The Universe! It has drawn the interest of mankind since the beginning of time..... yet still its mysteries enthral us. Ever-changing, yet always familiar, night after night this spectacle draws its admirers to gaze upon its beauty and to study its wonders. In our unquenchable thirst for a greater understanding of our place in the universe, we have built larger and still larger instruments of glass and of steel in an effort to capture more of the fleeting messengers of light that the universe sends us. With them we have learned much; yet there remains much that we do not understand. So the search.... the quest..... continues.

Astronomy is the most exciting, the most enthralling, the most dynamic of all the sciences. It is a quest to make the Universe comprehensible. An adventure to, and from, the beginning of time and through the infinite recesses of space. It explores some of the most extreme of locations; from the incredibly superdense neutron stars, to the ultra-vacuum of a comet's tail; from gigantic clusters of galaxies, to microscopic particles in planetary rings; from the indescribable violence and brilliance of a supernova to the nothingness of intergalactic voids.

At present, Troy University, has only one introductory course on astronomy, "Principles of Astronomy". This general education course allows students to taste the amazing world of astronomy as it explores the universe.