) has been made available, so I have already completed the first of the 6 questions (first question was mainly about the sun and absorbtion spectrums). Tonight I shall probably make a start on the second question - which looks to be about the apparent movement of stars across the sky and with angular seperation.

I have also found a couple of interesting astronomy podcasts:

astronomy.ohio-state
astronomycast

Harvest Moon

Last night, just after midnight, I was out in our back-garden trying to get our family pet rabbit in. The rabbit has the whole garden to munch in during the day - but yesterday evening our dog, Mike, got in the back garden and chased the rabbit - who immediately took flight and hid behind the shed.

So there I was, wandering around tha garden and bathed in beautiful moonlight. Looking up, I could see that the moon appeared to be full, and that there were a few back-lit clouds streaming across the sky. It was a stunning sight. The fields and trees around my house had that mysterious gloaming half-light - there and not there. I love that. You can see why, before the advent of effective lighting, the full moon was an opportunity to travel safely. ("The Lunar Men" by Jenny Uglow is a fascinated read, by the way).

This morning, quite by chance, I read an article about the 'Harvest Moon' on the BBC website. The only thing that I knew about a Harvest Moon was that it was the title of an LP by Neil Young. A Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the Autumn Equinox (September 24th) and was used by farmers to extend the day when harvesting. And this year the Harvest Moon and the Equinox coincide. The article also says that the next time that they will coincide will be 2029. So not quite once-in-a-life-time, but clearly not-very-frequent.

[Incidently, since you ask, I did manage to get the rabbit safely into her hutch for the night. White rabbits, apart from being famous for disappearing down holes, are quite easy to see under a full moon!]

Restless Universe

OK - It's a bad title - it should really say 'Restless Me', but that doesn't sound half as interesting. But then everything is restless if we get down to the dimension of atoms - everything is just a jiggling mess with no apparent structure.

Anyway, back at the human dimension, I am restless. I've registered, I have my desk organised, I have almost planned my time. But the course (sorry, 'Module' - new Open University terminology - must get used to that) doesn't start for another TWO MONTHS. And that's why I'm restless.

To fill the late evening void I still have my habit of reading - although I'm now directing that in the direction of science and future studies. I picked up Stephen Hawking's new book yesterday ("The Grand Design") and am enjoying that. It sits on my shelf next to his other famous book 'A Brief History Of Time' - which I had trouble getting hold of when it was first published. Being an avid Radio Four listener for years, I used to listen to the Sceince programmes whenever I could and make notes (sad, isn't it). On one broadcast they reviewed a new book 'A Brief History...'. I hadn't heard of the book (nor had anyone else apparently) but I was familiar with the work of its author, Hawking, having read articles about him and his research in the Omni Magazine that I used to read in the late 1970's. So the following day I went to my local bookshop and asked for a copy. They hadn't heard of it either, but they did order a copy from the publisher for me. And I read it. I won't claim to have understood it all - and there were some pretty wild concepts to get the head around, but I did find it fascinating. The book later found itself in the Times Bestseller list for quite some time, so I dare say that there must have many other people who also found it fascinating. But it's still there on my shelf a first print run from the first edition. I'm not sure, but I'll guess that the publishers did not expect it to sell a huge amount and probably that first print run was not that big.

Tonight I'll read a bit more. I already know that Philosophy is dead - Stephen Hawking told me that yesterday in his book. It's been replaced by science.

S194 - Astronomy Newbie

I recently signed up for S194 "Introducing Astronomy" with the Open University. I had a two year break from my degree studies and am using S194 as a gentle way back. Although I count my self a 'newbie' when it comes to astronomy, it's been something that fascinated me since I was a kid - I can even name a few constellations, list the order of the planets and so on. Not really astronomy but just reeling off lists of half-remembered facts. So I am looking forwards to a more serious approach to the subject, to a better understanding of the universe.

And on the journey I'm hoping to prove Frank Zappa wrong - unless I really screw up in which case I'll prove him to be right.

If anyone is interested, I do have a blog of my general Open University studies - a blog that I have kept for 4 years or so.