What do astronomers do?
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Greetings,\n\nWe astronomers study many different aspects of the universe.\n\nThere are radio astronomers who study the radio waves emanating from many different objects in the universe from black holes to listening for ET.\n\nThere are astronomers who specialize in using X-rays to view different objects in the sky, such as the Chandra X-ray observatory.\n\nThere are astronomers such as myself who are amateurs that simply enjoy pointing our telescopes at objects and viewing them.\n\nCheck out the links at the bottom.\n\n-matt
672695
You need a PhD to be a professional astronomer. Many universities, such as the University of Texas, offer PhD astronomy programs, but many astronomers have physics degrees. In spite of what you may have heard, the pay is not high. If you want to make money, become an investment banker or something like that. You become an astronomer for the love of the science and definitely NOT for the money.
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Astronomy, of course.\nPhysics\nChemistry\nCalculus\nTrigonometry\nStatistics\nResearch report writing\nComputer Programming
149595
Sure, astronomers just love stars.
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Analyzing light can tell you almost anything about the universe.  You can calculate just how excited every photon is, what color or what "brand" of light is emitted from any given star in the entire visible universe.  Photons behave certain ways when they interact with certain substances, so how light bounces or reflects or refracts or in other ways interacts with planets and their atmospheres can give us an idea as to what makes it up.  By combining what we can determine from gravitational influence and the amount of energy and type of light emitted from a star, we can find out how massive a star is and what makes it up.  Light is really the only data we have about the universe--luckily, light is qualitative and quantitative and we can learn a heck of a lot from it.  Every single reaction that takes place on an astronomical scale has a tag associated with it--something it gives off 999,999 times out of a million, where if astronomers see it, they know what's going on.  By seeing light--which is more than visible light, but radio waves, UV rays, and gamma rays--they can postulate anything that's going on, even billion of light years away.
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this question is miscategorized.  this is not a question about astronomy.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy
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Because it is cool! I want to be astronomer too :) Picture yourself examining a blackhole or a comet or a double star! Or just watching the stars with huge telescope! Or analyse radio noise and try to figure out a pattern in it and discover that there was a star that is no more somewhere. Man, it is cool! :)
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Well you can use spectroscopy to find out the composition of distant objects in space.  IE if a star emits light near (usually a slight red shift from distant objects) the emission lines of helium or mercury you could conclude that those elements are present.\n\nMike
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None, they up in the Sky, best seen at night. The Earth does revolve around a Big Star that can actually be seen in the day and not night. Make for a good Word Play/Riddle question. ;-D
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If you whole heartedly like and do what you do then not only Astronomy, any job is a fun job. When you do such a fun job time flies. Astronomy is sure one such profession, where you will never feel tired of it. While optical astronomers observe in the night, the radio astronomers observe celestial sources both in the day and night. Rain, Clouds, Sunlight don't affect the observations of radio sources. Similarly astronomy in other frequencies of observations such as Gamma ray, X-ray, Ultraviolet, Infrared and microwave each have different types of advantages and restrictions.\n\nAstronomy is one of the oldest professions in the human society.\nModern day equipments and computers have made the astronomical observations much easier now than it used to be in the past.
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If your telescope has a finder scope (a much smaller telescope mounted on the main telescope) stick with observing objects that you can locate in it. In order to observe more distant objects that you can't see with either your naked eye or the finder scope, you'll need to learn about the celestial coordinate system (right ascension and declination) There are hundreds of fascinating objects that even smaller telescopes can bring into your vision, but can't be easily located without knowing their celestial coordinates and how to locate those coordinates.
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Is this a standard question in astronomy homework?  It gets asked a little too often to be a coincidental thirst for knowledge.\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Agu1toeosu1MirtrYkXZQVsjzKIX?qid=20061013023802AATDt5Y\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AprgZ3ICmyvSAZ.cK9LN5rgjzKIX?qid=20060924211116AASEnwp\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmA29TqByz33O8pSGQUeJLcjzKIX?qid=20060822235325AAARfzh\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgQ7pQ3Bm4bBZnfRUgHejhUjzKIX?qid=20061015210030AAe3uvt\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoF_RSBfWG0bstRwzDIborMjzKIX?qid=20061015070654AACFesk\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsTNN2VQaDQmMZBch54BvIwjzKIX?qid=20060704225358AAY06Hm\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArosjdOUmz7RNlAJ7JzHPQ4jzKIX?qid=20061118050030AAc3AHz\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlqUAlScbWChPZASbYViesEjzKIX?qid=20061002214042AAbR915\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Av40M7VHPdYPDKbGYwh0UPAjzKIX?qid=20061018230921AAOnp6k
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Refer to an electromagnetic spectrum.\nRadiation is emission and propagation and emission of energy in the form of rays or waves (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q...\nIn other words as long as waves travel there is radiation.\nThere are two types of radiation, the ionizing (harmful) radiation and the non-ionizing (not harmful) radiation.\nYou can see it in a magnetic spectrum. High frequency and low wavelength are those ionizing radiation. High wavelenth and low frequency are those non-ionizing radiation. Penetration of these waves are dependent on their frequencies. High frequencies are able to tranmsmit objects.\nFrom the magnetic spectrum there are different kinds of waves, (from non-ionizing to ionizing) radiowaves, microwaves, infrared, white light, UV, x-rays, gamma rays cosmic rays. These waves travel in a straight line unless scattered by hitting an object or being blocked or interrupted or you know I mean.\nThat's why astronomers detect radiowaves from the outerspace.
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astronomy and astrology
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The rest of your life. You will need a HEAVY background in mathematics and physics as well as Astronomy. Most high level astronomers do actually have a doctorate in the field, which is a 7-8 year degree. plus the mathematics and physics. You will be studying and learning the rest of your life.
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whew, all this hostility! what did we ever do to you besides offer useful information and cures for disease?\n\nscientists are out there to discover how the world works, to the benefit of the residents of this planet.\n\nwe're not out to tell people what to believe, we're not out to disprove anyone's personal convictions. we don't threaten people with hellfire and damnation because of their career choice. (funny, i know tons of religious people who ARE out to do just those things...) \n\nwe're here to find out how things work. we're out there finding out how the body works, what happened a long time ago, how the patterns of the world's climates are changing; we're discovering new species of animals, learning more about the solar system, and much much more.\n\nwe're not gods. we never claimed to be. we never will.
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- Get a sky map.\n- Do some easy reading.\n- Do some naked eye study of the sky.\n- Get a pair of binoculars - telescopes at the \n  beginning is not so good - not so easy to \n  carry around - You may lose interest.\n- Join some astronomy club.\n- Attend classes, seminars, start parties.