Certificate in Astronomy

About this programme

Planned outage: Beginning Nov. 1, you will not be able to access the USask admission application and event registration system for up to six days. Learn more . Astronomy is not only one of the oldest sciences, but also one of the most active in terms of exciting and ground breaking new discoveries. Astronomy, together with its cognate sciences astrophysics and cosmology, is concerned with the discovery and understanding of celestial objects ranging from asteroids and comets to planets, stars, galaxies, galaxy clusters, and the evolution of the universe on the largest scales. A Certificate in Astronomy will introduce you to all the interesting fields of astronomical inquiry and provide you with hands on experience with telescopes, advanced imaging devices, and astronomical data reduction and analysis techniques. The Certificate in Astronomy will broadly cover the major topics in modern astronomy, from solar system exploration, to stars, galaxies and cosmology, providing a mixture of conceptual, theoretical and experiential learning opportunities for students wishing to pursue an interest in the cosmos. Students will explore physical properties and orbital behavior of planets, moons, asteroids and comets as revealed by telescopic observations and spacecraft missions. They will learn how the scientific method changed our understanding of orbital motions within the solar system. Recent astronomical techniques for studying exoplanets orbiting other star systems will be investigated. Techniques for operating telescopes and analyzing astronomical data will be examined with onl