Greetings,

I've always had a huge drive to learn all I can about Astronomy and would like to continue my education in this field. Could anyone suggest any books, movies, lectures, classes that they have read, watched or attended that proved to be a very helpful learning tool?

I do have to say that since I've been reading UM I've learned allot, tons of great information is laced on these forums, I'm very happy to have discovered this site. But now I would like to be able to respond with more factual information and also help determine what is stated as fact vs. personal theory.

Saw the lonely thread... hm, lets see. I'd recommend looking through the interesting things on badastronomy.com because they have a whole slew of common myths/ideas about astronomy and why they aren't so.

As for learning conceptual things... there are a lot of good time life books I read when I was a kid, but they were from the '90s and we know so much more now... I've learned a great deal just by going out and buying reference books on the topic, see what's out there! Get something technical, oftentimes things geared towards the lay public horribly oversimplify things. Also, now that I'm in college one of my first semester courses was Introduction to Astrophysics, we went through lots of astronomy procedures, then spent a semester on our solar system and are now moving on to a semester on "everything else". It has really helped me with unifying all the little tidbits of knowledge I have about each individual body in our solar system into an understanding of the whole, how everything interacts, and the origins of what we see and why it is the way it is.

How about subscribing to Astronomy Magazine, and or Sky & Telescope?
There are scads of educational materials and sources in each issue!

Personally, I like Astronomy. You learn something cool each time it comes out!

Thank you for you suggestions!! I will be looking into getting Astronomy Magazine and Sky & Telescope and I'll check out the site badastronomy.com. I've also picked up a few books for the holiday break including the big Handbook of Space that looks like it has everything packed into it.

I took several astronomy courses in college; it gave me a decent understanding; a good place to start anyway. 99% has been forgotten since then as I got away from it, but the fundementals stuck with me.

Many places have astronomy clubs; geeky as they may be, they are a good place to learn and have access to telescopes and firsthand skywatching, when the weather is poor they get togetherr and study different things in more of a classroom type setting...Sky and Telescope magazine is amazing; they have stuff for every level of education.

True enough Fluff...there are tons of local astronomical societies in existence all over the place. Lots of folks have some pretty good instruments at hand, and "star parties" are a great way to get yourself exposed to the real deal.

And you know, the Internet, despite it's population with alot of nonsense, has scads of good material available.

Another source that'll explain things in a very understandable way would be to get ones self a copy of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. That's an educational treasure...designed for the layman, by a professional astronomer.

I'd recommend that to anyone interested in the subject as a primer of rare quality!