Gettìng facts

[alecras2345]

Hi my name's Ash and I'm from Wales.   I'm reading a book called Teach yourself Astronomy by Patrick Moore.    It has chapters on introducing Astronomy, early Astronomy, the sun the inner planets and I'm trying to memorize a few facts.   I feel I'm not learning much, I think it's a little basic.   I want to gain knowledge on astronomy but some parts are too basic.  

 

[happy-kat]

There are some great free courses on Future Learn these are online. The Moon and Orion are both very good I enjoyed them.

Just realised it is your first post, welcome.

[furrysocks2]

Hi, you could take a look at this one:

 

[domstar]

Can I just add my vote to what @furrysocks2 said above. It's a big book but it's informative, up to date, well written and not too technical. It's for university students who are taking an astronomy course out of their normal faculty. I read it with interest but forgot so much that now I'm nearing the end of my second reading.

And welcome to the forum too.

[laowhoo]

Wattya like about astronomy, Ash? What's your take, and wattya wanna see? I came to it accidentally, havin bought some binos to go prospecting in the desert and then turned them up (wh/ was also a lot more profitable). But my "interest" had always been there academically from an astrophysics POV. Then I had my mind blown by Hamlet's Mill, and how the ancients/"primitives" knew the Great Year that Plato et al. referenced, adding archaeoastronomy to my interest. Recently, and w/ the growing trend of challenges to the standard model's big bang, Arp's "peculiar galaxies" have me looking with a different eye again. Some are list-tickers, others spend all their time splitting doubles. Chances are there's a book for you, and MIT open course offers over 8,000 courses online (video lecture) free. Lotsa major universities do (I like Leonard Susskind's evening courses to the general public, and he did best Hawking in their 20-year debate--and these free public courses are not dumbed down). So tell us more.

[Nyctimene]

"The Cosmic Perspective" (by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider and Volt) is equally comprehensive (extremely - 816 pages) and basic in it's way to present complicated facts in a very clear and understandable manner. It's pointed at students of two-semester courses in astronomy and includes additional online material. Not cheap (150$ new), but you can buy used or get the 7th edition at reduced prices. This book would accompany you for years of your way into astronomy - for the price of a medium-class eyepiece. Have a look:

https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Bennett-Cosmic-Perspective-Plus-Mastering-Astronomy-with-Pearson-e-Text-Access-Card-Package-The-8th-Edition/PGM19644.html

Stephan

[Luna-tic]

On ‎1‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 07:36, alecras2345 said:

  I want to gain knowledge on astronomy but some parts are too basic.  

If you don't have those basics, none of the rest will make much sense.

Knowing the Moon, planets and stars, constellations, clusters and galaxies can be learned by rote memorization, but that gets boring when they're not put into perspective with each other.  Go outside at night and look UP, take a pair of binoculars with you. Find objects that pique your interest, make lists. Learn what they are, where they are and how they came to be. (Crab Nebula, M1, NGC1952, Taurus A [same thing]; ~6500 light years away, remnant of a supernova that was visible in daylight in 1054. First astronomical object associated with a supernova explosion). Things like that. One question gets answered, three more questions result from the answer. Astronomy is something that can't be learned in a few years, there's just too much to it. Even professional astronomers focus on one area of the science. As you pick up on some aspect of the science, other things begin to fit in and it all makes better sense, and the learning begins to cascade.

If you don't have it, download Stellarium. It's free and will open the sky like you've never seen it.