This five-session course includes: 1. Our home territory in space: the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon. Where did we come from, what's our future? 2. Our amazing Solar System: new discoveries and mysteries including oceans on Jupiter's and Saturn's moons, thousands of undiscovered Plutos, Planet X, and a trip to Mars. 3. Our Milky Way Galaxy: star nurseries and graveyards, other Earths, rogue planets, black holes, pulsars, and deadly spiral arms. 4. The realm of the galaxies: galaxy clusters, collisions, gravitational waves, the cosmic web, and the James Webb Telescope's journey to the beginning of time. 5. The great beyond: the expanding universe, dark matter, dark energy, parallel universes, other dimensions, and the end of everything. Each class will also include what's visible in Berkshire skies that evening, and a vignette of a groundbreaking female astronomer. There will be beautiful imagery, videos, and minimal math but lots of BIG NUMBERS!

Kenneth P. Bechis retired from Northrop Grumman as Chief Scientist in the Space Operations/Environmental Solutions Division, and as a Distinguished Technical Fellow in the Intelligence Systems Sector. He holds a bachelor's in astronomy from Harvard College, a master's of science in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is a former NASA Payload Specialist Astronaut.

Previous | Next