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.