How to Become an Astronomer
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Heidi Hammel says astronomers should be well-rounded especially in math, but no one looks for straight A's. Topic: How to Become an Astronomer Heidi Hammel: I remember when I did this big, visible program in Baltimore called "The Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet Crash Into Jupiter." It was a big deal. I was on the nightly news every night for a week. And my local high school in Pennsylvania sent a TV crew down to Baltimore to interview me, and they asked me what was the most important class you took in high school to prepare you to become a world famous scientist? And my answer was Chorus. I had a great Chorus teacher, Sue Shayu [ph?], who was a former Rockette, and she demanded professionalism of her students. And there we were in the chorus, just high school kids, but she made us warm up every time. She told us how to stand, how to hold ourselves, you know, wear lipstick, girls, because the lights will wash you out. She just gave us tips, and she expected us to be professionals. No amateur night in Dixie. And I took that lesson forward with me into whatever I was doing. Whatever I was going into, whether it was going to be chorus or history or astronomy or whatever, do it right. Be a professional. Don't just do a half baked job. Do everything correctly. Get down. Learn the details of what you're going to do. That was by far the most important course for me, Chorus. It also taught me communication skills, and for scientists nowadays, communication skills, whether they are writing skills or oral speaking skills, are incredibly important. So when kids as me what classes do I need to take, I say, "Well, look. You got to take math, because you got to learn the language. And you also have to take communication classes, whether it's an English class or your music classes, band classes to teach you how to cooperate in groups." You don't focus on physics. You make sure you broaden yourself and have a good solid background in many different things. That's what you need to be a good scientist. The science teachers don't like it when I say that. They think you take chemistry, biology. I'm like, yeah, you do need to do those things, but that can come later. Your foundation has to be in basic communication and the basic language skills, and I include math as one of the language skills. Question: What should budding astronomers study? Heidi Hammel: Astronomy and astrophysics is a very interesting field, because you can come out at it from many different angles. When I was in college, I didn't like physics a lot, and I really wasn't very good at physics. And there were a lot of people around me who were really good at physics, I mean, scary good at physics. And they weren't much help to me, because I would say, "How do you do this?" They'd say, "Well, the answer's obvious." And I would sit there going, "Hmm, hmm, not to me." So I chose not to major in physics. A lot of astronomers and astrophysicists, has the word "physics" right in there, do major in physics. I chose, instead, to major in earth and planetary science. And so my background was in courses like geology, geophysics, atmospheric chemistry. But, again, a lot of math courses and basic physics courses, things like Newtonian physics, all the way through quantum physics. I did take those courses. I wasn't good at them, but I passed them. I learned them enough to pass. A C is a passing grade is what I learned in college, and something that I tell young people nowadays a lot. C is a passing grade. You don't need straight A's to be a scientist, despite what you may have heard.
Comments
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good thing am excellent in mathematics,other subjects needs studying.i hope I have Bright future
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i want to do something like this but i cannot do maths
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cool
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I want to home school myself with astronomy.. plz help or suggest any book please I've really got a interest on this subject
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lol c is passing
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come on guys, C is a passing grade; we can do this!! xD
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self obsessed and crazy eyes
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lol @ c being a passing grade. I beat myself up over Bs because all good astrophysics and astronomy colleges need at least a 4.0 GPA and I have a 3.7 as a junior in high school, which just isn't good enough.
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Sigh..... I'm so worried that being 18 and getting a GED diploma means i could never pursue the hard sciences like i want to. I'd love to really understand physics and be able to sink my teeth into astronomy, but it feels as if i could never do it due to my dropping out of high school.
It was just so awful though. Kids were always fighting. And i was so depressed.
But, i figure worrying about my chances and doing nothing isn't the answer. I'm homeschooling myself on the side to get caught up and am going to try excelling in a nearby community college... So that i might impress a university with a good program for astronomy and physics. -
im determined to become an astronomer. Im doing triple science and hopefully will pass in it and go onto doing my A-levels.
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I've always liked Astronomy as a kid. I don't know stars, galaxies, planets, etc. have always interested me. I pretty sure there's more to it then that. But that's what interested me about it. And when you're a kid you really don't stick out with what you say you wan to be. Oh, I want to be a doctor or a lawyer or a professional sports player are among the few. Then next minute you know when they are older they pick different stuff because they see that there are more opportunities in life. And they chose a different path. Like me for instance. Ever since 8th grade I wanted to do something art related. I'm really good at it. Ever since 9th grade I wanted to be an Architect, and that's what I stuck out with til this very day. I'm a college Freshman majoring in Architecture. Now I would like to Minor in Astronomy if that's possible where I'm at or double in Engineering. But the only thing that's holding me back with Astronomy is the chemistry. I hated chemistry when I took it in Highschool. I don't know maybe it was the teacher but it was brutal. I'm pretty sure I got the communication down (I took advanced choir in highschool, was in band in 7th grade, and Architecture requires speaking and working in groups). But the only thing I could do is take a risk and try :)
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I want to be an astronomer but im bad at math
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don't talk to your audience like they're 5
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Who wants to become an astronomer should have courage', intelligent in astronomy and should have intrest in space....
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I'm about to start my last year of highschool and am torn between pursuing my favorite subjects, art or science. Game art and design (which is technically informative science but I count it as art due to the creative aspect. ) or astronomy/ theoretical physics. :-(
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The only thing I need is to better myself in Math. I'm a Senior, so after this year I'll try to find the "best" school for fields "related" to Astronomy, as well as "Gerontology", etc.
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You are so right! You can't really go far without communication in science...
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So good communication and a great understanding will allow me to get far in astronomy??
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I am a physics major right now and I know exactly what Heidi Hammel is talking about. When you try to get help from some of these people all they say is, "well, you have to take the derivative of the function x and use the variable y to get the crosstangent ratio of z, then you have to blah blah blah blah." Meanwhile leaving me completely oblivious to whatever they are talking about and thinking about what kind of sandwich I should make for dinner later. I was interested in Astronomy before, then got disintrested, went through a crisis period and now, have gotten interested in it again. lol. I'm going to not major in physics anymore. That is a given. However, I will look into more astronomy related videos to see if it really is what I want to do. I think that I would like to teach it as well.
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As a high school senior who is avid about astronomy, this video was extremely insightful and gave some invaluable facts and opinions for the future astronomer. A real eye-opener!
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