I took this class as someone who didn't like the physical sciences very much, but thought astronomy was kind of cool, and came out of it thinking science was the coolest heckin thing. lectures weren't super engaging or anything but for me the material itself was really interesting, and imo professor furlanetto is a great lecturer in terms of explaining scientific concepts. he also bruincasts (audio) and posts slides before the lectures as well as a list of helpful equations that are updated weekly. we had weekly homework, sometimes pretty math-y, that could be a bit confusing/difficult but the ta always gave straightforward hints in discussions and office hours. plus I think he always graded kinda leniently on the homework; I didn't really see many people ever get more than five points off (out of 30). and homework solutions are provided after they're graded. the book is required because he assigns some questions from it, but it's on course reserve @ the library so don't bother buying it; just check it out from powell. midterm was kinda hard but he curves so I think most people end up getting pretty decent scores. for extra credit, he gave us points for filling out course evals! also when covid erupted and shut down in person finals professor furlanetto was a real g and was probably one of the first professors to make finals optional.
the one qualm I had with this class is that it's held in goddam kinsey pavilion. it's a refrigerated truck in there. bring an extra jacket and save yourselves the pain please

I really loved this class honestly and I tried so hard but still ended up getting a B+. But that all comes down to my performance and less about where the professor's falling short. The weekly homeworks are doable but sometimes very confusing but then again TA's office hours would be a huge help which I could never wake up early enough to attend even though it was at 1pm on a wednesday. honestly he's such a great accomplished funny professor and i would've done better in this class if i wasn't battling some other issues. everything draws from the lecture, no more no less so you wouldn't have to go home read some textbook and learn things yourself. i think this class also helped me develop a good habit of taking lecture notes and reviewing my notes. although the material is still pretty complex and takes a while to really digest the information and understand the why and how. maybe its not even necessary to get a deep understanding but i tried.