Brilliantly compiled course content and is one of the best ways to build a foundation in astronomy and astrophysics for all those interested out there
This course was a little disappointing. There's two problems, I think. First, the course attempts to give a survey of pretty much the whole of astronomy and cosmology in just a few lectures. There's simply too much material to give anything but the most cursory treatment. Second, the presentation style of just reading stuff off powerpoint slides is pretty terrible. There are some equations presented on the slides, by the lecturer neither derives them, nor shows how they can be used to do anything useful. Nor does he really get much into the question of how we know the things we know. Oh and the quizzes aren't very challenging at all.
If you're really interested in learning astronomy, the ANU Astrophysics program on edX (https://www.edx.org/xseries/astrophysics) is far superior. The four ANU courses cover almost everything touched on in this course, in much greater depth, and the presenters are way more engaging and entertaining and really give you an idea of how things are discovered in astronomy. And they get you doing actual calculations and solving problems. A far better investment of your time.
