Re: low-math astronomy jobs

[Gary Karshner <gkarshner@STMARYTX.EDU>]

Vickie,
        Astronomy has a rich if some what fading tradition of amateurs
making major contributions to the field. The mule driver on Mount Wilson
was Milton Humason who then progressed to janitor and finally Astronomer
working with Edwin Hubble on his epic making exploration of the Universe.
Others include E.E. Barnard who started out as a photographer's assistant
then observatory janitor, Russell Porter who designed the 200 inch at Mount
Palomar, and of course the most famous William Herschel  who was a composer
and church organist before being bitten by the astronomy bug.
        One of the nice aspects of astronomy is that there is a fair
amount of fraternization between the amateurs and professionals. It
unfortunately also suffers from the romantic attachments of a great many
who can't overcome their weakness in math.

Gary Karshner
At 06:46 PM 2/18/03 -0600, you wrote:
> It was Clyde Tombaugh, and he got the job by being a very good amateur
> astronomer. See http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ice_fire/9thplant.htm
> for Tombaugh's own account.
>
> Vickie Frohne
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bernard Cleyet [mailto:anngeorg@PACBELL.NET]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 4:32 PM
> To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
> Subject: Re: low-math astronomy jobs
>
>
> Reminds me of a famous astronomer who started out driving mule teams that
> brought equipment up to the top of Mt. Wilson.  I'll bet he became a
> mathephile.
>
> bc
>
> It was really sex:    http://www.nhastro.com/newsletter/2002/News0602.pdf
>
>
>
> Larry Smith wrote:
>
> > I have a former student who loved my astronomy class (particularly the
> > planets) and wants to pursue a career in that direction.  The problem is
> > her math; she either hates it or doesn't do well (maybe both, I don't
> > know).  She asks if there are any jobs out there that have to do with
> > planetary astronomy but which don't require much math.  Any ideas?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Larry
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