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Now that you have discovered how much you love astronomy, do you regret not paying attention in your college classes, or kick yourself for not even taking an Astronomy class when you had the chance?

It’s not too late. In fact, you can listen and view Astronomy 101 classes from some of the top universities or listen to invited lectures by the scientists who are making the great discoveries we read about each day. Best of all, it’s completely free, and you can take it with you on your iPod or iPhone. A new world of learning is available to you at iTunesU.

All you need is a computer and internet access. Download Apple’s completely free iTunes program for the Mac or the PC. Go to the iTunes store and click on iTunesU listed on the left hand menu.

Here you will find the video or audio recorded lectures from more than 200 universities from around the world, all available at your fingertips, for free. There are literally a lifetime of courses posted at iTunesU. New outstanding recorded lectures are being posted faster than anyone person can possibly view them.

If freshman physics is your cup of tea, a must see are the first three semesters of first and second year physics classes from MIT’s Open Course Ware program, taught by Prof Walter Lewin. Just search for 8.01 (mechanics), 8.02 (electricity and magnetism) or 8.03 (vibrations and waves) and the entire semester’s worth of recorded videos come up.

Click once on any lecture and the lecture series comes up on its own page. If given a choice, select the video tracks and one mouse click later, you can automatically download the entire semester of videos onto your computer. If your computer is set up for it, the next time you sync your MP4 player, you will have a “pocketful of physics.”

Sit next to MIT freshmen and build your foundation in physics. Though there is some calculus in Lewin’s lectures, it’s not needed to follow the principles, examples and demos, These courses will feed your intuition and it’s great fun to watch Prof Lewin who has been described as “legendary.” His lectures have been viewed by more than 4 million students, young and old, around the world.

If Astronomy is what you really want, there are four university introductory astronomy classes to put on your watch list:

  • C1000 Columbia University (audio only)
  • Astro 10p UC Berkeley (audio only)
  • Astro C10 UC Berkeley (audio only)
  • PH1600 Michigan Technological University (video)

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Even though these are all nominally Astronomy 101 classes, each professor brings his unique perspective and experiences to his class. If you think you understand Astronomy, listen to Astro C10, presented by Prof Alex Filippenko, named professor of the year and frequent guest on Nova specials. While his class is designed specifically for non science majors, you will walk away with new insights about stellar evolution and the origin of the universe.

But wait, there’s more.

Astronomy is a dynamic field, where new observations, discoveries and theories are introduced on a daily basis. While you can read some of the second hand interpretations of these discoveries in the popular magazines or listen to them on pods casts, why not hear it directly from the scientists who are the ones actually pushing the envelop of science?

Every week, there are dozens of lectures presented at University Colloquia by the leading researches on their latest work. Many of these lectures are recorded and posted on iTunesU.

In particular, you’ll want to check out the lecture series from:

  • DeAnza College, Silicon Valley Lecture Series, hosted by Andy Fraknoi, (video)
  • UCTV- lecture series from the entire UC system of campuses: San Diego, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Irvine, Davis, etc. (video)
  • Univ of Arizona, (video)
  • Seattle Pacific University, (audio only)
  • Australian National University, (audio only)
  • University of Edinburgh, (audio only)
  • Florida Institute of Technology, (audio only)

Just enter the name of the university in the search box in the upper right corner of the iTunesU page at the iTunes store and you will see all the lectures offered. Find one of the astronomy or physics lectures and click on it. This will bring up the entire series. Click on “get tracks” and they are automatically downloaded to the iTunes library on your computer.

All together, these classes and lectures represent more than 1,000 hours of the best physics and astronomy lectures at the top Universities, all at your fingertips, and all for free. This is more than you could have accessed in four years in college, even if you had been paying attention.

You can enjoy them on your computer, on your iPod, your iPhone, or on any MP4 player. You can literally fit a college education’s worth of astronomy in your pocket. And by the time you finish these lectures, there will be new ones posted.

Welcome to the new age of learning.

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