Introduction to Astronomy: courses at Royal Observatory

Essential Information

Type	Courses
Location	Royal Observatory
Date and Times	6-week courses \| See page for details
Prices	£96

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This course has now sold out for the 2023/24 season.

An astronomy course for absolute beginners, led by an engaging tutor from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the home of time and space.

We offer a wide range of adult courses related to astronomy, from short six-week introductory sessions through one-year intermediate courses, to modular two-year advanced courses.

This six-week course is for people with no prior knowledge of astronomy. It offers a basic introduction to the subject from historical, scientific, and practical perspectives.

It is an excellent stand-alone course, but can provide a stepping stone to other introductory courses, such as Amateur Astronomy for Beginners, Introduction to Astrophysics and the online course Introduction to Astrophotography.

This course will run five times in the 2023/24 academic year, each on consecutive Tuesday evenings:

12 September - 17 October 2023
31 October - 5 December 2023
2 January - 6 February 2024
20 February - 26 March 2024
16 April - 21 May 2024

Note: Each course is intended to be run on-site at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, but will transfer to an online course run via Zoom in the case of Covid restrictions. Please only book if you are certain you will be able to attend an on-site course. An online version of this course is also available here.

Everyone taking a course at the Royal Observatory is entitled to a 10% discount on books purchased from Royal Museums Greenwich - please check with your course tutor for more details!

Age: 16+

Meet the tutors: Greg Smye-Rumsby

Greg has worked at the Royal Observatory for close to 20 years, continuing a lifelong passion for all aspects of astronomy. In that time he has created and tutored evening classes for adults in several areas of astronomy, including an Introduction to Astronomy, Amateur Astronomy for Beginners and Life in the Universe.

Meet the tutors: Giuseppe Nicolosi

Giuseppe comes from Sicily where the skies, in his childhood, were dark and clear. He has been hooked on astronomy since he was 8 years old. He did his BSc in Physics at Catania University and his MSc in Astrophysics at Queen Mary University in London. He is still passionate about it, and is at present looking into the fascinating history of astronomy and how we understand our Universe today by going back to its origins.

This was one of the best things I’ve done. Greg is a brilliant teacher and at the beginning I honestly thought I may have bitten off more than I could chew as I hardly knew anything about astronomy, but as we progressed, he was able to explain everything in a really easy-to-understand way. His enthusiasm really shines through, and he delivered the course with the right amount of humour and made space (pardon the pun) for people to ask questions and to feel accepted at whatever level their knowledge was at. I wish I’d had teachers like him at school as I definitely would’ve paid more attention.
Course taker autumn 2022