u3a Group

Exmouth & District u3a Astronomy Group

Relevant resources for the topic of each meeting are listed below, in date order with the most recent meeting being at the top.

The BBC programme “The Sky at Night – a Beginner’s Guide” is an excellent introduction. It is just 29 minutes long, and the last 9 minutes are about telescopes. Sadly it's no longer on BBC iPlayer, but there is a rather poor-quality copy on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbPO2mJ86HA
The BBC has published a short six-page guide to telescopes. You can read and/or download it from here - https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/stargazinglive/sgl_guide_to_telescopes.pdf
There's also a good guide to telescopes on the Society for Popular Astronomy website - see https://www.popastro.com/help-advice/choosing-a-telescope/

From ‘Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide’, edited by Martin Rees (the Astronomer Royal) and published by DK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universe-Definitive-Visual-Guide-DK/dp/0241412749. The relevant section this week is 'Asteroids' (pages 170 -177).
Royal Observatory, Greenwich: https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/minor-planets-or-asteroids
NASA SpacePlace: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/asteroid/en/
NASA Science – for overview, in depth, exploration and galleries: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/overview/

A comprehensive astronomy text book is currently available free from Amazon. It's simply called 'Astronomy' and it's by Andrew Fraknoi and others. You can look at it or download it from this link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Astronomy-Andrew-Fraknoi-ebook/dp/B075FG4KTK/. You can read it on a Kindle ebook reader if you have one, or alternatively read it via the free Kindle app which you can download to a tablet or smart phone, or sign into Amazon on your computer. It's an academic text book which is over 1,100 pages long, but it is several years old so parts of it may no longer be fully up-to-date given the pace of scientific advances in astronomy in recent times! The relevant section on telescopes is from page 189 and the main section on Mars is from page 349.

'Going to Mars?' is a very interesting paper written by Martin Whillock, the national u3a Astronomy Subject Adviser, who has very kindly allowed us to share this here. You can read or download it from this link - Going to Mars?

From the BBC Mars series in 2017 (all still available on BBC Sounds):

Hunting the Martians (2017 - BBC Sounds - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p04vz9h4
We Are the Martians: Seeing is Believing (2017) - BBC Sounds - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p04w3y4s
We Are the Martians : A New Red World (2017) - BBC Sounds - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p04w40g5
We Are the Martians: Start-up Planet (2017) - BBCSounds - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p04w60rx
Moving to the Red Planet - Mars (2017) - BBC Sounds - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p04w09l4
A Trip Around Mars with Kevin Fong (2017) - BBC Sounds - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p04wfyyk

BBC iPlayer: Universe, episode 4, Black Holes - Heart of Darkness - Professor Brian Cox continues his epic exploration of the universe with a journey into darkness - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p09ybycz/universe-series-1-4-black-holes-heart-of-darkness
Brian Cox on how black holes could unlock the mysteries of our universe - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGsbEd6w7PI
Brian Cox: Why black holes could hold the secret to time and space - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZX_c6zfJ2w (this is a much longer and more detailed version)
BBC Bitesize: link here https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/physics-ks3--gcse-what-are-black-holes/z4pyrj6 and here https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/znvhjhv/revision/3
BBC Horizon programme (from 2010): ‘Whose Afraid of a Big Black Hole?’: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x621wmg
Night Sky News November 2024: The Crisis in Cosmology solved with black holes as dark energy?! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IE4jD1WhG4 (from 15.52 minutes in)
Black Holes - The Edge of What We Know - Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81343342