WHAT DO YOU CALL YOURSELF?

Holmes 17P--a comet that made a sudden change in its brightness that members of LASS observed from Ft Griffin in late Dec. 2009.


When I was actively flying in the Air Force, I commonly referred to myself as a pilot.  For most purposes that described my work well enough so that folks generally acquainted with the Air Force knew that I wasn't a navigator, mechanic, desk jockey, etc. But in reality, it was a very generic term.  Sometimes, if the person was really interested in what I did, they might ask what kind of aircraft I flew.  Another generic answer might be---fighters, bombers, transport, tanker, etc.  From there someone might even venture to ask you what specific aircraft you actually flew.  Now we are getting down to the nitty/gritty. I might answer with the term--F4C or maybe RF4C.  There is a ton of difference in the missions that these two aircraft can perform but they are basically the same aircraft.-----EXCEPT----one carries bombs and guns and one ONLY carries cameras.  Well, I think you might be getting the point.  Even tho I was an AF pilot, I flew a very specific aircraft and I was trained for that very specific mission.  As a pilot I could be trained, or qualified, to fly different a aircraft with a different mission, but generally speaking, I would only be qualified in one type of aircraft at any given time.


Enough of a history lesson AF pilots---let's get to the point---in terms of astronomy, what do you call yourself or even better, what are you actually qualified to do?  I'll give you some basic hints for what you might want to describe yourself as being, or better yet, what you might want friends and acquaintances to think you are.


The first one might be entitled "astronomer". Go back and read the first paragraph again---that is the same generic term as "pilot".   Folks not to well acquainted with the term might think of you as one crazy dude that stays up all hours of the night gazing at the sky. They might consider you a brick or two short of a full load but in general they would think of you as a person that knew his way around the night sky and maybe even capable of calling the name of a few stars.  In reality, I think of a person who claims the title of "Astronomer" as one who has been formally trained in the science of astronomy---a person with a college degree in the subject.  Some might even want to call that person a "Professional Astronomer".  At one time I thought of this individual as someone who actually worked at an observatory or maybe taught astronomy in a classroom.  With computers and remotely controlled telescopes, folks working at this level no longer have to spend even one night in a cold dark observatory--they just tell some remote telescope where to look and at what time to look with either visual or other various types of monitoring devices and when the task is completed they have the information transmitted to their comfortable working location for study and analysis.  This individual would have all the attributes of the names I will refer to later but I would consider them to be at the top of the heap.


The next term, or name, I want to use is "amateur astronomer".  Most folks would think of this guy or gal as one crazy dude who stays up all hours of the light looking at the night sky.  Still one or two bricks short of a full load.  Do you recognize that description as the same as in the paragraph above?  But the folks that work at this level in the field of astronomy are really quite varied.  Many have a lot of professional training and many are very highly trained individuals who are extremely dedicated to the study of astronomy.  Most of them have a fortune tied up in astronomy observing gear and are quite capable of competing with and often outstripping the professional in the field of new discoveries. They may have a formally outfitted observatory in their backyard or maybe just a very good telescope that they move in and out of a garage or other place of storage. Don't let the word "amateur" fool you here. They may not be making a living using their astronomy talents but they aren't the typical unconcerned, uninformed guy on the street.


Next, I want to address a group of people who are very connected to astronomy and may or may not be very active in looking at the night sky.  Again many would classify this person as a crazy dude that stays up until all hours of the night looking at the night sky and is two bricks short of a full load.  Notice how that term (my own rendition) keeps popping up when it comes to astronomy?  I think the reason  so many people don't understand astronomy is because those of us that are involved on any level are not very good at telling others what observing is all about.  Incidentally, I call this latest group "backyard observers".  Well, how would you go about defining a backyard observer? (we're not talking about someone who observes backyards here).


This rather loose term fits most of the folks that I have known or met in my connections with astronomy. They probably own a telescope that varies from a typical 100 mm refractor up to and including something along the lines of a 36 inch dobson