Astronomy Education at the CAS

The Croydon Astronomical Society promotes the education of its members through, formal lectures (see our lecture programme), Informal Lectures at our Observatory (see our Observatory Page) and via group visits to the observatory. Our Observatory is open to the public on Saturday evenings from Autumn to Spring. More details are here.

For those who wish to extend their knowledge through more formal and structured courses. This page provides information and links where available to the courses that are available either in our local area or nationally. Where possible we have provided links rather than hard information, as they are less likely to go out of date.

Public Visits to our Observatory at Kenley

Our Observatory is open to the Public on Saturday Evenings from September to May. The Observatory is open from 20:30 to about 23:00 (Clock Time), weather permitting. Please phone the Observatory on 020 8668 9642 to check if it will be open.

For details of the observatory location, please email us at our enquiry address for a map. The EMAIL address is on our contacts page.

Visitors are requested to park in the main road as shining car headlights at the observatory will ruin any images being taken and make you rather unpopular! Also parking hot cars near the observatory ruins the seeing from the telescopes !

Site Etiquette & Safety

The path to the observatory and the surrounding area are not paved, it is strongly recommended that visitors should wear stout waterproof shoes or boots with substantial treads to avoid wet feet or injury.

As you would expect the area around the observatory is not lit so you may find a small torch useful, however please do not shine it towards the buildings or any people outside who may be observing.

Group Visits to Our Observatory at Kenley

Our observatory is open to the Public on Saturday Evenings from 20:30 or Dusk which ever is the later to 22:00.  We have visits from many groups during the year ranging from Astronomy Evening Courses, 6th form colleges to scouts & cubs. We can normally accommodate groups of up to about 20 people. Due to the restricted room if you want to bring a large group please EMAIL our visit co-ordinator Paul Harper (see our contacts page) or telephone him on 020 8251 9455 (Evenings & Weekends).  He will be please to arrange a visit on any convenient Sunday to Thursday evening.

We do not normally accept group visits on Friday, as this is members evening or Saturday as this is the public evening.

Site Etiquette & Safety

  The path to the observatory and the surrounding area are not paved, it is strongly recommended that visitors should wear stout waterproof shoes or boots with substantial treads to avoid wet feet or injury.

As you would expect the area around the observatory is not lit so you may find a small torch useful, however please do not shine it towards the buildings or any people outside who may be observing.

When you arrive you may find the area quite dark but it takes the human eye up to 20 minutes to adapt to low levels of light. We therefore recommend that you stay in the dark by your car for 10 minutes to allow time for your eyes to adapt to the light levels. You will then find that you will be able to see far more and normally there is sufficient light from either the moon or the general London light pollution to allow you to walk about safely.
 

External Education Resources

Local Education Authority Evening Classes

Many local education authorities run evening or part time day classes in astronomy. Have a look at the Floodlight web site using the key word ‘Astronomy’ for details of where courses are held in London. Unfortunately the links to the institutions that run them are not very good but it gives you an idea.

 

Distance Learning Courses

Some Universities run distance-learning courses usually leading to a 'University Certificate’, which may include either the award of CAT's points or Certificates of Academic Development. In the case of the Open University the Astronomy Module maybe taken as part of a degree course or as an independent module. This area is developing rapidly with several new courses being advertised. These courses are mostly based on a postal system supplemented by weekends and/or Internet access to a dedicated site.

These courses require some knowledge of Mathematics; lack of skills in this area is a major reason for people not completing the course. In general you will need to be able to use Logarithms and some basic Trigonometry. If you are unsure of your ability in this area or are slightly rusty you should discuss this with the tutor before signing up.
  
 

University			Summary
Open University			Four Modules are available – two level two & two level 3 they can be taken either as stand alone courses or as part of a degree course. S282 Astronomy S283 Planetary Science and the Search for Life S357 on Space, Time & Cosmology  S381 The Energetic Universe
Open University – Short Courses   Also a page here			S194 Introducing Astronomy S196 How the Universe Works S197 Planets, an Introduction SXR208 Observing The Universe   (Includes 1 week observing on Majorca)
The three universities at the right offer a range of courses in Astronomy at levels 1,2 & 3.	University of Central Lancashire			Both level One , Level Two and level Three courses
	Liverpool John Moores University			Several Astronomy Courses at Level One
	University of Manchester			Both level One and Level Two courses
Certificate of Higher Education in Astronomy by Evening Study University College London. One evening per week for two years plus observing at UCL Observatory at Mill Hill.
Certificate in Planetary Geology – Birkbeck, University of London (Evening Study)
Swinburne University (Australia)		Offer a 4 module - Graduate Certificate in Astronomy by Distance Learning, Communication is by a mixture of the Internet & Post.
James Cook University (Australia)		The Graduate Certificate of Astronomy (via the Internet). The Graduate Diploma of Astronomy (via the Internet). The Master of Astronomy (via the Internet). The Doctor of Astronomy: A specialist Doctor of Astronomy that can be obtained through a combination of course-work and research. The PhD (via the Internet): High level research training that can be obtained over the Internet by extension of the Doctor of Astronomy. This program is only available to students who have shown exceptional ability in the Doctor of Astronomy program.
Knightsbridge University (Denmark)		Degree & Phd courses in Astronomy

 

Organization	Summary
Planet Earth Centre for Environmental Astronomy,  Backup Road,  Todmorden,  Lancashire,  OL14 7HW  Tel 01706 816964	Offer Correspondence Courses in  GCSE Astronomy Nature of the Stars Advanced Astronomy GCSE Environmental Studies

Astronomy Day, Weekend & Week Courses

  A number of organizations offer short courses ranging from a practical observing to theoretical lectures. These cover a wide range of subjects including Astronomy, Cosmology & Physics.
  

Organization	Summary
Society for Popular Astronomy	Quarterly Lectures & Annual Observing Weekend
British Astronomical Association	Monthly Lectures
Royal Astronomical Society	Monthly Lectures Open to visitors but they are thinking of charging a fee for non-members – have a look at the web site. As the professional association for Astronomers the lectures can be very technical!
Oxford University,  Department of Continuing Education	Day, Weekend & One Week Theory Courses on a variety of Astronomy related subjects.
Cambridge University, Board of Continuing Education, Public Programmes Division	Courses on a variety of Astronomy related Subjects
Gresham College	Lunchtime lectures on Astronomy, Cosmology & Mathematic

Astronomy Broadcasts

Television

Sky at Night broadcast by the BBC once a month , various versions are broadcast on BBC1, BBC2 & BBC4 (digital) - the BBC4 version is often longer than the others !

Some other programmes also have an Astronomical or Cosmological content, keep an eye on Horizon on BBC 2 & Equinox on channel 4. There are a good series of programmes made by the Open University as part of their Astronomy Course; these are occasionally broadcast overnight as part of the Learning Zone on the BBC.

Radio: World Service

On the radio, the only programme dedicated to Astronomy is Seeing Stars on the World Service. The broadcast times quoted on the Web site are in GMT but that should cause no problems to astronomers! If it does see our Astronomical Time page. The main problem with reception is that only the 12:30 GMT Wednesday broadcast is on 648 kHz on the medium wave. The other European broadcast is only transmitted on the Short Wave band. The World Service is also available on 'Freeview Digital' but you need to check which feed is being broadcast on this

Radio: Radio 4

Wednesday 2100-2130
Frontiers. focusing on documentaries and leading edge debate Presented by Peter Evans.

Thursday: 2100-2130
Cutting edge for the latest developments in science. .

Thursday :1630 -1700.
The Material World   is devoted to science and the environment and will be presented by Trevor Phillips
 

Help with the Homework!

If you take up one of the courses above or just follow a course of self-study every now and again you will get stuck for the answer or a vital constant - or do you just want to check you answer before you send your work in? These links may help you to find that vital answer. A good starting point is Astronomy Homework Help  which has links to many useful pages.

Learning Day by Day One good place to look at for an introduction to Astronomy is to look at the Astronomy Picture of the Day this site contains a picture together with a short description that it is changed each day. The description has extensive links to help you understand it if it contains terms or concepts that you are not familiar with.

There are lots of other sites on the Web that give a good introduction some places to start are:
Investigate the Hubble deep field at  Hubble Academy , Study Cosmology at  Cosmos in a Computer !     Nine Planets  a virtual tour of the Solar System,  Astronomy Unbound a Virtual Textbook includes an Astronomy Dictionary and if you get stuck Ask The Astronomer  has a lot of answers.

Astronomy Links Lots of the links from the CAS Astronomy on the Web Page also have an educational content or enable you to download software.