Thank you for your application for CERT/ Astronomy Cert/UCLAN Preston

[JamesF]

I'm not really sure. It may be easier to follow later parts of the course if people understand and can work with information such as the position of objects and distances, and can relatively easily convert between the different units, but that involves a certain amount of maths that many people have probably forgotten or perhaps were never even taught. I still use a certain amount of maths in my working life and outside it and if I want to understand something it's not uncommon for me to get a pen and paper and work things through from first principles, but that's hardly "normal" I can quite understand people getting fazed by that side of things. Needing to get your head around mathematical concepts that you might have last seen twenty or thirty years ago is never going to be as easy as getting back on a bicycle

James

[cac2008]

I've been talking to Barbara (course leader) regarding starting the course on the next intake.

I did 1 year of an Astrophys degree at UCL (but had to withdraw as I didn't get any funding and couldn't pay tuition!) so I can hopefully get some transferrable credit to some of the first level ones.

They will let you do a maximum of 4 modules simultaneously, but even then only after making sure you can handle the load, so the soonest anyone can do the full BSc (given that not all modules run every year) is in 6 years.

I am doing it for the knowledge, but just out of interest I wonder how it is considered by the great and the good in the Astronomy world... I wonder if it would be accepted as a prerequisite to an MSc for example. I suppose I'll have to find out when the time comes!

[thegreendruid]

I've been talking to Barbara (course leader) regarding starting the course on the next intake.

I did 1 year of an Astrophys degree at UCL (but had to withdraw as I didn't get any funding and couldn't pay tuition!) so I can hopefully get some transferrable credit to some of the first level ones.

They will let you do a maximum of 4 modules simultaneously, but even then only after making sure you can handle the load, so the soonest anyone can do the full BSc (given that not all modules run every year) is in 6 years.

I am doing it for the knowledge, but just out of interest I wonder how it is considered by the great and the good in the Astronomy world... I wonder if it would be accepted as a prerequisite to an MSc for example. I suppose I'll have to find out when the time comes!

I too would be interested in finding this out. I guess another chat with Barbara would reveal the answer to this

[JamesF]

The single-module cert in astronomy course so far is ok, though I'm really quite concerned about what has been a clearly fairly hideous mess with enrolment this year. There are still people posting saying "just got joined up after problems with registration", ten days after the course was supposed to start. That absolutely doesn't reflect on the standard of the course at all, but I can't help wondering what administrative mess is going to occur next Before I do any further modules with them I'd want to be reassured that they understand that they've made a pigs ear of things this year and are going to make sure it doesn't happen again.

James

[crashtestdummy]

im going to be starting this course in october hopefully and im in two mind if i should do just the introduction to astronomy course or also do the it for astronomy course too as doing 20 credits a year will make it take way too long.40 credits a year would make it 6 years and tbh i dont want to spend more time than that.how are people finding the intro to astronomy course?i

[crashtestdummy]

also,has anyone any idea if i can get any financial support towards it even though im working as im not 100% sure on the criteria

[thegreendruid]

im going to be starting this course in october hopefully and im in two mind if i should do just the introduction to astronomy course or also do the it for astronomy course too as doing 20 credits a year will make it take way too long.40 credits a year would make it 6 years and tbh i dont want to spend more time than that.how are people finding the intro to astronomy course?i

I'm doing introduction to Astronomy and introduction to Cosmology this year. I can say it's certainly a challenge doing 2 modules at once, but I guess it's due to being out of practice. The vast majority of your time is spent reading, so if you can just do half an hour to an hour at night, that will go a long way towards helping you tackle the assignments throughout the year.

The course is fantastic and has become the focus of my (non-working) time - thoroughly enjoyable!

[crashtestdummy]

I have the time its just the equations that im worried about.i did get a C in my gcse maths but maths has always been my weaker point

[thegreendruid]

I have the time its just the equations that im worried about.i did get a C in my gcse maths but maths has always been my weaker point

If you get the same same tutor next year as this year (Mark Rushton) you shouldn't have a problem with the maths in introduction to Astronomy. He has helped a lot of people on this year's course to understand the maths elements etc.

Check out the maths pack they provide. This should get you up to speed with the required maths: http://www.studyastronomy.com/uploads/files/mathspack.pdf

Introduction to Cosmology is perhaps a little tougher on the maths side due to concepts such as geometries that you can't really visualise in your head. It's all good fun though!

[NGC1966]

The maths is my weaker point too......... if you can put numbers into an equation and get an answer then you're nearly there!

I find the difficult part is interpreting the question........

[crashtestdummy]

Its the letters in the equations rather than the numbers.i may have a few lessons with a maths tutor to get back into it but i have 9 months to get better at it