Why hello!
The sense I currently have about astronomy, astronomers, and the goals involved is perhaps quite normal. To be a professional astronomer seems to take a significant amount of time in studies, years spent toiling in grad school and beyond as a postdoc and researcher. Then perhaps a career in academia, hard-won and deserved.
It takes a good work ethic and a certain level of intelligence, as well as patience and creativity and pride. An astronomer must be able to stand in awe of the universe and simultaneously label it, unfold it, render it in one dimension so that the world is much less mysterious than it was a moment ago. (Or for some, the opposite -- thinking too hard about something in the field often reveals untold complexities...)
And he needs to enjoy it.
What's the ultimate goal? It's certainly not wealth and fame -- those are attendent much more commonly upon other professions -- but, I think, a chance to resolve your fundamental questions on -- dare I say it? -- life, the universe, and everything.
It's a nigh impossible ambition.
And yet it's a conviction and creed that so many hold onto. The aim of an astonomer is to work hard, perhaps, in order to ascribe some meaning to the vastness we inhabit one miniscule fraction of.
I'm not currently sure this is what I want to do. In a dream world (not the best or first, but very close; in the timeline that includes astronomy), I guess, my goal is to graduate with a doctorate, work in deserted observatories for a while, and move on to a job in industry. How? Well, I've been in love with our sun (yes, it's proprietary) for years. Perhaps there is some more practical application of knowing how the sun works, how it reacts, how the earth reacts to it. There might be some correlated study in the much-hyped "green tech", which is a huge fancy of mine.
I guess I see the world as a multifaceted template, which needs to be slightly better understood. What better way to approach this than through the most far-away, esoteric examples of creation?
Very pretty writing :)
ReplyDeleteI like that you emphasize that it's important to enjoy astronomy. "years spent toiling in grad school" - I should hope not! I see grad school as similar to the rest of my life in astronomy, where I first really experience the day-to-day life of an astronomer. I want it to be fun, where the hard work is something I do willingly because it is exciting. If it were unpleasant, I would probably go find another career.
The Sun is super interesting! I didn't think of it as very interesting at first because it was too close - I wanted to learn about faraway things. But the Sun is our key to unlocking so much of the rest of the Universe - the only star we can study really up close.