GCSE Edexcel Astronomy 2025

I'm summoning anyone who's doing their gcse astronomy this year ⭐️
Do you prefer paper 1 or paper 2? What's your fav/least fav topic?
I'm a private candidate so if anyone else is doing it this year or can provide advice please share resources or anything that can help!

im doing astronomy gcse (but not out of choice tho😭)
tbh paper 1 is easier, i dont even know whats going on in paper 2 ngl im soo lost!
i use physics with keith yt channel
https://www.youtube.com/@PhysicswithKeith/search?query=edexcel%20astronomy%20gcse
nigel marshall has some videos too abt astronomy gcse that might help:
https://www.youtube.com/@oasacademy4953/search?query=astronomy%20gcse%20edexcel

tbh im pretty lost with 6 markers too, i suppose the easiest ones are when they ask u to design an observation, but lets say its a question where u have to evaluate the accuracy, i'd probaby do like an agree-disagree structure, so i argue why the observation is accurate, and why its not so accurate and then come to a sort of conclusion. but idk, i think im about as lost as u r!
i think if theres less than 6 points, it might just be the indicative content, but it will probably allow any other correct points. but i know the mark schemes can sometimes be a bit dodgy 😑
for the first practical, i did the shadow-stick observation and used it to work out my longitude, but my percentage error was like 80% 😆
for the second one i used control telescope to get images of 3 messier galaxies. imma do all the writing later. wbu? what r ur practicals???

I'm summoning anyone who's doing their gcse astronomy this year ⭐️
Do you prefer paper 1 or paper 2? What's your fav/least fav topic?
I'm a private candidate so if anyone else is doing it this year or can provide advice please share resources or anything that can help!

how do u guys revise for astro??

Lots of hopes and prayers, but honestly I mainly rely on doing every past paper that is available and just kind of re-reading my notes to try and make sense of it all.

icl i dont get anything that going on in paper 2, im soo cooked 💀

Is there anything in particular you’re struggling with? I can try to help and explain it if I can

I always get cassegrain and newtonian Telescope mixed up 😭

lol same, also i dont get retrograde motion

Retrograde motion is when a planet appears to travel in a loop around the sky backwards relative to fixed distant stars temporarily e.g. for a few weeks. If it is a superior planet, Earth overtakes it in its orbit and if it is an interior planet, it overtakes us in its orbit. At this point I don't bother trying to visualise it I just remember the definition 😭

btw what grades r u aiming for in astro???

honestly theres too much, but ig its mainly topic 11 i struggle with most, with the telescopes 🔭

Yeah telescopes is a tough one, but I can try:
So first you need to understand how there as the two different types of lenses and mirrors, with both of them having a concave and convex version. These will be used in different combinations to focus the light inside a telescope.
Types of telescopes:
The two main types are reflectors and refractors, with refractors being the ones that primarily use lenses and refractors primarily using mirrors. The two refracting telescopes we need to know about are the Galilean refractor and the Keplerian refractor, and the two reflectors are the Newtonian and the Cassegrain.
Galilean-Uses a convex lens as the primary objective element, and a concave lens as the eyepiece. This is the only telescope to use a concave lens as its eyepiece.
Keplerian-Uses a convex lens as the primary objective element, and then a convex lens as the eyepiece.
Newtonian-Uses a concave mirror as its primary objective element, which reflects light onto a secondary mirror at a 45 degree angle to a convex lens eyepiece.
Cassegrain-Uses a concave mirror to as its primary objective element, which reflects light onto a secondary mirror that is facing the primary one, before being focused through a small hole in the primary mirror with a convex lens.
Ik you said how the Newtonian and Cassegrain ones are similar, which they are, but I'd say the main difference is that the Newtonian's secondary mirror is at an angle, so the eyepiece and therefore observer would be at the side of the telescope, while the Cassegrain's one has is so the eyepiece and observer are at the back of the telescope.
Refractors vs reflectors:
Nowadays refractors are more popular than reflectors for multiple reasons, such as...
-They are cheaper and lighter (less glass is needed to make mirrors than lenses)
-Image quality is better (lenses have a tendency to not focus the light correctly and absorb some of it, causing chromatic aberration, when an image looks a bit blurry and stretched)
-Lenses in refractors can cause sagging, which will decrease the aperture size.
I'd say the only benefit of refractors is that they let more light in, since they don't have the secondary mirror blocking out any light.
Factors affecting the image produced:
Apertures size and light grasp-The larger the aperture, the more light the telescope can let in and so the fainter objects we can see. The aperture size will be the diameter of the lens/mirror being used as the objective element. Light grasp is just a measure of how much light the telescope is able to collect. You can use the inverse square law when given two telescopes aperture to compare their light grasps (square of aperture A/square of aperture B=diff in light collecting power)
Field of view-The area of sky we are able to observe through a telescope. It is measured in degrees or arc minutes, and the larger it is the more of the sky you will be able to see.
Magnification-The greater the magnification, the larger the object will appear. This doesn't always mean an increase in quality, as increasing magnification does not mean you are changing the focus. Calculated use focal length of objective element/focal length of the eyepiece.
Resolution-How much detail the image is able to show. The higher the resolution, the more detail visible, allowing smaller things to be observed.
I think that's most of the important telescope stuff, since there is also the different EM spectrum types, but they are more topic 16 content.
No idea how helpful this will be since its not even all of topic 11, but hopefully it may help with something

I'm aiming for 9 for as much as I can but I'm getting high 7 and 8s rn so hopefully if I lock in I'll get 9
Wbu?