Good Astronomy Documentaries?

[Watch]

Hello again all,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend any good astronomy documentaries? The more the better! Any targeted/helpful for beginners in astronomy would be even better.

Thanks

[Pete Presland]

i do like cosmos by Carl Sagan, universe (history channel), the planets (BBC), wonders of the solar system/inverse (BBC) and obviously the sky at night

[swag72]

Somoeone mentioned on a thread a while ago that there is lots of stuff on itunes, documentaries and the like.

[jflowers]

the entire cosmos series is on youtube, very good series.

Start here with

seems a bit dated but still very good

[Darkstar_1]

Cosmos may seem dated, but Carl Sagan was imho the most imaginative and forward looking cosmologist ever to grace the science. Also an excellent author, he started my interest in astronomy when i was young.

[jflowers]

Cosmos may seem dated, but Carl Sagan was imho the most imaginative and forward looking cosmologist ever to grace the science. Also an excellent author, he started my interest in astronomy when i was young.

Completely agree about Carl Sagen, I only meant the filming and effects are dated, it still is very good (found the 'space ship of the imagination' a bit cringey )

[meridian man]

Brian cox, wonders of the solar system and wonders of the universe.

[Spec-Chum]

The universe on history channel is good, if a little dumbed down for a greater audience. I bought it on bluray for 40 quid. Not bad for nearly 2700 minutes.

I too recommend cosmos by sagan.

There's also hawking's universe, which is a 6 parter and very good.

[JamesM]

Wonders of the UNiverse (Brian Cox) is on iPlayer at the moment.

James

[Naemeth]

The Planets, Wonders of the (Universe / Solar System). Wonders of the Solar System is on now, not Universe James .

I found the Planets was the one that originally got me hooked on Astronomy, I remember my dad recording, and me just sitting down one day to one of them, "Giants" I believe it was, all about Jupiter/Saturn/Uranus/Neptune. Ever since, I was hooked. It's great and very informative, even though it's pre-Cassini, 1999.

[dr_robot]

The planets was very good, there was a mockumentary by the BBC shorty after that called unimaginatively space odyssey , which quite

good

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Odyssey_(TV_series)

As far a I can gather only available via those nasty pirates

[Nova]

I've really started enjoying the astronomy content on itunes. All free so far. I'm currently working through astronomy 161 which is a series of 40 odd lectures by Richard Pogge of Ohio state university and covers an introduction to the solar system. By and large very informative but some goes a little over my head. Ill next be moving onto astronomy 162 which moves onto the universe. If you go to the website I think you can still get the course notes. There are also various OU courses on there obviously you get no official qualification but might be fun to have a go at sometime

[onesmallstep]

Hi

+1 for Carl Sagan's Cosmos. I saw the original when I was in my teens and have recently bought the 30-year DVD boxset. The Works outlets sell several space and astronomy boxsets including The Universe, Through The Wormhole and Earth sciences based docs.

I also post the TV listings threads in the Heads Up section so you may be able to find some of the above on there.

HTH!

[mallorcasaint]

Try this site for documentatries. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

[todd8137]

Just select videos from google and type in what ya want Carl sagans ones are great there's 100s of free videos out there

[gigi]

Journey to the edge of the Universe. From 2008. Very cool special effects and covers pretty much every space object. Very good for beginners.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

These are very good

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Universe-Ultimate-Collectors-Box/dp/B003P9WIC6

The series are sold separately too, i have 1,2 and 4. Like all science related stuff, some of it is out of date now, but it is still a very good watch. Graces my dvd player most nights and ive seen them loads them!

[t1bbbst3r]

Made my own,

, its about the dark matter theory & revolves around an old 90's tv programme I updated..... I find myself mostly reading/ researching into astronomy these days when it suits me but do remember the tv programmes persuading me to get a telescope/ getting me into this subject to begin with!

[t1bbbst3r]

Oh, had this 1 bookmarked from when google still had video archives but its on youtube now with some Spanish subtitles.... You could may well just like!

[nederman63]

The Eden channel shows a few decent docs.

[Rockrae78]

One of my favourite ones is a BBC doc called Voyager - To The Final Frontier. It was recently replayed on the BBCHD channel.

It focusses on a different subject matter from those suggested above, but it does chart the 'journey' of the Voyager probes, from their inception in the 50', to their launch in '77, right up to what they are doing right now.

I have seen it a couple of times now, and I'm still gobsmacked by the achievements of the Voyager mission, and whilst it isn't about space per se, it does document what I think is one of the most defining moments in space exploration.

[sparkyjon]

there's loads on youtube , even a few episodes of the sky at night..

but if you've got netflix on any device , the bbc's planets is on there..8 episodes ., nice to start off in your own back yard.,

[Matt Scunthorpe]

The voyager program was one of my favorites as well.

[MorningMajor]

The Sidewalk Astronomer featuring John Dobson (of Dobsonian fame!) is great - there are lots of clips on you tube but the full length version is available somewhere, just can't find it at the moment

[KingAndromeda]

Discover normally have some good ones. I tend to watch through the wormhole w/ morgan freeman, wonders of the universe and wonders of solar system. Oh and steven hawking universe...

There all really good

Alex...