I would like to learn about space

Reznik

I think space is fascinating. I would like to learn about black holes and supernovas and blue stars and how planets form and all kinds of cool stuff that sci-fi shows completely misrepresent because they don't have time for proper science.

What are some good books or websites or videos? So far all I've been doing is browsing wikipedia but I would like some more (better written) detail.

Jacobkosh

Here's the perfect place to start:

http://www.hulu.com/cosmos

"In 1980, the landmark series Cosmos premiered on public television. Since then, it is estimated that more than a billion people around the planet have seen it. Cosmos chronicles the evolution of the planet and efforts to find our place in the universe. Each of the 13 episodes focuses on a specific aspect of the nature of life, consciousness, the universe and time. Topics include the origin of life on Earth (and perhaps elsewhere), the nature of consciousness, and the birth and death of stars. When it first aired, the series catapulted creator and host Carl Sagan to the status of pop culture icon and opened countless minds to the power of science and the possibility of life on other worlds."

Reznik

Unfortunately, I am in Canada and hulu hates us all.

Would I be able to find Cosmos at a Blockbuster or the library?

Jacobkosh

Reznik wrote: »

Unfortunately, I am in Canada and hulu hates us all.

Would I be able to find Cosmos at a Blockbuster or the library?

I don't know about Blockbuster, but I would be massively surprised if your library didn't have it or couldn't order it.

mooshoepork

Not sure if it's allowed? but uh you can still watch hulu when not in America.

Download hotspot shield.

FightTest

Not sure if the book was based on the series or vice versa (probably series on book), but the book Cosmos is pretty great. Never saw the series. Library should definitely have the book.

DarthJer

The series "The Universe" just released season 1 on blu-ray recently. Everything that I've seen of that was pretty interesting and correct, including some experts talking that were in videos we watched in my college astronomy class. I'd recommend that if they released it up there.

masc.box

A particularly good website is https://www.galaxyzoo.org/ I suggest you read the 'the story so far' link. It allows you to make your own small contibution towards astonomical research by classifying certain properties of galaxies whilst learning quite a bit. Papers have been written off the back of research from their first project.

Their forums are also particularly good for learning stuff (have a look at Hanny's Voorwerp in the 'odd objects'' section).

necroSYS

Stephen Hawking's books are great for the inquisitive (but not necessarily seasoned) mind.

Demerdar

Even wikipedia is a great tool for understanding certain aspects of space such as black holes and supernovas.

GrimReaper

Whilst plenty of the advice given so far is useful, I think by far. The most useful information can best be given by a small electronic book which goes by the name: Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.

HHGTTG wrote:

"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

I tried finding a video clip of the original tv version but I could only find the far inferior film version. (I do own the dvd's but no way am I ripping just a specific bit of it just for a forum post.

Solandra

DarthJer wrote: »

The series "The Universe" just released season 1 on blu-ray recently. Everything that I've seen of that was pretty interesting and correct, including some experts talking that were in videos we watched in my college astronomy class. I'd recommend that if they released it up there.

Seconded. Also, season 2 is pretty awesome, too.

saltiness

The Universe is good but it's annoyingly sensationalized in many parts. The narration tries to personify a lot of natural processes and tends to skew the facts in doing so at times.

Cosmos is a must see. Also, wikipedia is great. I've spent hours on there just following links in space related stuff.

SanderJK

When I get home from work, I'll get you the name of the textbook that was used in an entry level university course I followed, called "Astronomy for non-Astronomers." It was quite light on the math, and took a nice methodic approach to it. I was reading it outside of class too.

Of particular interest to me were:

• Measurement methods. It's very interesting the way astronomy deals with the limited information about given objects / phenomena we're given, and how much information they are able to gather.
• Star mechanics. It's very interesting how these things operate on just about only 1 variable, it's mass. The very different lives of different stars (And how useful that information is for all astronomy) was enlightening. Leads up to Black Holes, Neutron stars and Supernovae.
• Big Bang / Early Universe mechanics. Sometimes hard to grasp, and involves some yet unexplained phenomena (Like the expansion phase). Of course, pretty much part of Life, The Universe and Everything. The modelling work done attached to this is interesting too.
• Dark Matter / Dark Energy. This is where things get crazy. Yet the evidence seems very sound. Once again truth is stranger then fiction sometimes.
• Galaxy interactions. Active Galaxies and their insane energy outputs, What happens when galaxies collide, where do these spirals come from anyway... interesting stuff.
• Relativity. While not strictly astronomy, it's effects mostly become visible on galactic scales, with strange results.

Dr. Gero

Another thumbs up for Hawking's books. Some humor and cool pictures/diagrams thrown in there.

Fizban140

Hawkings books are good but I found Brian Greene's books far more entertaining. Try the Universe in a Nutshell and Elegant Universe (book or show).

Reznik

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll probably be hitting the library later this week, so keep 'em coming.

noir_blood

If you can afford the time and money, take an astrology class. I took for a science credit in community college and really enjoyed it. We got to do a bunch of star gazing which was also neat.

This is also where I read Immanuel Velikovsky's World's in Collision

Basically, Velikovsky looked at a lot of culture's story(Bible, Greek Mythology, etc), and came up with the theory that at some point way back in the past, the Earth and the Moon must have collided. Pretty impressive, considering that it took another 20 years for scientists to come up with the same theory. Really fascinating read alla round.

Everywhereasign

Because you're Canadian, I'd suggest listening to Quirks and Quarks on CBC Radio 1. You can also listen online. Their book. It's available pretty much everywhere. It's one of my current bathroom books along with Hawking's A Briefer History of Time.

I love both of them.

SanderJK

noir_blood wrote: »

If you can afford the time and money, take an astrology class.

I would highly recommend an astronomy class instead.

Oh, and the current best theory for the Moon is that another planet (roughly mars sized) collided with the still liquid earth, which formed the Moon. Not quite the same (And as everyone knows, being technically correct is the best kind of correct).

Dublo7

The Big Bang by Simon Singh is a fantastic place to start.

GrimReaper

Dublo7 wrote: »

The Big Bang by Simon Singh is a fantastic place to start.

Seconded, I have this book. It's a good read.

Glaeal

mooshoepork wrote: »

Not sure if it's allowed? but uh you can still watch hulu when not in America.

Download hotspot shield.

Hulu can block people using Hotspot Shield now.

necroSYS

noir_blood wrote: »

If you can afford the time and money, take an astrology class.

o_O

Aridhol

If you listen to podcasts there is none better for space than http://www.astronomycast.com/
The have 137 episodes on tonnes of topics so check it out.

Zombiemambo

Man, the first episode of Cosmos does a really good job of giving you a sense of the enormity of the universe and how insignificant earth is on that scale.

SanderJK

I forgot out this, apologies, but the book we used was "In Quest of the Universe" by Koupelis / Kuhn. I'd recommend it.