Everybody has made good points here, which basically amount to the
fact that astronomy is a sub-discipline of physics. The ability of a
physicist to teach astronomy, or vice-versa, is purely one of
individual aptitude/attitude, and not their background. Perhaps it
might also help to show the bean counters some graduate curricula in
astronomy, which generally require a number of physics courses (see,
eg. http://reg.ucsc.edu/catalog/astr/, http://astro.uchicago.edu/academics/general.html#ToC3, or http://astron.berkeley.edu/badgrads/rules.html). Astronomy
departments also generally prefer to see their incoming grad students
having physics degrees, rather than astronomy degrees, and often have
astronomy emphasis within a physics major as opposed to having an
astronomy major (see, eg., http://www.astro.ucsc.edu/undergrads.xml,
or http://astro.uchicago.edu/research/undergrad_spec.html). In some
instances, graduate physics courses may be called astronomy courses.
As an example, I took my graduate quantum mechanics at UCSC as an
astronomy course. The course was, however, taught by a physics
professor, and I was side-by-side with physics majors, who were
taking it as a physics course.
Stephen Murray
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Stephen D. Murray
Physicist, A Division
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Email: sdmurray@llnl.gov
Phone: (925) 423-9382
FAX: (925) 423-0925
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