[MauiGirl]

Originally Posted by yorkiefan_

I have always thought physics was really interesting. If you want to see a really cool demonstration of the Rayleigh scattering that made that moon red last night, fast forward to the 27:20 mark of this video below where Walter Lewin (greatest teacher I have ever seen) shows how cigarette smoke scatters blue light from all the tiny particles in the smoke.

For the Love of Physics (May 16, 2011) - YouTube

A few minutes later he also simulates exactly what happened with the moon last night by shining white light into a liquid solution of very fine particles that scatter off all the blue light. The video above is a nontechnical lecture. If you want the version that he gives to his actual MIT class with all the math I can post that one too.

As for astronomy, I took a couple of free courses on coursera last year, having known almost nothing other than the physics before. An astronomy course from Duke and then a course on galaxies and cosmology from Caltech.

Coursera Course Intro - "Introduction to Astronomy" with Ronen Plesser - YouTube

Galaxies and Cosmology with S. George Djorgovski - YouTube

Wow, I am amazed. Ya learn something every day. My BF would love this, he is fascinated with the universe and much more scientific than I am.