[Nfb-science] Taking an Astronomy Class

[Ed Meskys]

I am 74 now and retired, but I used to teach physics and astronomy in a 
small college. I had grown up sighted, but became totally blind at the age 
of 35 in 1971. Astronomy as in the textbook and as I taught it said 
virtually nothing about the constellations. I covered how the distances to 
various classes of stars are measured....parallax, Cepheid variables, the 
motion of clusters, etc. Types of stars, their relationship to color, 
changes with time, birth and death. Described the planets, and how we 
figured it out.

I used an excellent text, Exploration of the Universe by George Abell. I 
used it while sighted, and continued using it. RFB&D had it, but there were 
a number of errors in the narration...mistakes made by persons not 
understanding what they were reading. When I laughed at some of the errors 
to a friend teaching Physics at Brooklyn College, he immediately went to 
RFB&D in NY and volunteered. For decades he did two two hour sessions a 
week, and recorded many physics, astronomy, math, etc., for them. 
Unfortunately he is older than I and is in assisted living now.

Even when I was sighted the constellations did not interest me, except as 
landmarks for finding a star of interest.

Ed Meskys