From Tuesday 21 November, for five days, The Independent will be offering Astronomy posters – based around themes from Edexcel’s GCSE Astronomy specification - free with every copy of the paper.

The first two posters in the series are glow in the dark.  With words by Sir Patrick Moore, they offer a complete guide to stars and constellations.  The three remaining giant glossy posters in the series are on: the Sun, the Stars, and the Moon.

Each wallchart is full of facts, figures and pictures.  They have been produced using material from Philip’s Guide to Stars and Plants and Complete Guide to Stargazing.

Chair of Examiners for GCSE Astronomy, Nigel Marshall, said: “Posters are a wonderful means of presenting information and concepts in an informative, visual way.  I think this is particularly relevant in Astronomy where lots of exciting images can be combined with numerous facts and figures in order to captivate both Astronomy students and the public at large. Both groups are naturally inquisitive and genuinely interested in Astronomy, and I welcome this initiative by The Independent in producing an inspiring set of posters.”

Edexcel is the only exam board to offer GCSE Astronomy, and it is supported by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.  It is a growing subject and this summer, for the first time since the introduction of the GCSE in the late 1980s, over one thousand candidates sat the GCSE examination in Astronomy; the healthy rise in numbers since the start of the millennium shows every sign of continuing in the coming years.

The Independent’s popular poster series - which most recently featured The World About Us: a series of Science and Geography posters in collaboration with Edexcel - aims to provide a learning tool for students of all ages and interesting snippets of knowledge for all its readers.

The Astronomy series starts on Tuesday 21 November:

• Tuesday 21 November – Stars and Constellations, Part 1
• Wednesday 22 November – Stars and Constellations, Part 2
• Thursday 23 November – The Sun
• Friday 24 November – The Stars
• Saturday 25 November – The Moon

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