Product Details

• Directors: Chris Fetner
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Cerebellum Corp
• DVD Release Date: April 10, 2000
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1581983069
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,460 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Aimed at college students or accomplished high-school students, this award-winning series uses humor, whimsical graphics, and a lot of quick cuts to make academics accessible--even fun. And that's tough when you're talking about an hour and 39 minutes of astronomy-theory history (from the ancient Greeks through Newton), the law of gravity, properties of light, how telescopes work, makeup and rotations of the Earth and moon, and more laws than you can shake a stick at. The Standard Deviants staff of professors, a comedy-writing team, and 13 actors manage to find the right balance of goofiness (a doofus mechanic tries to explain nanometers) and hard-core information (explanations of parallax, retrograde, the Doppler effect--need we say more?). So if a Calvin Klein ad parody is your idea of a good way to teach the Kelvin scale, this tape belongs in your VCR. A study card with outline and formulas is included. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Product Description

Includes such topics as: ancient astronomy, the Celestial Sphere, zenith,nadir, meridian, history of astronomy, Aristarchus, Ptolemy, The Copernican Revolution, Kepler's Laws, Galileo, Newton, Gravity, Universal Law of Gravitation

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasitic basic astonomy review!, May 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Standard Deviants: Astronomy, Part 1 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Standard Deviants always put out great videos. This one in particular is funny, sometimes a bit cheesy, but always easy to understand. Tape one of the astronomy review looks at the basics of astronomy including Newton's laws, Kepler's law, Wien's law, and a look at the earth and the moon. They also include funny stories about the history and people of astronomy. One particularly fun thing about the tape is that it is aimed at college students, and the humor is more adult then other "funny" educational tapes out there.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helping a child to study through the power of vision, March 19, 2007

By 

Esperanza Reynolds "Hope Reynolds" (Miami Lakes, Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Standard Deviants - Astronomy Adventure (Learn Astronomy History and Principles) (DVD)

All children do not learn and retain information using the same skills. We have one whose ability through the power of vision increases ten fold. She is artistic, gifted and a natural right brained individual, so given that she was having trouble with some courses, we obtained this award-winning series, where she learns while having fun. The course uses humor to lighten up the experience. It provides an hour and a half of astronomy, teaching from the ancient Greeks through Newton. Powerful learning takes place. The observer learns the law of gravity, the properties of light, and how telescopes work. Would highly recommend acquiring this DVD if you want to help any child learn by using the power of vision.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful for us Science Fiction writers, too!, February 16, 2007

By 

Goldencat "Carla" (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Standard Deviants - Astronomy, Part 1 (DVD)

I really like the Deviants' series of videos...and I am not an undergrad anymore. I found this by accident in a table-load of markdowns, and got hooked. This one is a good introduction to the subject, at a fast pace, with corny, witty humor. In fact, almost Monty Python humor. It will help me alot since knowing key facts is vital to credible writing. Who would believe a story with careless mistakes? Imagine Star Wars with travel in miles instead of light years...or no space suits for humans to wear so they don't freeze to death outside the ship - perhaps they hold their breath and put on lots of Vaseline jelly? (not) What happens to your spaceship if you don't account for gravitation, escape velocities, or the radiation of a supernova? You lose the sense of reality that makes a good story. Pull up a recliner, have some popcorn, and enjoy the show :-) it's painless learning. Really. It woulda helped me in class, had I HAD an astronomy class. Wish I knew about the series sooner.