Undergraduate astronomy courses?

Thanks for the replies guys, It's something I might like to do sometime but in all honesty there is now way I've got time for it, fair play to yee.!!

Just a couple of comments.

I thought I pass on some useful and unexpected info for those planning degrees in astronomy.

Most of us amateur astronomers are either casual or serious about observational work in astronomy.

If you have been doing scientific observational research and have published a paper or two either as an author or with other authors, this will reduce your time in doing a degree. In my case, I had two publications that significantly reduced my costs of doing a degree. This gave me 40% credits before I started. It also allowed me according to the facilittators of needing to do less modules.

When I got the degree I had an easier entry into the PhD programme. Primarily based on observational research I had done with a 2 papers that were relevant to the PhD programme.

Although this may be unusual, it really depends how serious one is about eg. observational astronomy in my case.

I also have no interest in having a career in astronomy because I have another career.

The reason I took up these degrees is because it gave me structure of carrying out research that I would have done anyway with or without degrees. It has been a good motivator when you have top astronomers supervising your research.

Regarding fees: I also got a grant from the Irish government and still do to finish the PhD programme with OU.

Eamonn A

www.kingslandobservatory