Directed by The Great Courses

Alex Filippenko

Enjoy a deep, yet nontechnical description, of modern astronomy, including the structure and evolution of planets, stars, galaxies, and the universe as a whole

Rated TVPG

Mode of access: World Wide Web

Episode 1

A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

Episode 2

The Rainbow Connection

Episode 3

Sunrise, Sunset

Episode 4

Bright Objects in the Night Sky

Episode 5

Fainter Phenomena in the Night Sky

Episode 6

Our Sky through Binoculars and Telescopes

Episode 7

The Celestial Sphere

Episode 8

The Reason for the Seasons

Episode 9

Lunar Phases and Eerie Lunar Eclipses

Episode 10

Glorious Total Solar Eclipses

Episode 11

More Eclipse Tales

Episode 12

Early Studies of the Solar System

Episode 13

The Geocentric Universe

Episode 14

Galileo and the Copernican Revolution

Episode 15

Refinements to the Heliocentric Model

Episode 16

On the Shoulders of Giants

Episode 17

Surveying Space and Time

Episode 18

Scale Models of the Universe

Episode 19

Light-The Supreme Informant

Episode 20

The Wave-Particle Duality of Light

Episode 21

The Colors of Stars

Episode 22

The Fingerprints of Atoms

Episode 23

Modern Telescopes

Episode 24

A Better Set of Eyes

Episode 25

Our Sun, the Nearest Star

Episode 26

The Earth, Third Rock from the Sun

Episode 27

Our Moon, Earth's Nearest Neighbor

Episode 28

Mercury and Venus

Episode 29

Of Mars and Martians

Episode 30

Jupiter and Its Amazing Moons

Episode 31

Magnificent Saturn

Episode 32

Uranus and Neptune, the Small Giants

Episode 33

Pluto and Its Cousins

Episode 34

Asteroids and Dwarf Planets

Episode 35

Comets-Gorgeous Primordial Snowballs

Episode 36

Catastrophic Collisions

Episode 37

The Formation of Planetary Systems

Episode 38

The Quest for Other Planetary Systems

Episode 39

Extra-Solar Planets Galore!

Episode 40

Life Beyond the Earth

Episode 41

The Search for Extraterrestrials

Episode 42

Special Relativity and Interstellar Travel

Episode 43

Stars-Distant Suns

Episode 44

The Intrinsic Brightnesses of Stars

Episode 45

The Diverse Sizes of Stars

Episode 46

Binary Stars and Stellar Masses

Episode 47

Star Clusters, Ages, and Remote Distances

Episode 48

How Stars Shine-Nature's Nuclear Reactors

Episode 49

Solar Neutrinos-Probes of the Sun's Core

Episode 50

Brown Dwarfs and Free-Floating Planets

Episode 51

Our Sun's Brilliant Future

Episode 52

White Dwarfs and Nova Eruptions

Episode 53

Exploding Stars-Celestial Fireworks!

Episode 54

White Dwarf Supernovae-Stealing to Explode

Episode 55

Core-Collapse Supernovae-Gravity Wins

Episode 56

The Brightest Supernova in Nearly 400 Years

Episode 57

The Corpses of Massive Stars

Episode 58

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity

Episode 59

Warping of Space and Time

Episode 60

Black Holes-Abandon Hope, Ye Who Enter

Episode 61

The Quest for Black Holes

Episode 62

Imagining the Journey to a Black Hole

Episode 63

Wormholes-Gateways to Other Universes?

Episode 64

Quantum Physics and Black-Hole Evaporation

Episode 65

Enigmatic Gamma-Ray Bursts

Episode 66

Birth Cries of Black Holes

Episode 67

Our Home-The Milky Way Galaxy

Episode 68

Structure of the Milky Way Galaxy

Episode 69

Other Galaxies-"Island Universes"

Episode 70

The Dark Side of Matter

Episode 71

Cosmology-The Really Big Picture

Episode 72

Expansion of the Universe and the Big Bang

Episode 73

Searching for Distant Galaxies

Episode 74

The Evolution of Galaxies

Episode 75

Active Galaxies and Quasars

Episode 76

Cosmic Powerhouses of the Distant Past

Episode 77

Supermassive Black Holes

Episode 78

Feeding the Monster

Episode 79

The Paradox of the Dark Night Sky

Episode 80

The Age of the Universe

Episode 81

When Geometry Is Destiny

Episode 82

The Mass Density of the Universe

Episode 83

Einstein's Biggest Blunder?

Episode 84

The Afterglow of the Big Bang

Episode 85

Ripples in the Cosmic Background Radiation

Episode 86

The Stuff of the Cosmos

Episode 87

Dark Energy-Quantum Fluctuations?

Episode 88

Dark Energy-Quintessence?

Episode 89

Grand Unification & Theories of Everything

Episode 90

Searching for Hidden Dimensions

Episode 91

The Shape, Size, and Fate of the Universe

Episode 92

In the Beginning

Episode 93

The Inflationary Universe

Episode 94

The Ultimate Free Lunch?

Episode 95

A Universe of Universes

Episode 96

Reflections on Life and the Cosmos