Celestia Forums

Don't know if this belongs here or in purgatory, but there are a number of very interesting good physics and astronomy videos available through Google video, including a number of documentaries from the apollo missions.
Some interesting footage from those years. Also the complete 2006 Physics 10 course from UC Berkeley for those who use Celestia but don't understand the physics that it behind it. Also a number of documentaries an astronomy from the Intellegent Design viewpoint.

Also It's available pleanty in torrent forms and most in 700 MB's ( Bit Torrent Clients) just google the terms with a torrent after it, if luck is there probably we will get it, else i suggest going to

Starshipwright wrote:Also a number of documentaries an astronomy from the Intellegent Design viewpoint.

I think you got your labels confused there - those aren't documentaries, they're fantasy.

Starshipwright wrote:Also a number of documentaries an astronomy from the Intellegent Design viewpoint.

God help us! American bigotry spreading onto the World Wide Web.

In order to be unbiased I did not give ANY hint of an opinion on the ID videos. Even if you disagree with ID it is good to know what kind of arguements you may hear when dicussing astronomy.

Starshipwright wrote:In order to be unbiased I did not give ANY hint of an opinion on the ID videos. Even if you disagree with ID it is good to know what kind of arguements you may hear when dicussing astronomy.

In the "know your enemy" sense, yes .

Personally I don't think I'd be able to stomach watching one of those videos without throwing a brick through the TV...

However, there's no "agree" or "disagree" with ID, that implies it's as valid an option as the scientific viewpoint, when in fact it isn't. ID is wrong, pure and simple. And it isn't even science in the first place. So I wouldn't want anyone to be under the impression that creationism and ID is acceptable here (what with this being a science board), it's quite acceptable to be biased against it here.

Talking about ID here is a bit like talking about astrology. Astrology and ID are not different "views" or "theories" of the cosmos, they are beliefs. Nothing wrong with that (well...), but they just don't have any relevance when dealing with observable and verifiable facts.

Putting astronomy and ID on the same level is like telling school kids about the conservation of mass in a chemistry class and then warning them that it is just a theory, and that the multiplication of loaves and fishes is another theory just as valid.

Malenfant wrote:

Starshipwright wrote:Also a number of documentaries an astronomy from the Intellegent Design viewpoint.

I think you got your labels confused there - those aren't documentaries, they're fantasy.

Sorry, but (as usual) I'm lost here... The documentaries we're directed to here
are fantasies? Does this mean that these productions are not worth viewing?

Serious question from the Brain-Dead because I have never heard of
the "Intelligent Design." If that's so though, can you recommend some
other more-realistic physics/astronomy audio-visual resources? Would very
much like to have some physics explained to me in a "Carl Sagan" way.

Any of these out there?

Thanks, Bob

Addendum: I have found some interesting movies which explain various
features of Mars, for example. These can be found at:
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/video/

Would be very interested to view/download any valid movies for other
places and especially physics concepts if you know of any.

BrainDead wrote:Serious question from the Brain-Dead because I have never heard of the "Intelligent Design." If that's so though, can you recommend some other more-realistic physics/astronomy audio-visual resources? Would very much like to have some physics explained to me in a "Carl Sagan" way.

"Intelligent Design" is creationism painted up as science - it basically hinges on this logic: "I can't understand how what I'm looking at [usually a fossil] could arise naturally, so God must have made it". It's completely fallacious, totally unscientific, and rather insidious - and naturally the evangelical types in the US want to inflict it on schoolkids as a valid alternative to science (which it isn't).

Check this site out for a zillion reasons as to why it (and creationism) are wrong: http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/

BrainDead wrote:Sorry, but (as usual) I'm lost here... The documentaries we're directed to here
are fantasies? Does this mean that these productions are not worth viewing?

It depends. If you're a christian fundamentalist looking to comfort your belief in creationism they may have some value to you.

If you're looking for a presentation of the current status of scientific knowledge in astronomy and cosmology, they have none.

BrainDead wrote:Serious question from the Brain-Dead because I have never heard of the "Intelligent Design."

That's a bit surprising since Ohio and Michigan are the two states were the controversy took place earlier this year. Hopefuly, the school boards eventually rejected the teaching of ID. See the Wikipedia articles on Intelligent Design and the campaign to teach it in science classes.

Bob,

"Intelligent Design" is the name for a way of describing the universe which is much like what used to be called "Creationism." It's quite anti-scientific, although its proponents try to claim otherwise.

It isn't clear to me if you're interested in DVDs or free downloadable videos. Carl Sagan's entire Cosmos series is available on DVD, of course. You should be able to borrow a copy of the set through your local public library.

"Discovery School" has quite a few astronomy videos available for free in RealPlayer format (as well as being purchasable in DVD format) http://school.discovery.com/ontv/videoc ... nomy1.html

If you haven't seen many of Jack Horkheimer's PBS presentations ("Keep looking up!" is his tag line), you might enjoy viewing the ones available at
http://www.jackstargazer.com/JHSG_DNLD.htm

NASA has plenty of Shuttle and ISS videos available, of course. A few with more astronomical topics can be found starting from the Web page at http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/featu ... chive.html

It's not astronomy, but a 16 minute video describing the research done at the Lab where I work (high energy particle research) is available at http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/VirtualTour.html

Links to it and other videos about High-Energy Physics (HEP) research are available at
http://www.interactions.org/cms/?pid=1003819

Combining the two, videos about some of NASA's high-energy astrophysics missions are available at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasa ... ideos.html

And podcasts about X-Ray astronomy and the Chandra X-Ray observatory are available at http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/podcasts/

I hope this helps a little.

p.s. A Web search for the two terms
astronomy podcast
turned up many pages of audio and video presentations. Note that podcasting does not really imply the need for an iPod. These days it's used to indicate a downloadable multi-media presentation.

selden wrote:It isn't clear to me if you're interested in DVDs or free downloadable videos. Carl Sagan's entire Cosmos series is available on DVD, of course. You should be able to borrow a copy of the set through your local public library.

I have the Carl Sagan videos, but I was just curious to know if there
were more videos in this vein. In other words, videos which explain
physics to us Brain-Dead types.

Thanks once again for your help. I'll be downloading, purchasing and
stealing all I can find here. Seems that physics is as interesting as
astronomy. Since I have plenty of time during my otherwise boring days
now, I'd just like to educate myself some more.

Take care, Bob

Christophe wrote:It depends. If you're a christian fundamentalist looking to comfort your belief in creationism they may have some value to you.

If you're looking for a presentation of the current status of scientific knowledge in astronomy and cosmology, they have none.

BrainDead wrote:Serious question from the Brain-Dead because I have never heard of the "Intelligent Design."

That's a bit surprising since Ohio and Michigan are the two states were the controversy took place earlier this year.

Thanks very much for the information Christophe... Honestly, I have NOT
heard anything about ID around here. I'm really interested in the facts of
the universe though, and your information is appreciated.

I think there's a PBS series called "The Elegant Universe" that's available for download too or on DVD, the book of that was rather good at explaining all the weird things like cosmic strings and rolled up dimensions and so on.

Malenfant wrote:I think there's a PBS series called "The Elegant Universe" that's available for download too or on DVD, the book of that was rather good at explaining all the weird things like cosmic strings and rolled up dimensions and so on.

Hey THANK YOU sir...

I found the "Elegant Universe" movies available on-line at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

and I started watching the series online. This is precisley what I was
looking for and I appreciate the pointer. Even us Brain-Dead types can
understand "String Theory" when it's presented like it is on this site.

Take care, Bob

I've read the book and it was really good. The series does look very watchable though, I'll have to watch that myself sometime!

If you want to understand physics, try the "Physics 10" lectures on Google (search "Physics 10"). A complete UC Berkely introductory physics course's lectures viewable for FREE! I am working through it right now my self, the instructor is very good and makes the information easy to understand.

The main course website at :

http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics10/PffP.html

Also has the textbook in downloadable form + copies of previous semesters exams. So you can get take the course at home just as if you took it at UC Berkely. Except with out the cost.

Starshipwright wrote:If you want to understand physics, try the "Physics 10" lectures on Google (search "Physics 10"). A complete UC Berkely introductory physics course's lectures viewable for FREE! I am working through it right now my self, the instructor is very good and makes the information easy to understand.

The main course website at :

http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics10/PffP.html

Also has the textbook in downloadable form + copies of previous semesters exams. So you can get take the course at home just as if you took it at UC Berkely. Except with out the cost.

Hey, thanks for the links. Looks like another great free resource for the
Brain-Dead, and I appreciate the information.

Take care, Bob

"Astronomy Cast" is a set of weekly podcasts being created by Fraser Cain (Universe Today) and Dr. Pamela Gay (SIUE / Slacker Astronomy).

For details and links to other astronomy shows, see http://www.astronomycast.com/

Bob, I found this a very helpful font of astronomical information, and not only:

http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Sintro.htm

It's a course at the high-school level, "From Stargazers to Starships" by Dr. David P. Stern, retired from his job at the Lab for Particles and Fields, Goddard Space Flight Center.
It has been translated in many languages (Italian included) due to it's quality and easiness of understanding.
My little cent.
Bye

Andrea