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Astronomy with an online telescope

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Astronomy with an online telescope provided by OpenLearn is a comprehensive online course, which lasts for 24 hours worth of material. Upon completion of the course, you can receive an e-certificate from OpenLearn. The course is taught in Englishand is Free Certificate. Visit the course page at OpenLearn for detailed price information.

The Open University via OpenLearn
24 hours worth of material
Self Paced
Overview

  • This free course shows you how to navigate the night sky, and introduces the wide variety of objects it contains. You will develop a hands-on understanding of telescopic observations using the ...

Syllabus

    • Introduction and guidance
    • Introduction and guidance
    • Telescope upgrade 2021
    • What is a badged course?
    • How to get a badge
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week1Week 1: The night sky
    • Introduction
    • 1 Finding your way around the sky using Stellarium software
    • 1.1 Installing Stellarium and getting started
    • 1.2 Setting your location
    • 1.3 Controlling how Stellarium displays the sky
    • 2 The apparent motion of objects in the night sky
    • 2.1 Our changing view of the sky
    • 2.2 First observations from Tenerife – the All-Sky camera
    • 2.3 Using Stellarium to understand the apparent motion of the sky
    • 2.4 Understanding how the sky changes with the seasons
    • 3 Mapping the night sky
    • 3.1 Two coordinate systems
    • 3.2 The Altitude-Azimuth system
    • 3.3 Equatorial celestial coordinates – right ascension and declination
    • 3.4 Using equatorial coordinates to locate objects
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary of Week 1
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week2Week 2: Telescopes and visual observing
    • Introduction
    • 1 Observing with the naked eye
    • 1.1 Understanding dark adaptation
    • 1.2 Testing your own dark adaptation
    • 1.3 Observing the night sky with dark-adapted eyes
    • 2 Observing with optical instruments
    • 2.1 Binoculars
    • 2.2 Telescopes
    • 3 Observing from the Earth
    • 4 The COAST facility
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary of Week 2
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week3Week 3: Stellar magnitudes
    • Introduction
    • 1 Brightness of the stars
    • 1.1 The magnitude scale
    • 1.2 Exploring the magnitude scale
    • 1.3 Estimating magnitudes by comparing stars
    • 2 Magnitude limits
    • 2.1 Magnitude limits and choice of observing site
    • 2.2 Estimating magnitudes from an image
    • 3 Your limits
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary of Week 3
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week4Week 4: Imaging Messier objects with COAST
    • Introduction
    • 1 Messier objects
    • 1.1 The Messier catalogue
    • 1.2 The different types of Messier objects
    • 1.3 Messier objects in Stellarium
    • 2 Requesting your first image
    • 2.1 Planning your observations
    • 2.2 Register with COAST
    • 2.3 Requesting an image from COAST
    • 3 Collecting your first image
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary of Week 4
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week5Week 5: The Sun and the stars
    • Introduction
    • 1 Continue observing with COAST
    • 2 The Sun as an ordinary star
    • 2.1 The Sun – some facts and figures
    • 2.2 The energy output of the Sun
    • 2.3 The mass, composition and structure of the Sun
    • 2.4 The age of the Sun
    • 2.5 Summary – properties of the Sun
    • 3 What powers the Sun and stars?
    • 3.1 The most famous equation in the world
    • 3.2 Nuclear fusion – the source of the Sun’s energy
    • 3.3 Estimating the Sun’s lifetime
    • 3.4 Midweek summary
    • 4 Comparing the Sun with other stars
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary of Week 5
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week6Week 6: Classifying the stars
    • Introduction
    • 1 Refine and edit your COAST images
    • 2 Classifying stars – the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
    • 2.1 The differing colours of stars
    • 2.2 Building the HR diagram
    • 2.3 Understanding the main sequence
    • 3 The masses of stars
    • 3.1 Measuring the masses of stars
    • 3.2 How the mass of a star affects its luminosity
    • 4 The lifecycles of stars
    • 4.1 The main sequence
    • 4.2 Stellar lifetime as a function of mass
    • 4.3 After the main sequence
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary of Week 6
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week7Week 7: Variable stars
    • Introduction
    • 1 Stellar evolution after the main sequence
    • 1.1 Helium as a nuclear fuel
    • 1.2 Expansion and the red giant branch
    • 1.3 Tracks on the HR diagram
    • 1.4 The instability strip
    • 2 Variable stars
    • 2.1 Pulsating variables and their light curves
    • 2.2 Eclipsing variables
    • 2.3 Supernovae and cataclysmic variables
    • 3 Collaboration in observing
    • 4 Plan your own variable star observations using COAST
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary of Week 7
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week8Week 8: Building a light curve
    • Introduction
    • 1 Retrieving your images
    • 1.1 File formats
    • 1.2 Save images in FITS format
    • 2 Measuring the brightness of your variable star
    • 2.1 Aperture photometry
    • 2.2 Reference stars
    • 2.3 Using finder charts to identify target and reference stars
    • 2.4 Aperture photometry
    • 3 Building the light curve
    • 3.1 View your results on the light curve
    • 3.2 Interpreting the light curve
    • 3.3 Request further images
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary of Week 8
    • 6 Concluding thoughts
    • Tell us what you think
    • Acknowledgements

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