My Astronomy course started yesterday and so far I’m excited. The course structure and the text book are based on Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos“. Before yesterday, I had heard of Sagan’s work, but I’ve never seen “Cosmos”. For the first class we watched the first episode of “Cosmos”. We were supposed to review the syllabus, but due to a printing failure at the campus print shop, we won’t have that until Thursday. Also, on Thursday I have to go for an “Online Lab Orientation”, to learn how to use a web-based learning environment for the lab portion of the course.
I have always had an interest in astronomy, but have never had the time to learn the basics of it myself, outside of my constant obsession with NOVA. The instructor seems to be very enthusiastic about the course, but several members of the class seems like they are just in the course to fulfill a general education requirement. I am looking forward to the lab that starts on Thursday.