Want to be an

astronomer?

A 4000 year old observatory, built by/for astronomers. What is it?

Sailors had to use astronomy to find their way. Even Christopher Columbus in 1504 used his knowledge of astronomy to trick the natives into feeding his crew by predicting an eclipse

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) - probably the most famous visual observer, a VERY

interesting character...

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) -first to report use of the telescope for astronomy

1920s-1930s

Edwin P. Hubble

1920s-1930s

1920s-1930s

Bernard Lyot

1950s- radio astronomy

Some astronomers work underground...

Homestake mine Neutrino Observatory

1990s Hubble Space Telescope

Many astronomers use small telescopes- the STARE project finds planets around other stars.

Tim Brown, NCAR, ca. 2000

Many of us use spacecraft, like RHESSI

21st Century. 25 feet diameter telescopes. Gemini

Those computers, you'd better like them, we use them all the time.

Things astronomers do..

study the universe and have lots of fun doing it!

Design, build, use telescopes, spacecraft, cameras etc (computers)

Analyse data (computers)

Build theoretical models (pencil+paper, computer)

Read lots of research

Publish results

Educate/supervise students, talk to schoolkids!

Go to great places (observatories, eclipses, meetings, the Space Station..)

To become an astronomer, you need to

- want to (a lot)

- really stick with it!

- be good at math, science (physics, chemistry or biology)

- get bachelor's, master's (PhD) degrees

- want to (really a lot).