14 yrs and up, $175, 14 week course - Prerequisite: Foundational Great Books

This course will immerse students in an examination of our wider cosmos as they come to understand the purpose of studying Astronomy and how it points to a great symmetry and design in the cycle of the heavens. Through the writing and mathematical hypothesis of the ancient astronomers, students will investigate the movements of astronomical bodies and how their early understanding progressed to our knowledge of the heavens today.

All readings and course material are provided to students in an online format below.

Potential Projects:

• Observing the setting of the Sun, time based upon a point of reference location.
• The movement of the stars across the sky, through choosing one star close to the horizon and noting the time it sets.
• Noting the phases of the moon throughout the month.
• Observations of the planets either hands on, or through of the use of Stellarium (software program)

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Reading List:
(page numbers for PDFs follow the PDF numbering, not the original document page numbers)  

Week 1:

• The Almagest by Ptolemy: Book 1, Chapters 1–2 (pg. 35-37) - Preface, On the Order of the Theorems
• Introductory Astronomy by Dr. Michael Augros: Day 1, Exercises 1-7 (pg. 1-5)

Week 2:

• Introductory Astronomy: Day 1, Phenomena related to Exercises 1-7 (pg. 5-8)

Week 3:

• The Almagest: Book 1, Chapters 3–4 (pg. 38-41) - That the Heavens Move Spherically, That the Earth Taken as a Whole Is Sensibly Spherical
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 2 (pg. 9-15)

Week 4: 

• The Almagest: Book 1, Chapter 5 (pg. 50-51) - That the Earth is in the Middle of the Heavens
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 3 (pg. 16-22)

Week 5:

• The Almagest: Book 1, Chapters 6–7 (pg. 52-54) - That the Earth has the Ratio of a Point to the Heavens, That the Earth Does Not in Any Way Move Locally
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 4 (pg. 23-30)

Week 6:

• The Almagest: Book 1, Chapter 8 (pg. 54-56) - The Two Motions of the Heavens
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 5 (pg. 31-38)

Week 7:

• The Almagest: Book 3, Chapter 3 (pg. 58-70) - Hypotheses as to Uniform Circular Motion
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 17 (pg. 117-123)

Week 8:

• The Almagest: Book 9, Chapter 1-2 (pg. 71-75) - On the Order of the Spheres of the Sun, Moon, and Five Planets
• Perry Translation of and Commentary on Ptolemy’s Almagest: Preliminaries to Book 9

Week 9:

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus, Forward “To The Reader,” Preface and Dedication to the Pope Paul III
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 27 (pg. 201-206)

Week 10:

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Book 1, Introduction, Chapters 1-2 & 4-6 (The World is Spherical; The Earth is Spherical Too; The Movement of the Heavenly Bodies; Does the Earth Have a Circular Movement? And of its Place; On the Immensity of the Heavens in Relation to the Magnitude of the Earth)
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 28 (pg. 207-213)

Week 11: 

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Book 1, Chapters 7-8 (Why the Ancients Thought The Earth was At Rest at the Middle of the World; Answer to the Aforesaid Reasons and Their Inadequacy)
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 29 (pg. 214-220)

Week 12: 

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Book 1, Chapters 9-10 (Whether Many Movements Can be Attributed to the Earth, and Concerning the Center of the World; On the Order of the Heavenly Orbital Circles)
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 30 (pg. 221-227)

Week 13: 

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Book 1, Chapter 11 (A Demonstration of the Threefold Movement of the Earth)
• Introductory Astronomy: Day 31 (pg. 228-232)

Week 14: Lecture: What has Happened in Astronomy Since Copernicus?  A Brief Overview of Kepler, Newton and Einstein