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Ask HN: Learning the Basics of Astronomy

4 points by danschmitt ↗ HN
Since I finished my PhD and left the university, I have been trying to learn new subjects besides work, whenever wife and child leave a few hours of free time per week. I have always been interested in anything to do with planets, stars, etc. The new pictures of black holes and the James Webb telescope have put me under a new spell. So I decided to invest some time in learning the basics of astronomy over the next 12 months.

What resources can you recommend to move from the typical general education with a bit of basic physics to a better understanding of the basic principles of astronomy?

1 comment

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Phreaker00
This seems like a very broad and vague question to me, making it hard to answer or imagine a starting point for your discovery on the subject.

Like many scientific fields these days the breath and depth is immense. Are you looking for a specific niche of astronomy or an overall understanding of the universe? And is that from a human perspective or perhaps a physics perspective?

I would narrow down your interests and start finding relevant sources there. Or, if you don't know, start at a very broad source like space.com or nasa.gov and explore the topics that grab your attention.