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chris
Student
Yorba Linda, California
1
Question
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What are your day to day goals as an astronomer?
I'm doing a career exploration project for my Avid 11 class. Being an astronomer seemed the most interesting to me out of all the choices.
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2 answers
Semirah Dolan ☁️
Solution Engineer
6
Answers
Boston, Massachusetts
Updated
Semirah’s Answer
I'm not an astronomer but an alumna of my university was and here is some advice he shared with us:
The daily tasks and activities of an astronomer can vary widely depending on their area of research and the type of institution or organization they work for. However, there are some commonalities among many astronomers.
Some common tasks that an astronomer might do on a daily basis include:
- Analyzing data from telescopes and other astronomical instruments
- Writing code to process and analyze data
- Collaborating with other researchers on projects and papers
- Giving presentations about their research at conferences or meetings
- Keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in their field by reading scientific journals
- Teaching classes or mentoring students
- Preparing proposals to secure funding for research projects
- Planning observations with telescopes and other instruments
- Participating in the design, construction, and testing of new telescopes and instruments.
- An astronomer at a research institution will often spend a lot of time working on their own research projects, while those at a university will also have teaching responsibilities. An astronomer at a government observatory or a national lab will have additional responsibilities such as maintaining the telescopes and instruments they use, and they may need to work on different projects with different teams.
Astronomy is one of the field that has a lot of night work, so many astronomers spend a significant portion of their time observing at night, either at telescopes on Earth or from space-based observatories. This means that their work schedule can be quite different from that of a 9-to-5 office worker.
In short, a day in the life of an astronomer can be varied, with a mix of data analysis, collaboration, teaching and observations, and can be both challenging and rewarding.
good luck!
The daily tasks and activities of an astronomer can vary widely depending on their area of research and the type of institution or organization they work for. However, there are some commonalities among many astronomers.
Some common tasks that an astronomer might do on a daily basis include:
- Analyzing data from telescopes and other astronomical instruments
- Writing code to process and analyze data
- Collaborating with other researchers on projects and papers
- Giving presentations about their research at conferences or meetings
- Keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in their field by reading scientific journals
- Teaching classes or mentoring students
- Preparing proposals to secure funding for research projects
- Planning observations with telescopes and other instruments
- Participating in the design, construction, and testing of new telescopes and instruments.
- An astronomer at a research institution will often spend a lot of time working on their own research projects, while those at a university will also have teaching responsibilities. An astronomer at a government observatory or a national lab will have additional responsibilities such as maintaining the telescopes and instruments they use, and they may need to work on different projects with different teams.
Astronomy is one of the field that has a lot of night work, so many astronomers spend a significant portion of their time observing at night, either at telescopes on Earth or from space-based observatories. This means that their work schedule can be quite different from that of a 9-to-5 office worker.
In short, a day in the life of an astronomer can be varied, with a mix of data analysis, collaboration, teaching and observations, and can be both challenging and rewarding.
good luck!
You rock! This advice is very helpful.
chris
Joseph Neilson
Radiation Detection Physicist
224
Answers
Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Updated
Joseph’s Answer
That's a really interesting question. I'm a nuclear physicist rather than an astronomer but studied an undergraduate degree in astrophysics before figuring out I was better suited to my slightly different area of physics - so I've got a reasonable idea of what astronomers spend their time doing.
Semirah's answer covers a lot of the typical tasks quite well, and makes the important point that there's many different kinds of role in astronomy, and astronomers working on different things or at different places are likely to be doing quite different things and have quite different daily goals. Some astronomers will do a little bit of each of those sorts of things, some will be focused much more on particular aspects and not others. I'll perhaps try to give a few more concrete examples of day-to-day goals different astronomers might have.
Most astronomers are scientific researchers, so a lot of daily goals are going to be research oriented - things like
"make a spreadsheet to fit the best curve to this data",
"calculate the capability of telescope needed to see certain objects at different distances"
"modify this computer code to simulate a particular kind of star/galaxy etc",
"write a section of a journal paper",
"write a proposal for funding a particular piece of research"
"prepare a presentation on this bit of research"
Depending on the sort of astronomy, how you get your data can be quite different and have different associated goals.
Some astronomers using ground-based telescopes will go out to the telescopes with goals like "get an image of these specific bits of sky" and/or "get emission spectra of these stars". However, a lot of larger observatories (and certainly anything satellite-based like Hubble and JWST) have separate astronomy technicians or programmed automatic instruments, and the scientists will just be sent the data.
Teaching is often a big part of academic astronomy, so goals like "prepare lecture slides" and "mark student answer papers" are fairly common. Astronomers outside of academia are often in public-facing roles like in planetariums, museums and public observatories, so also have similar goals in terms of preparing public talks etc.
Semirah's answer covers a lot of the typical tasks quite well, and makes the important point that there's many different kinds of role in astronomy, and astronomers working on different things or at different places are likely to be doing quite different things and have quite different daily goals. Some astronomers will do a little bit of each of those sorts of things, some will be focused much more on particular aspects and not others. I'll perhaps try to give a few more concrete examples of day-to-day goals different astronomers might have.
Most astronomers are scientific researchers, so a lot of daily goals are going to be research oriented - things like
"make a spreadsheet to fit the best curve to this data",
"calculate the capability of telescope needed to see certain objects at different distances"
"modify this computer code to simulate a particular kind of star/galaxy etc",
"write a section of a journal paper",
"write a proposal for funding a particular piece of research"
"prepare a presentation on this bit of research"
Depending on the sort of astronomy, how you get your data can be quite different and have different associated goals.
Some astronomers using ground-based telescopes will go out to the telescopes with goals like "get an image of these specific bits of sky" and/or "get emission spectra of these stars". However, a lot of larger observatories (and certainly anything satellite-based like Hubble and JWST) have separate astronomy technicians or programmed automatic instruments, and the scientists will just be sent the data.
Teaching is often a big part of academic astronomy, so goals like "prepare lecture slides" and "mark student answer papers" are fairly common. Astronomers outside of academia are often in public-facing roles like in planetariums, museums and public observatories, so also have similar goals in terms of preparing public talks etc.