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The PBS series "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan is still the best introduction to the universe around us. Broadcast in 1980, it will seem a little dated, but the enthusiasm with which Sagan describes the cosmos will keep you watching. Below are some clips from the series that I got off of You Tube. Enjoy.

Sagan describes how the constellations came to be.

Sagan on how the suppression of ideas has no place in science

Carl Sagan on birth of Science

Cosmos - Understanding The 4th Dimension

More Cosmos clips are here

The opening quote from the book "Cosmos", and a summary of the episode highlights, courtesy of Wikipedia

Seneca, Book 7, first century "The time will come when diligent research over long periods will bring to light things which now lie hidden. A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject...And so this knowledge will be unfolded only through long successive ages. There will come a time when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them...Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been effaced. Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate...Nature does not reveal her mysteries once and for all."

Episode 1: "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean" Light-years, galaxies, stars, planets, where we are located (the Local Group) Eratosthenes and the circumference of Earth The modern-day city of Alexandria in Egypt The ancient Library of Alexandria The Cosmic Calendar: from the beginning of the universe to the arrival of humans Episode 2: "One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue" In episode 2 Sagan journeys into the bloodstream by pricking his finger. The story of the Heike and artificial selection of crabs resembling samurai warriors Evolution through natural selection The development of life on the Cosmic Calendar, and the Cambrian explosion Animated evolution, from microbes to man Common biochemistry of terrestrial organisms, journey into the cell nucleus DNA and its functions in growth, replication and repair; mutations Creation of the molecules of life in the laboratory; the Miller-Urey experiment Speculation about life in Jupiter's clouds Episode 3: "The Harmony of the Worlds" Astronomy vs. astrology Constellations and ancient astronomy Ptolemy and the geocentric world view Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe Kepler's laws Episode 4: "Heaven and Hell" The Tunguska event, the composition and origin of comets Asteroids and impact craters The controversial theories of Immanuel Velikovsky The planet Venus in fiction and fact Venus as an example of the greenhouse effect Human impact on the global environment Episode 5: "Blues for a Red Planet" H. G. Wells and The War of the Worlds Percival Lowell's false vision of canals on Mars Robert Goddard and early rocket-building The Viking probes and their search for life on Mars The work of Sagan's friend, Wolf V. Vishniac The possibility of terraforming and colonizing Mars Episode 6: "Travelers' Tales" The Netherlands in the 17th century The persecution of Galileo Galilei and his compeers by the Roman Catholic Church for their views on heliocentrism The life and work of father Constantijn and particularly son Christiaan Huygens and his contemporaries The Voyager probes (first images of Jupiter and its moons) Saturn and its system of moons, including Titan Episode 7: "The Backbone of Night" Sagan's childhood in Brooklyn, New York The realization that stars are suns The Milky Way and its history in culture; the mythology of the !Kung bushmen The history of ancient Ionia Anaximander's use of a stick to tell time and season The tyrant Polycrates The Ionian philosophers: Thales, Theodorus, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Aristarchus Teaching children about the cosmos Plato, Aristotle and The Pythagoreans as suppressors of knowledge, advocates of slavery and of epistemic secrecy. Episode 8: "Journeys in Space and Time" Constellations and how they change over time The speed of light and Albert Einstein's theory of relativity Time dilation, redshift, blue shift Leonardo da Vinci's designs and designs for spaceships that could travel near light speed Time travel and its hypothetical effects on human history The origins of the solar system and possible other worlds; the history of life Episode 9: "The Lives of the Stars" Powers of ten, the googol and the googolplex, infinity Atoms (electrons, protons, neutrons) The periodic table of elements The creation of different atomic nuclei in stars The lifecycle of stars; white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes The end of the Sun and of Earth, supernovae, red giants, pulsars Radioactivity and cosmic rays Gravity and its effects; gravity as the curvature of spacetime, the wormhole hypothesis Episode 10: "The Edge of Forever" Sagan at the Very Large ArrayThe origins of the universe, the Big Bang theory Types of galaxies, galactic collisions, quasars The Doppler effect, life and work of Milton L. Humason The four-dimensional and closed universe An infinite universe vs. a god; myths of creation, esp. Hindu cosmology Contracting and re-expanding vs. ever-expanding universe The Very Large Array in New Mexico, dark matter, the multiverse hypothesis Episode 11: "The Persistence of Memory" Bits, the basic units of information The diversity of life in the oceans Whales and their songs The disturbance of the whale communications network by humans Whale hunting DNA and the brain as libraries The structure of the human brain: brain stem, Paul McLean's Triune Brain Model: reptilian brain, limbic system, cerebral cortex The frontal lobes as critical in long term planning Neurons and connections between them, the two brain hemispheres, the corpus callosum The evolution of cities and the history of libraries, books and writing The development of computers and satellites, the potential for global collective intelligence Intelligence on other worlds and the Voyager Golden Record Episode 12: "Encyclopedia Galactica" Betty and Barney Hill abduction and UFOs Jean-François Champollion's translation of Egyptian hieroglyphs The chance of technical civilizations existing elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy; the Drake equation Our way of communicating with extraterrestrials (SETI) A look at a hypothetical encyclopedia consisting of other worlds in the galaxy Episode 13: "Who Speaks for Earth?" The Tlingit and the voyage and encounters of La Pérouse The destruction brought by the Spanish conquistadores Sagan's vision (told as a dream) in which our world was destroyed by nuclear warfare The balance of terror on the Earth today The destruction of the Library of Alexandria and murder of Hypatia The beginning of the universe and good endeavors of our civilization Sagan's plea to cherish life and continue our journey to the cosmos