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thinking about space and the stars above
is a topic that inspires or in many
people maybe it inspires you so much
that you want to study astronomy and
make it your full-time job perhaps you
know that astronomy and astrophysics
research is a blend of physics math
chemistry and computer science or maybe
you are yet to find that out whatever
motivates you do be prepared for the
fact that most people will think you
write horoscopes when you tell them what
your major is first off what's the
difference between astronomy and
astrophysics well especially for the
purpose of an undergrad degree there
really is no difference most people will
use the words interchangeably
astrophysics may technically study more
of the physical processes relating to
space but both subjects involve physics
so I'm just going to say Astro from now
on to get an Astro degree you will
probably start off taking courses that
cover the basics of physics maths and
computer science plus a couple of
specific SEO courses covering stellar
evolution the hertzsprung-russell
diagram
exoplanets galaxies structure
interstellar dust Hubble's law dark
matter and dark energy this shouldn't be
too hard if you've done any reading or
independent research on the subject even
more so than physics astronomy attracts
people who are really passionate about
the subject from a point of interest
rather than job marketability so you
probably know a bit about these subjects
already moving into higher years you
will cover astronomical imaging usually
through a hands-on course where you use
computer programs such as ds9 MATLAB and
Python to process images apply filters
perform astrology which is measuring
positions of stars and spectroscopy this
is where you really start to see the
benefit of taking computer science
courses astronomy involves a lot of art
and it's not very useful to you unless
you know how to manipulate it
additional Astro courses might go
further in depth about topics like
nucleosynthesis which is how elements
are created or solar system astronomy
cosmology which covers the Big Bang and
origin of the universe astroparticle
physics neutrino astronomy planet
searching or even gravitational waves
how much you get to do depends on which
unis you're at where I did undergrad
there were only a couple of higher level
Astro courses and truth be told that
even though I took some Astro I ended up
majoring in physics and math instead
because those were the subjects that
were really the grunt work behind the
Astro topics and I was more interested
in them you will not be able to do
astronomy without some solid knowledge
also in linear algebra classical
mechanics nuclear physics particle
physics orbital dynamics and
differential equations and unlike some
Astro ideas these topics are harder to
teach yourself as sort of a side hobby
there are plenty of cool opportunities
for the Astro major a big one is working
in research and working in any of the
amazing observatories all over the world
either as a scientist or a technical
staff or an outreach coordinator since
you'll have math physics and Comp
science skills as well you can also work
for companies that need someone
technically minded you could develop
scientific software or electronics and
optics systems you could work in science
communication management or as a patent
agent like Einstein one thing you won't
be doing much of whilst studying
astronomy is looking through a telescope
you might do that for fun with your
friends but professional astronomy uses
huge telescopes that record data
straight on to CCD cameras and then you
are sent the data to process you could
be a successful astronomer without even
using a telescope if you do want to use
an instrument for yourself then get
prepared for some field trips pulling
all-nighters to gather data it's an
exciting time in the Astronomy community
there are some massive new global
projects going ahead such as the giant
Magellan telescope being built in Chile
ready in 2023
then there's the James Webb Space
Telescope being launched in 2019 and the
new era of gravitational wave astronomy
so in fact it's a great time to get
involved as there will be a lot of data
meeting curious people to use it and
find out new truths about the universe
so good luck