become an astronomer

And this looks by far to be one of the hardest fields to specialize and get a good job in. The amount of knowledge required in mathematics and physics is astronomical! (pun intended). Not only is it mandatory to study multiple areas of maths and physics but other areas of science or a must too if you want any chance of getting a job in this field. Without a PhD it is pretty much impossible!

Was thinking that maybe Astronomy isn’t for me after all this but I won’t give up just yet. Before I can even begin “proper” astronomy I need to study up on a huge amount of maths and physics. I’ll have to get my whole academic ‘life’ sorted out if I’m going to try and get into this field. It looks like it will require 10 + years of intense study! Another 10 years (or more) as a student? I can’t really predict how I’ll handle that…

At least when it comes down to it I’ll probably have some sort of degree in Maths and/or Physics in the next four years or so. I could always try for a PhD in Maths or Physics… Maybe get into Astronomy once life is a little more steady, because you know, studying for 10 + years will make me extremely poor and in debt (tuition fees) not to mention no life… ( I’m trying to get a life at the moment).

I don’t want to end up as some lonely old man who spends all day indoors forever studying…

What am I saying? I’ll go for that Astronomy PhD! I’ll update on further “progress”/ Steps I’m taking towards achieving this goal.

Wish me luck!

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do in the future – something that will earn me money, something that contributes to world knowledge, and something that is fun. I’ve probably looked at every job from cleaner (literally) right up to things like finance manager and mathematician (Though, I’m lacking in the intelligence department I suppose).
It’s taken me a long time but I think I’ve settled on what I’m going to study for and enjoy doing in the near(ish) future – Astronomy. I know it’s not all looking up at the sky through a telescope and watching comets pass by but it’s at least part of it. Besides, the other random things that you have to do as a professional astronomer might be fun (They’d better be!). I’m going to start doing some independent research in this field and save for some of the necessary tools in this field (Binoculars, Telescope, Books… Well I can probably get a lot of books from the library but there are some advantages to owning a lot of them my self).

I know I have a long way to go but if this is going to be my future I’m sure I can motivate my self and get my self into gear! I’m going to have to fix up a whole lot of other aspects of my life in order to do this though – which mean instead of 3 goals in my list I’m about to have 43! (or close to it!).

I’ll update my progress on here regularly, well I say I will so hopefully I will. Laziness has been known to get the better of me! Which means I must defeat laziness too! Muhahaaha. I feel motivated right now so I’ll add goals while I do and start working on them. :)

So for this goal a few of the things I need to do in the near future are:

- Research Astronomy
- Become a regular learner and contributor to the field (I can post questions and answers as well as other random astronomy related things on a blog or forum or something.. Right?)
- Join an Astronomy club
- Observe the night sky
- Buy things that will allow me to go further into the field (Binoculars, Telecope(s), Camera, Laptop + Astronomy software, etc)
- Study other areas that are necessary for me to advance further still. (Maths, maths, and more maths, Physics, more physics, etc - Wow! This suddenly sounds harder than ever now! It's good to be high on motivation!)

Note to self: Next time you come here you’ll probably randomly skim this post, don’t forget the motivation of your past self! (ie. Me – the guy typing now on Sunday May 31st 2009)