Professor Rich was honestly such a nice and genuine professor. He seemed really passionate about the course and tried to make small jokes to compensate for some technical topics. The homework honestly wasn't too bad and the midterm was relatively easy if you just studied the notes and attended the discussions. The final was 100 questions and tougher than the midterm, but still wasn't too bad. He does have extra credit that can boost your grade by 1%. I would recommend his class as a pretty easy GE and would definitely take it again.

if you are interested in the topic, by all means go for it, just know that this is NOT an easy GE. prof rich makes it 10000x times harder than it needs to be. there is 4 homework assignments every 2 seconds of the week for you to complete, which are usually 18 minutes to 75 because it will have 25 questions (easy) BUT there will be PARTS A-G or even A-H to EVERY question so it takes you even LONGER.

Lectures are BORING. they're BORING and he goes OVERTIME all the TIME! one time our lecture ended at 10:50 however he kept going until like 11:20, until a student spoke up and literally STOPPED him. its safe to say you can believe me when I say almost EVERYBODY began skipping lecture because everything was basically in the homework which was already a pain and the lectures just felt soooo unnesscary!!!!

then you have LABS. labs are mandatory, and the prelabs take at least 30 minutes but the labs are THREE HOURS LONG. its just adding onto the work that isn't really needed for a class that is very much more introductory about the universe.

prof rich is very passionate about the topic but I did not enjoy his class at all because of how many hours and work I had to put into it. would never recommend this class to someone who wants an easy GE or a fun class to learn about this kinda stuff, you are better off with a different professor who doesn't go overtime and who doesn't call the class an ASTROPHYSICS class when you just signed up for astronomy.

I already took a fiat lux class about astronomy with Professor Rich but knowing he was teaching another made me want to take another one. He is a really nice professor, and if very passionate about the subject, which is great to see from a professor. I enjoyed every lecture, and some were coincidentally similar to what I was learning for fun on the side (such as how to tell what atmospheres of different planets are made of). This class was really cool, and I would definitely recommend taking it if you like astronomy. I did feel bad, though, when only myself and another person or two showed up despite the class being enrolled by 15+, please go to class, it's a fun subject and it makes the prof happy to see people engaged!

Easy GE if you did any AP science class before in high school, probably 20-30% of course material is just general science knowledge. Homework is easy with one deadline for all assignments at the end of the course, my TA was super helpful before tests. Midterm was super easy, final was little more challenging but nothing too bad. You can earn 1% extra credit if you go to Griffith

Professor Rich is super passionate and very kind. He tries to make lectures interesting, though sometimes they can drag a little. Content is pretty cool, would recommend this course.