Basic Astronomy is intended for teens and adults. It will be held as two - 2 hour sessions. The end of the second class will be held late enough to do sky recognition, weather permitting.

You will want to print a copies of the Frosty Drew Observatory's FDO Life List for the identification of solar system and deep space objects and the Basic Astronomy Materials for basic information.

You may wish to try our Basic Astronomy Exercises which reinforce your understanding. These are NOT tests and are not scored. If you have problems with them your instructor will try to help you understand. We will survey the following topics:

Solar System Science

• Sun
• The Solar Wind
• Solar Storms
• Sunspots
• Prominences
• Major Planets
• Rocky Planets
• Gas Giants
• Pluto
• Satellites
• Co-Planets [Moon and Charon]
• True Worlds
• Lumpy Rocks
• Companions [Cruithne, Epimetheus and Janus]
• Asteroids
• The Belt
• Earth Crossing Asteroids
• Comets
• Kuiper Belt
• Oort Belt
• Debris, swarms, meteors and meteorites

The Big Picture

• The Universe
• Gas and Dust Clouds
• Galaxies
• Clusters
• Nebulae
• Emission
• Absorption
• Reflection
• Star Formation
• Density Waves
• The role of Supernovae

The HR Diagram

Star Classifications

• Herbig-Haro bodies
• T-Tauri objects
• Rogues planets
• Brown dwarfs
• Red dwarfs
• Sub Giants
• Blue Giants
• Supergiants
• Stellar Instability
• Variable stars
• Flare stars
• Red Giants
• Stellar Deaths
• Nova
• Supernova
• White dwarfs
• Neutron Stars
• Pulsars
• Black Holes (Collapsars)
• Quasars
• Active galactic nuclei
• Seyfert galaxies
• Sagittarius A

Constellations and Guide Stars

• The Zodiac (Ecliptic Constellations)
• Major Landmarks in the Sky
• The Sky throughout the Year
• Major Coordinate Systems
• Messier Familiarization
• Examples of Star, Galaxy, Nebulae and Cluster Types