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Ask Slashdot: How To Pick Up Astronomy and Physics As an Adult?
First time accepted submitter samalex01 (1290786) writes "I'm 38, married, two young kids, and I have a nice job in the IT industry, but since I was a kid I've had this deep love and passion for astronomy and astrophysics. This love and passion though never evolved into any formal education or anything beyond just a distant fascination as I got out of high school, into college, and started going through life on more of an IT career path. So my question, now that I'm 38 is there any hope that I could start learning more about astronomy or physics to make it more than just a hobby? I don't expect to be a Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson, but I'd love to have enough knowledge in these subjects to research and experiment to the point where I could possibly start contributing back to the field. MIT Open Courseware has some online courses for free that cover these topics, but given I can only spend maybe 10 hours a week on this would it be a pointless venture? Not to mention my mind isn't as sharp now as it was 20 years ago when I graduated high school. Thanks for any advice or suggestions."
Honestly, one of the most exciting things that I did was to take an overnight tour at Kitt Peak. They've dedicated one of their older optical telescopes that's not really adequate for leading-edge science anymore to use for public outreach, and seeing the Jovian moons so clearly was very exciting and made it easier to want to continue.
It's probably safe to accept that you'll be a consumer of science rather than a producer of it, but that's okay. Go camping with a large telescope and enjoy the world. Buy books or programs that let you track the objects of the night sky. Look at what NASA, the ESA, and IAU release.
If you're lucky you'll identify a new asteroid or comet.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I went to an Ivy League school, and we actually had a professional astronomer visit and beg us not to try to get a job in the field! There are NO jobs in the field, at least paying jobs.
Nope.
I've always had a fascination with bio-chem. Got my InfoSci degree but toying with going back on a chem track.
Look up "Galaxy Zoo". You can start contributing today.
As for classes, start reading. Find out which books are used for the courses and buy the books and read them even if you cannot take the courses.
"How can one human being be inferior to another? In all matters of discipline, one will be useless unless he has great pride. Unless one is determined to move the clan by himself, all his discipline will come to naught. Although, like a tea kettle, it is easy for one's enthusiasm to cool, there is a way to keep this from happening. My own vows are the following:
Never be outdone in the Way of the Samurai.
To be of good use to the master.
To be filial toward my parents.
To manifest great compassion, and to act for the sake of Man.
If one dedicates these four vows to the gods and Buddhas every morning, he will have the strength of two men and will never slip backward. One must edge forward like the inchworm, bit by bit. The gods and Buddhas, too, first started with a vow." - Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Hit the local community college. At one class per term you can brush up on math and after that's all fresh take a physics/chemistry/astronomy class as you deem appropriate. Once you have the basics down then move on to the MOOCs at least that's my plan.
Brush up on calculus. Without math, astrophysics, well, anything, really, is just playing with Legos. Khan Academy or a million other sites can assist your math textbook self-study. From there, get an Astrophysics "required courses" guide from a university and have at. Oh, be sure to skip the humanities and other useless classes. O:-)
I can't give you any specific advice, but maybe a local astronomy club?
I know one of the people who discovered Hale-Bopp is a gifted amateur, and I'm quite certain lots of stuff by amateurs happens which is pretty cool.
In fact, I get the impression lots of amateurs can give coverage which the "pros" can't really do just because of the sheer number of amateurs.
Good luck with it. Hopefully people can point you at more concrete stuff, but you'd hardly be the first amateur who contributed something to the field if you get there.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The Teaching Company has some awesome courses on those topics. Link: http://www.thegreatcourses.com... They are taught by college professors and intended for audiences of educated adults, but not those who have majored in the topics of interest. These are a good place to start. With 10 hours a week to watch these, you can pick up quite a bit of background and then go from there. I've watched dozens of their courses and am always impressed! You can often find them used on Amazon for much cheap, and I've even seen them at my local library.
1) Find your local planetarium and get involved. They may need/want volunteers to conduct shows, etc.
2) Find a local community college that offers an AA in astronomy or similar field.
Now, these may be unreliable for you, but the community college I work at has both an AA for astronomy, one for physics (both for transferring to a state university) but we also have a kick ass planetarium that is managed by one of the new Star Gazers. So, at least if you are in N Florida, it could work.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Um, "What's your sign?". Best used in Discos.
Hi there, :) But in any case, I have found that observing the night sky and reading about what you are looking at is a great way to get started. "Oh, that's a galaxy... oh that's a nebula... oh that start might go supernova..." etc. It's also a good way to see if you're serious about making it more than a hobby or if it's just a pipedream "I wish I could be an astrophysicist but I don't have the motivation to study physics." etc etc...
You could start with some telescoping! And from there, migrate to astrophotography. It's a fun way to get started. I have been getting into this for the past few years, and it's a lot of fun. I'm not yet at the point where I'm contributing to science, but eventually I'd like to maybe try to find an exoplanet, take a video of the space station as it flies overhead, or image a spy satellite. Your science goals may vary
Good luck, and clear skies :)
Kerbal Space Program / Orbiter
It's unlikely you can make the transition to working in the field without some really major sacrifices. (And if you do, it will probably be more on the computational side.) But if you love it for it's own sake I'd suggest talking to local labs and seeing if you can get involved in any projects - especially projects where you can work remotely at least part of the time, since your time is limited. And as a volunteer, you often get to avoid some of the more tedious bits that people who are being paid have to work on. My experience is that people with solid computer skills are needed, and people who will work are needed, and there's way more cool work to be done than there are money and people to do it.
And, of course, if there are any opportunities for you to work in a paid capacity, you'll be in the perfect position to hear about them.
I made the transition from tech to computational biochemistry to neurobio - but I had a lot of stock options, and I've been willing to become a grad student, and live mostly like a grad student, which is hard to do when you have a family. And while biomed funding has been cut, there's a lot more of it out there to begin with.
(I'm not generically saying that people should work for free, BTW. I know for me, research turned out to be what I wanted to be doing when I wasn't worrying about money. Though, um, then there were a couple of stock market crashes...)
I can only spend maybe 10 hours a week on this
Since you already have a full life, something would have to give. The amount of time you estimate to be available would get to hobby level: the same as the other thousands of amateur astronomers in the country. But it's not enough to do any serious studying, get qualified or do research to a publishable quality.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Hit your local library. Better: get a college astronomy textbook at a thrift store or used on Amazon. It needn't be the newest edition--the fundamentals haven't changed.
Find an amateur Astronomy club in your area. Go to their events. Meet people. Learn things. Look at shit.
There are a lot of amateurs that hunt comets and asteroids.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
As a family man, finding a topic that can involve the kids may fit into your life better. If you like making, optical telescopes can be rewarding. There's the optics, telescope manufacturing and sky trackers (robotics). Nowadays digital photography goes with telescopes.
If you really want to contribute peripherally, there are lots of open data sets. Contributing code is especially useful.
WTF?
While I can't swim laps or run miles as fast as I could when I was 20, at 48 I sure as hell can out think my younger self.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Internet?
If anyone on Slashdot has made a major career shift into the sciences later in life, I would be very interested to hear that story.
I recommend "The Theoretical Minimum" books as a good starter to get you through to the level of mathematics needed to be able to read the quantum math and vector/tensor calculus used in field equations. Statistical calculus also.
Once you have these under your belt, comprehending the real physics textbooks and papers will be unlocked.
This stuff is not hard are impenetrable, but the language is if you don't know it. The language isn't hard or impenetrable. E.G. Vector calculus is much simpler that algebra. Just find a good book or teacher that doesn't blind you with procedure over concepts.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
PhD candidate here: are you in the 434 or 919 areas? If so, tell me and I we'll get coffee and see if setting up scheduled lunches gets us somewhere.
If not, Craigslist. Type "physics" or "physicist" in the meetup section of Craigslist and you'll find lots of budding graduate students or new professors that live to meet people like you.
I recall hearing a few stories about amateur astronomers and/or teams detecting exoplanets. See this previous Slashdot article, for example:
http://science.slashdot.org/st...
Is this the kind of thing that you're interested in?
I've been a physics professor at a large public university for 22 years, and have taught many introductory classes. (Yes, we are innovating our teaching with new techniques -- different question.)
You will never learn anything by reading books or watching videos. The only way to learn physics is by working problems. Hard problems, that make you sweat, and lots of them. But you can do this, and with the online resources you could be successful. Also you can pace yourself.
Ten hours per week is one class. Start with calculus based mechanics, (kinematics, Newton's laws, work-energy theorem, conservation of momentum, energy, and angular momentum.) If you can do the problems in a standard university physics book, then move on to electricity and magnetism. If you get through that and you don't think Maxwell's equations are the most awesome thing ever, then stop.
Also, never be afraid to learn your math in a physics course. It's the best way.
Good luck! You could really enjoy this if you will truly work at it for 10 hours per week as you suggest. But like dieting, you have to commit.
—George
You mentioned online courses. There are plenty of good quality ones these days. Some you're expected to work to a particular schedule, some you can do at your own pace. 10 hours a week is plenty.
Wrong! Unless you have early onset Alzheimer's, your brain can be as sharp or sharper than it was in high school. I'm 49 and doing 2nd year university math, physics and statistics and I'm MUCH better at any of them than I was when I graduated high school.
Suggestions:
1. Join an astronomy club (mentioned above, but I'd reinforce it). See the wonder, gain experience and confidence from others.
2. Buy a small telescope with a motorized mount and learn to do some astrophotography
3. Do a course or two on edX or coursera - the way to get better at running is to run, the way to get better at science is to do science.
4. Reading books is good. Doing what the book says is much better.
Your mind is saying "feed me" so go feed it. You won't regret it.
Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
It's too late: when you're pushing 40 and have a family, you won't have the time or the ability to concentrate on stuff that would have taken off a decade from your youth to understand. It will be a bizzarre and expensive hobby (in the case of astronomy) that you will be forced to abandon sooner or later due to lack of time or pressure from your family, because the time you pour into it is not time you can dedicate to them. Moreover, you can't ever make a career out of it. Ever. You should have decided it early. Maybe you had half an idea of going into science but then decided otherwise because this economy dictates that an interest in science is an interest in unemployment. Come on, get a grip on reality, do you really think you could have been one of the talented ones? For every successful scientist there are a ten thousand angry never-have-beens who flip burgers and sweep floors regretting the time and the chances lost forever. The time dedicated to hard study, that never amounted to anything and left them too old to change careers and with no marketable skills. Get over this midlife crisis, crawl back to your bleak existence and be content with it. It's all you will ever have, and be grateful you can still enjoy it.
Kerbal Space Program
For physics, start by reading an intro textbook.
Be sure to solve the problems at the end of the chapters. You will know physics when you can solve physics problems. If you're not interested in solving the problems, just read some pop physics books.
For astronomy, I would be of no help whatsoever. The math is easier, though; if you can use the Pythagorean Theorem, you're good (I hear).
My background: 36, a Ph.D. in physics, and I work at New York tech startups.
Google it. Lots of amateurs make astronomical discoveries and contribute to observational astronomy. This might not be what you want, but as others have said, doing astronomy as a job is nearly impossible. Good friend of mine has been a 90% sysadmin / 10% researcher at a top university for a decade, and he's the only one of his friends with astrophysics PhD's doing at least some astronomy. He's actually had grants and time on the Hubble, but it's still a 10% thing. But his friends are mostly in programming or banking, i.e. 0% astronomy, so he's the lucky one.
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=amateurs%20contributing%20to%20astronomy
I am a phd student in physics. I started the same year as an electrician about your age. I'm not sure if he quit his job or went down in time.
But he manages very well.
He's only a few years behind me, and about to finish his masters degree. He's even dyslexic, so I'm quite impressed by him.
The Mechanical Universe video series is a great learning tool for physics. http://www.learner.org/resourc... Or, check out the courses at www.edx.org some free, some paid if you want a certificate.
The best place to start is by connecting with other people who share the same passions as you. I've similarly been fascinated by astronomy since I was a young child. A few years ago I rekindled my interest by buying a telescope and joining a club in Pittsburgh. I learned more from a few casual conversations with members than I had in months and months of reading and practicing on my own. Now I practice astrophotography and engage in lots of educational and community outreach events, and I owe just about everything to the club I joined. Best of luck, and clear skies!
http://theoreticalminimum.com/courses
Highly recommend. They are available on youtube.
Choose an area that interests you and watch as much as you like / understand.
Core courses;
Classical Mechanics
Quantum Mechanics
Special Relativity and Electrodynamics
General Relativity
Cosmology
Statistical Mechanics
Supplemental Courses;
Advanced Quantum Mechanics
Higgs Boson
Quantum Entanglement
Relativity
Particle Physics - Basic Concepts
Particle Physics - Standard Model
Particle Physics - Supersymetery and Grand Unification
String Theory
Cosmology and Black Holes
You pick up astronomy with Archimede's lever, duh!
I too have a love affair with Physics, but I betrayed her to get into computer science (and I still feel bad about it, even though I know it was the right decision). My recommendation: pick up a university textbook. Start with Newtonian mechanics, and do the exercises. One of the pure pleasures of physics is to incrementally understand how the world around us works. Do MOOCS at the same time. And try to find the old Russian books of Physics exercises. When I was young they were a total pleasure to learn from. I know they are floating around on the Internet.
--a disciple of Sagan
First, don't waste your time with wild goose chases. Read Miles work and you'll understand what I mean. Might start with his paper on string theory. http://milesmathis.com/string....
If you have a passion for astronomy, you will find the time. If you want to contribute back to the field, find a very narrow open problem and dive as deep as possible into it. That is the fastest way to discover what you don't know yet. The bleeding edge of research is being done by PhD students. Scanning recent PhD dissertations will give you some ideas and areas to consider. Ignore anyone telling you "no". Just do it.
It depends critically what you mean by 'more than a hobby'. First, context: I am a profession astronomer with a PhD in physics, married to a high-energy physicist.
If you just want to be able to understand astronomy or physics research better than you do now, you can at least take the introductory material through MOOCs and reading. The more advanced undergrad stuff will be harder, so you would have to be very self motivated through reading and forcing yourself to do problems. Really understanding research, to the point where you are reading xxx.arxiv.org papers, will require the equivalent of a PhD.
If you want to do full-fledged research, you pretty much need to go back to school full time, ultimately getting a PhD. There is really no good way around this unless you are a genius -- and if you are, you don't need my advice. Sorry, reading books and taking online classes simply won't cut it here. There was one person in my graduate program at Berkeley who had taken a number of years off, then come back for their PhD, so it is possible, but you will have to work hard to fill in your missing undergraduate knowledge -- and to convince the admissions committee to let you in.
If you want to be able to contribute to astronomy research, without it really being a career, there are things that serious amateur astronomers have been quite successful participating in, like extrasolar planet transits or SN searches (these days, more the former than the latter). You wouldn't necessarily need to go beyond the introductory level undergraduate stuff to take this route. However, this option doesn't really exist for physics, which tends to be much more equipment intensive.
Go for it, don't quit your day job, and worst case scenario you never manage to contribute anything major to the field, but you gain a greater understanding of something you find interesting. Best case scenario you excel discover all the mysteries of the universe.
All you have to lose is the time you spend on it, if it's a passion of yours then you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
I haven't gone through them myself, but does anyone know how Khan's videos are on Physics and Astronomy?
Quite frankly, one of the options that I frequently see underrated is simply helping out a professor.
As an example, my local university (University of Central Florida) was hiring for a position in IT support for exoplanet discovery.
http://planets.ucf.edu/people/...
http://planets.ucf.edu/researc...
They were looking for someone with a background in IT/process managment/cloudsourcing to help with keeping their cluster computing infrastructure up/functional. I'm sure that they would have accepted a "volunteer" at 50% of the pay who had IT experience (even if only 10 hours/week).
You can get surprising results by simply walking down to the state college during a professor's office hours and asking if they would like any help. You will learn a lot, and will be more useful than the undergraduates.
Top coder has an asteriod challenge that is open right now : http://www.topcoder.com/astero.... They're trying to track asteriods and also identify false-positives and ignore them.
. . . and drawing conclusions. Most of astrophysics is creating models based on a deep understanding of the physics involved in astronomical objects. In both cases, it boils down primarily to having a good understanding of the physics of what you are doing and being good with computer programming and analyzing data.
The barrier for entry is theoretically really low, because most people have a fast computer. But can you really learn years of physics and astronomy as well as analytical techniques on your own? Quite possibly, especially if you already took the whole lower division math and physics courses as part of another degree (3 Semesters of Physics, 3 semesters of calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, computer programming for science and engineering, statistics). A lot of astronomy is done with the data already available from first class telescopes such as the Hubble and you could probably read all the basic undergraduate and introductory graduate texts on your own.
On the other hand, if you're coming into the field with no background in math and physics, it's going to be tough to read books full of differential equations, triple integrals, and electromechanics. Could you learn all that math and physics background on your own? Possibly, but you'd probably be best served with night school at the JC.
On the other hand, amateur astronomy can be fun. You can collaborate with professional astronomers on projects, and you can learn at your own pace without getting bogged down in the details right away. It is a lot more fun to look at Orion nebula through a 12" scope than it is to calibrate it for spectroscopy or photometry and analyze the data.
Podcasts: pick up a used ipod and subscribe to the astronomy related podcasts.
Kindle: get a used kindle that has the bubble-type keyboard, and let it read books and papers to you. The keyboard lets you start/stop the reader without looking, for in the car use. Download Calibre application and convert online/document resources and copy them to the kindle. You are not stuck with just Amazon eBooks, but many of them are good.
When online use an RSS reader and connecty to the publications feeds: e.g. http://iopscience.iop.org/ http://arxiv.org/ http://www.physicsforums.com/ http://prl.aps.org/ http://phys.org/ http://physics.stackexchange.c... http://prd.aps.org/ and many blogs!
I work as a programmer & sysadmin supporting a solar physics archive. Although most scientists these days have to learn how to program to some degree (to be able to analyze their data), there's still a large number of IT people who work in these fields -- as programmers, sysadmins, DBAs, etc.
So, if you're in the Tucson, AZ; Menlo Park, CA; Princeton, NJ; or Seattle, WA area, keep an eye on the LSST hiring page.
There are likely to be other projects out there hiring, but I don't know what their various situations are. (I just know that LSST was soliciting at the last American Astronomical Society meeting). You can also look to universities, especially if you have kids (as future tuition benefits for dependants can be quite significant).
I know a hell of a lot more about astronomy & solar physics than I do before I started this job. I'm by no means an expert in the field, but my work does help the scientists do their research and improve our knowledge of the field.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
It's quite likely a local university will run evening courses for the general public - random example: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/phys/admi...
10 hours a week is hobby, period. Hobbies aren't "pointless" and there's a lot of interesting ways for hobbyists to contribute to science. Joining an astronomy club is a great way to get started. But there's grad students and professional researchers who spend 80+ hours a week and if your idea is to keep up with them, then you're probably going to be disappointed.
1. Read every new article on /. dealing with these subjects as they appear.
2. Post a new thread disagreeing with the article's conclusions, even if you personally agree.
3. For every response you get pointing out how you're wrong, research each and every viewpoint, counterpoint, and even supporting arguments until you can arrive at the conclusion of who is right and who is wrong about the subject. Make sure to post your conclusion so that you can get even more counterpoints to research.
4. If you can manage doing this for a few months, you'll know that it's right for you, so go to University and get a real education. If you can't handle all the research, understand that it's not the field for you. You can either give up, or try again to condition yourself to be able to do the research. Repeat this process each time you feel like you want to contribute to science instead of just enjoying the fruits of scientific labors like the rest of us.
I was a kid I've had this deep love and passion for astronomy and astrophysics. This love and passion though never evolved into any formal education or anything beyond just a distant fascination as I got out of high school, into college ...
So which is it, a "deep love and passion" or "distant fascination"? If the former, your life mistake was not pursuing it in college, etc... If simply the latter, then read a few books about it as a hobby. Either way, with two kids and a full-time job, you probably don't have the time and determination to learn enough to "start contributing back to the field" - at least, not anytime soon.
Astronomy and/or astrophysics is not just something you pick up over the weekend. As someone once said, "Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy!"
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
In a vague way, one of my hobbies is learning foreign languages. I really don't want to oversell that, but I studied 2 languages after turning 30 and while I wouldn't say I'm fluent in either (I could eventually be with a lot more practice and a real reason to use them though) this goes along with another language I studied in college and am close to fluent in. Additionally I know enough to get by of a 4th language, particularly when reading. What I found is that I could still learn another language after 30, I just had to work somewhat harder at it than when I was younger, but it was still doable. So if you are really interested in learning astronomy and physics after age 30, I think you can. The key thing is not to give up. I know of a lot of language learning failures in older (30 and above) students because they just gave up, not really because they weren't capable of learning it. It definitely gets easier to find excuses for not studying when you get older and while I did have to study a little bit more after age 30, it wasn't like three times as much or even twice as much, but it did require somewhat more work.
Start reading it. They go through the basics and have articles on how amateurs can contribute to research.
But you really need to limit your expectations. Observational astronomy (even amateur-style) requires several hours of daytime prep work, followed by 1-2 hours of equipment setup and familiarization, before you even embark in a 3-4 hour observation run. After an observing run, you might have another 2-10 hours of data processing to do.
If you have a wife, two kids, and a day job, you will get pretty tired pretty quick.
Good equipment (solid mount, high quality telescope, imaging system, star stracker) is not cheap either and, sadly, most people need to invest in or borrow good equipment before they can really evaluate if they like it or if they want to stick with it.
True Story...
I wanted to do this when I was about 30... We have a very prestigious college here so I went there, to the physics lab and sat down with a professor.
He said if I came in with strait A's in math... maybe... otherwise it was an unqualified "No"
He went on to say that if I didn't have strait A's in math to go to the local community college and take math courses that were specifically linked to the University. They have classes that do carry credit at the university. If I could get a 4.0+ in advanced math classes they'd let me in. He said if I was older, I'd qualify as a "Returning adult" and would have lower requirements... 3.0+ I think "returning adult" is in the 35+ age range. But you'd have to contact your local college.
Then I asked if I could at least push the button on the accelerator. That also was a "No" but he at least chuckled.
It might be different at your local school. I wouldn't know.
There are a number of projects out there that have far more data than they can parse. I know Kepler's exoplanet search, for instance, requires confirmation from ground-based telescopes, and there are some student/amateur based astronomy projects that are available for anybody to help with.
As far as physics goes, Khan Academy is a fantastic resource - you can get through advanced high school/basic undergraduate physics with those videos, and all of the math you will need for that level is also available. They have a great tool available on their site that also provides you with practice problems so you can work through any math that you are rusty on.
This is not a direct answer to your question, but I must add that Brian Koberlein has a fantastic blog about astronomy and astrophysics.
https://briankoberlein.com/
In particular, his series of posts on dark matter were (IMO) one of the most informative I've read
https://briankoberlein.com/201...
Some people associate autodiadicism with overconfidence that proper education doesn't cause to same degree.
It's called American Association of Variable Star Observer's. You can provide direct support to real researchers with something as simple as your eye or as complicated as purchased special filters and CCDs. It's not complicated; you take images, reduce the data, and provide the curve over time to the researchers. The researchers then use that data to back fill their curves from the more advanced instruments.
I ended up with a robotic observatory in my backyard... watch what you wish for.
There are physics jobs out there, but most of the jobs that are specifically about physics require a PHd. I work as a Radiation Effects Engineer, which involves a fair bit of physics (we test electronics for radiation susceptibility at particle accelerators) but almost certainly requires a degree in either physics or electrical engineering. Many people in the field have a master's or PHd.
So, honestly, if you want "physicist" to be somewhere in your job title, you will need a PHd, no way around it. If you just want a job that involves some science-related aspects, that might be doable just with some self teaching. As a previous poster suggested, the shortest path from here to there might be to look for IT jobs supporting researchers, or something like that.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Road...
I spent a couple of years in grad school studying theoretical physics, and this is an excellent learning book.
I was an astronomer until I left the field last year after I graduated with my PhD. First, I definitely think it's great you want to contribute to research. My personal suggestion is to find a local astronomy club and see what they're doing. Find some books, news articles, etc... to read. That will hopefully give you a decent introduction. If you live near a university with a decent astrophysics program, you can also see if they have any public lectures or, if you want something more intense, attend seminars (though they're typically during the day). They're typically open to the public, but you should probably e-mail first just to double check. There are also things like Galaxy Zoo and similar projects that let you get involved without any commitment.
If you want to get more serious, you should think about what you want to do. Do you want to do any research? Participate in volunteer activities? Just go observing? For the latter, local astronomy clubs (or star parties) would be a good first start. Some of the big observatories also have programs for amateur observing. Mauna Kea is absolutely amazing for this - every night at the visitor center they bring out some decent sized telescopes (decent sized for seeing with your eyes) and there's usually a bunch of volunteers to help understand what they're pointing them at. Oftentimes dedicated amateurs will come up as well with even bigger telescopes and are happy to share. You also sometimes get professional astronomers who hang out there (like I did a few nights) though the amateurs are usually better at describing what you're seeing (professional astronomy is all about physics - not pretty images).
If you live near a big observatory (mostly southwest US, California, or Hawaii) you can also try to volunteer to be a docent there or something similar. Many of the observatories have some program for volunteers to help lead tours, attend public talks by researchers, and similar. The more dedicated volunteers get some perks, like joining for observing runs, seeing some of the behind-the-scenes things at the telescopes, and similar.
On the research side, it's a lot harder and a lot more investment (time, money, or both). To be able to do semi-independent research in astronomy you'd need to basically do a PhD. That's 40-50 hours a week (at least) for 5-7 years. It's hard. You can do more limited things though. For example, the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) is a great organization that organizes observing of variable stars and provides some support to write up the results. Amateur data has been used in many papers. But, this requires having your own telescope that can take scientific quality images. You can also work on data analysis, but this will definitely require some time to understand how to do it. I'd also point out that most people underestimate how hard it is to write a scientific paper. Especially your first one.
As for going into it professionally, I agree with others who have said there are few jobs in the field. Especially if you have a family, it would be very hard to start from scratch.
Preferably, considering your age, one with WIFI that sends the image directly to your iPad, so that you don't have to freeze your ass off in the garden.
When your kids are teenagers, they'll be busy and not care what you do with your unallocated time (free time doesn't exist).
I am also interested in the hard sciences, but I don't want to go back to school and eventually I want to transition into my non-science calling.
I have put off the sciencey stuff to the next life. Once we are on a new Earth with new bodies, we will have actual free time.
I was pretty damn horrible in high school with algebra. But at 37, I was able to learn and pick up algebra 1 & 2 in just 2 hours from online sites. Then moved to geometry and trigonometry. I don't know, for me, it's much more easier to learn now than my younger years. But the guy has kids and who knows how much he is stressed.
RECON's recruiting.
Really, find a local astronomy club or group. We have local ones that do group gatherings, everyone brings out their telescopes. Usually local professors or teachers attend and love to answer questions and teach on the spot. Local observatories often do open to the public nights as well. Always professionals there to answer questions and direct.
Many of Robert Heinlein works were truly Science Fiction. His characters' travels around the Solar System, for example, are described enumerating the challenges and details such travel are likely to have in real life. He also has several descriptions of human life outside of Earth — on Ganymede, on Mars, and on the Moon. None of the descriptions were patently unscientific, when they were written (knowing what we do now, he would not have described life on Venus as he did, of course).
He wrote many of such books for children (and published in children publications) or about children — so you can read them with/to your kids. The bonus is, such reading would not even seem like work — you are likely to truly enjoy it...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
You just need to spend time where they hang out...
Go to your local library and look at that 520's for Astronomy and the 530's for Physics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... I guarantee you will find a beautiful modern book at esactly your level there.
Start gathering a few popular science books on subjects directly on and also near to your goal. Some people reject popular science books as too light weight, but it does have value. This exposes you to the variety of subjects in and around your interest. You might not have been aware of some aspects of your topic and you are introduced to them here without too much effort. You also learn to associate detailed technical topics to the wider areas where they are used.
Read the whole book. Books are better than random google searches and videos because they will guide you into areas you might not have considered relevant. Broadening your base knowledge will allow you to make a more informed decision about your favorite topics. Once you have a broader and more informed understanding of the topics and areas involved, you are better able to identify your interests, or even switch interests.
That is when you start going into a more detailed dive into your target topic. Follow through and read the whole thing. Again, pick one or more text books or deeper science books. The purpose again is to guide you into areas you might not have considered before.
This time, you will hit lots of technical subjects that you might not know. That is when you go searching for online information, wikipedia, online course videos, Youtube content or other textbooks. For these, you will only need to cover enough to support your primary interest, and you will have a fairly good idea how much that is.
You are not going to go professional with this, but it will be more than enough to keep your interest up and curiosity satisfied.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
If astronomy and physics are your passion, go ahead and enjoy. Otherwise where you are older, you will regret if you don't do so now. I believe other's opinion won't apply here. I am a 42 yrs old programmer and still want to explore quantum computing stuffs.
I hear the call too, and wanted to switch from IT-software-databases etc to Physics. I took night classes for about 15 years (one class at a time) and finished a BS. I work in the field now, not in a super-high position. I couldn't afford to keep going to a PhD; had to earn some money to keep a roof over our heads. As to the notion that your "mind isn't as sharp," unless you're in your 80s or 90s. Get tough, work through the difficult stuff, make friends with people who know more than you, especially in math.
it's no wonder /. is dying.
It's been proposed that it takes about 10,000 hours to get really good at anything. At 10 hours per week, 40 weeks a year (dropped to 40 to account for breaks), equals 400 hours a year. 10,000 / 400 = 25 years. So, if you keep at it, by the time you get to be about retirement age you would be at the point where you could contribute back to the field. Plus, on retirement, you could dedicate more time...
Some things take less than 10,000 hours to master. However, astronomy is a wide open concept with a lot of moving parts (literally)...
Good luck and, most important of all, have fun....
...not with your back.
Astronomers produce tons of data and need IT experts to manage their data centers, etc. You could try to get one of these jobs. Probably they do not pay great but you could make a real contribution to research using your existing expertise.
Simon's Rock College
As a current astronomy student, I would simply recommend that you read An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Carroll and Ostlie. I've heard it said that it contains about 90% of everything any astronomer knows, with the other 10% being specialization. Once you've read through most of it, you'll at least be able to follow most astronomy papers. If you're comfortable with simple calculus and basic physics, you shouldn't have too much trouble with it.
Your answer depends on how serious you are about this. Since you want to "contribute back to the field", it sounds like grad school is the way to go. But then you say that you can't spend more than 10 hours a week on open courseware, so I'm not sure how willing you are to leave IT.
In your situation, you might try to get involved in scientific programming, and simulation work. In this case, your IT background will be an asset, and you will also be working on physics.
From a math professor, I can tell you that I observe much strife from students un-learning the "math" they learned in physics classes.
Students, do yourself a favor: don't eschew calculus.
Undergraduate physics professors: ditto.
Probably. I went back around age 45 to get a physics B.A. at a local state university with a small department so I could teach high school science (had 2 prior undergrad degrees in Econ and CS). I wasn't planning to do any astronomy or astrophysics, but I needed a few more hours, and the school had a 32" observatory, a Harvard-trained astrophysicist, and several interesting classes. The teaching gig afterwards didn't work out, but I'm so glad I studied astrophysics. Independent amateur researchers absolutely do contribute, but not very often in theoretical astrophysics. There's a LOT of original astronomy that can and is done by amateurs on smallish budgets. Learn a little nuclear physics and understand what's going on inside stars. Every week there's some new cool discovery in the news (a Thorne-Zytkow star found recently) and being able to comprehend what it's about is great. Many stars don't fit into neat categories, and those are the most interesting. You can use your programming skills in quite a few ways, if you're so inclined. Around here there's a community college with a small observatory run by students and a couple of committed teachers that hosts astronomy conferences and speakers. For some, it's a great opportunity to learn and contribute to the community. I have no idea how common such programs are. If you really want to spend time observing on your own, the DIY community is stronger than ever. Just as with other types of hacking, you could contribute by designing affordable, innovative DIY equipment made of common items. Like to travel? It's a good excuse to go looking for dark clear skies, and many places with dark skies are stunning in other ways. Heck, I'm thinking of taking a scope on a 21' boat to a dark isolated island. I won't discover anything but bugbites, but what a nice outing. Don't let the naysayers bother you, except for this: there probably aren't too many careers available. Keep your day job (literally). Oh, one more thing—don't restrict yourself to light. Radiotelescopy offers a lot of opportunities for amateurs as well, alone or in cooperation with others.
I'm like this guy, wanted to be an astronomer but went into CS because it was the lazy easy thing.
Now I'm probably going to retire in a few years and would like to do something that matters before I'm too dumb and slow. I doubt I'll ever learn enough physics to advance the science, but I've seen what passes for software in academic settings, and I could certainly make the software suck less.
So what kind of software does astronomy need?
I am now a research physicist, doing experimental condensed matter physics, but when I was an undergraduate physics major, I got a research job in my sophomore year working for an astrophysicist, for what was nominally 10 hours per week. It is true that getting a Ph.D. in grad school probably requires about 20,000 hours of work, and this is if you start with a physics/astrophysics undergraduate degree, but I was able to start contributing to research with very little background. This was in the early 1990s, and it largely involved writing Fortran programs to analyze time series data from an X-Ray observation satellite. I was directly supervised by a grad student with whom met once a week or so. I can't say that, at the time, I actually understood much of the astrophysics, but it did eventually result in a publication (a conference proceedings paper, that the grad student wrote and on which I was the second author). Although developing an understanding of exactly what's going on with a set of observations, and further, knowing how that understanding fits in with the major unanswered questions in astrophysics does likely require a lot of advanced coursework. (And as someone else pointed out, to learn physics you need to solve hard physics problems, much the same way that to learn to program you need to write code.) But the actual day-to-day carrying out of research does not always require such deep understanding.
It'd be a long shot, but you might be able to find a researcher who would let you be a sort of unpaid equivalent to an undergraduate researcher. Some professor might have a data set lying around that nobody in his/her research group has had time to tackle. Or there might be a professor who mostly focuses on teaching and whose research program has largely come to a halt but who still is interested in some research questions. It'd probably be more feasible if you were also taking (or took) as a non-traditional student. It's not entirely straightforward: the research output of undergraduate-level researchers is often quite low, and faculty largely do it because it's understood to be an important part of undergraduate training, which would not apply in your case.
*** Work like a king, command like a slave, create like a dog.
I am an assistent professor in physics and run a group of 4 phd students, 6 master students and a couple of bachelor students who all carry out their research projects in my group. BSc students do half a year of research, MSc students do a full year amd PhD students do four years. They all contribute to science. BSc students do so, under supervision ofcourse, after two and a half years of courses. Now, how fast can you get to that level with 10 hours a week. If I am perfectly honest, our least motivated students probably spend 10 to 15 hours a week on courses and take a year longer than they should. So if you are truly interested and work hard, why shouldn't you be able to do this in four years or so?
But than comes the reality check. Most people, including myself, are not clever enough to figure this stuff out by themselves. Physics is hard! Math is hard!
Listening to some online courses is not nearly enough. You need to do lots of exercises and you need someone who can tell you where your mistakes are.
And when you have done a lot of courses online and understand what is going on, how will you contribute. You need someone to work with. You need to find a group in which you can do research.
Nobel laureate Gerard t'Hooft has a website dedicated to trying to teach yourself physics.
http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~Gadda001/goodtheorist/index.html
Start here, Einstein and Infeld. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evolution_of_Physics
Join the http://www.aavso.org/ and do some amateur work for them. Observing targets continuously is really important. The work is necessary - big money telescopes just don't have the time to do this sort of stuff.
Alternatively go the Mechanical Turk route and look at citizen science, finding things like exoplanets or interesting things in heaps of data. There's the possibility for publication there, but it's slim.
Realistically you're not going to be able to do anything worth publishing with 10 hours a week and rusty knowledge. You would be much better off learning about astronomy and trying to make the tools for data analysis far more user friendly than they are already. One of the best pieces of free software around is called Iris. It's a pain in the ass to use, but it works.
Start going outside on clear nights, skip prime time and then some, look up -- and then (it's a sign of awe) start wondering like... a kid.
First suggestion:
Ignore every suggestion on this board that has to do with watching videos, playing with software, reading books or using technology. That's not how you stoke a passion for Astronomy. You must get yourself outside under the stars.. as often as possible.
You first need to research where your local Astronomy club meets (There are thousands of them.. you'll find one easily enough). Second, subscribe to Sky and Telescope magazine (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/). Third, buy a good pair of binoculars.. 10x50 are best for Astronomy (and useful for other things if you should ever fall away from the hobby). Once you do those things, you'll be hooked for life.
That is how I established my lifelong love of Astronomy. I've loved the stars longer than anything else in my life (wife included). Soon you, too, will be dragging your kids out of bed at 2 AM on a frigid winter night to view a comet that has never been seen by humans!
... less time reading /. and get to work!
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My first wife was 'tarded. Now she's a pilot.
You kan reed, but you kan't rite too gud.
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I am an astronomy professor at a large state university. There are many way in which you can contribute to astronomy as an amateur, while at the same time learn about astronomy. Some have been mentioned in previous answers in this thread:
http://www.planethunters.org/ it is a citizen scientists project that uses actual data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope to find extrasolar planets that may have been missed by the automatic software used by the professional astronomers. It harvests the "wisdom of the crowd" and the natural pattern recognition in the human brain to find the telltale signature of extrasolar planets that the automated software may have missed. Some planets have already been found this way, and the citizens that found them have been included in the scientific publication: http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.3612
There are other 9 projects using the same infrastructure that use astronomical data to do real research: https://www.zooniverse.org/pro... . Topics go from stars, planet and galaxy formation, solar physics, black holes, asteroids, etc... All these projects use actual data from ground and space based telescopes, and have ample tutorials that explain how the project work and the science behind it in an accessible way. We use this projects in our school to introduce freshmen undergraduates to research as soon as they arrive to our university.
If you own an amateur telescope you can also contribute to the American Association of Variable Stars Observers (AAVSO: http://www.aavso.org/) which despite its name is open to amateur observers all over the world. The association collects data from amateurs to create lightcurves of variable stars. This is an exceptionally important work, because monitoring of bright stars is often overlook by the professional community; yet knowing long term trends in their luminosity is essential to understand stellar evolution, stellar physics and the cosmological distance scale. The AAVSO is organized as a scientific society, and as such has a journal where results are published, scientific meetings, etc. It also has a lot of background material written in a way to be accessible for the public.
That said, I read in the comment thread above that somebody got discouraged in pursuing an academic career in astronomy because "there are no jobs". This is not true. The field is not worse than any other academic field. Surely we are suffering from cuts in science expenditures an education, like anybody else (hint: think about that when you vote next November), but universities, observatories and agencies like NASA are still hiring. New people can still make it in the field, and even if they don't find a job as astrophysicists there are many careers in the private sector where the skills learned while pursuing a Ph.D. in astronomy are welcomed. One collaborator of mine, for example, just got hired to work at a cool startup company in the D.C. area. A student of mine went to work at Lincoln Lab in Boston on remote sensing. Other ex students in our department that decided to leave research went to work in medical imaging (at Mayo clinic), or even making battle plans for F14s on a aircraft carrier (his claim of fame is that he prevented the Navy from declaring war on Venus). Our university, as well universities all over the world, still accept scores of new student in astronomy programs: not everybody remains in astronomy after their degree, but as far as I know the unemployment rate for professionals with an astronomy Ph.D. is close to zero.
One thing about astronomy is that is a very inclusive community: differently than physics, we have an almost equal gender ratio among the young generations. Age also is not a problem, one of the graduate students we admitted this year is a retiree that decided to complete his studies after working for decades in the oil industry. He is having the time of his life.
It's interesting that you should choose these two, since I think you have a fairly good chance to be a well-respected popularizer of science. YouTube makes it possible for you to explain that thing you just learned and get an audience; see e.g. Smarter Every Day, Numberphile, Vi Hart, etc. Learn something and then make a 2-4 minute video explaining it. Rinse and repeat a thousand times and people will see that you're serious. Improve your production values and regularity. If you get around 40000 followers, perhaps 1000 of them would spend $100 on the stuff you produce each year and give you a living wage.
Balderdash! That's just years of stress making You doubt Yourself. The # of People making contributions to the science at ages older than Yours is astounding! Now, get Your ass off of /. and get cracking!
So many advise you buy a telescope.
Actually, the best thing you can buy is a good set of binoculars first.
Also join irc #astronomy to get an idea of what is a good telescope. $10,000 is a serious investment. $100 is a failed investment.
Check out wikisky.org, apog.com.
Check out your local planetarium.
Enjoy!
The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is a non-profit worldwide scientific and educational organization of amateur and professional astronomers who are interested in stars that change in brightness—variable stars. See http://www.aavso.org/visionmis.... It is not true that today only pro are doing useful work in astronomy. Variable stars are multiple and need long observations: I know people doing as a nice hobby and ... publishing: see http://www.dppobservatory.net/
At 10 hours per week you may never finish.
Cite?
Let me guess, you have a duh-gree.
I can only spend maybe 10 hours a week on this
Since you already have a full life, something would have to give. The amount of time you estimate to be available would get to hobby level: the same as the other thousands of amateur astronomers in the country. But it's not enough to do any serious studying, get qualified or do research to a publishable quality.
This.
I read through the comments to find this comment so that I didn't just post a duplicate if someone else had covered the ground.
Let me be really blunt about the amount of time you are intending to invest in this project. If you were taking a college course, you should expect to spend 2 hours out of class for each hour you spend in class, and given that you only have 10 hours to dedicate to the idea, that's effectively 3 credit hours for every interval. So if you picked a community college, and they offered all the classes you needed, you should expect to have your Bachelor's of Science in any given degree field in about 23 years. That gets you to the necessary 210 credit hours for an Astronomy degree.
Let's say, though that you are a super genius, and can do 1:1 instead of 1:2 for in/out of class. That only cuts your time by 1/3, which means that you get that degree in 15 years instead.
Now add to this that most major contributions in any scientific field occur before someone hits their mid 20's; there are exceptions, but let's say again that you are exceptional. What contributions do you expect to be able to make after age 61 / 53, with your shiny new Bachelor's, since you're unlikely to find someone to hire you at that age, and you're unlikely to be able to afford instrument time on the necessary equipment on your own?
Check out Kerbal Space Program. You can build rockets, send them into orbit, land on the moon, and learn about concepts like apoapsis, retrograde burns, orbital transfers, and learn astrophysics -- plus it's simple enough I've seen multiple dads who have a blast playing with their kids. It runs on Linux/Mac/Windows and has a good free demo.
...but does it really teach orbital mechanics? Oblig XKCD says yes;)
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
MIT Open Courseware has some online courses for free that cover these topics, but given I can only spend maybe 10 hours a week on this would it be a pointless venture? Not to mention my mind isn't as sharp now as it was 20 years ago when I graduated high school.
Try out those courses, only time will tell. As far as your mind's sharpness goes, well, your ability to use that mind has obviously made progress, otherwise you wouldn't be in this pursuit. Since you're focusing on what can be, rather than what should have been, it shows that you have wisdom. Use your wisdom.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
IT plus astronomy equals software contributions for the telescope design software packages. A design package from years ago was about 70k lines of Fortran.
You could also design and built your own telescope if you have access to an area where there is low level of light pollution and the right to build the protective building around it.
Probably one of the best places to start.
This guy is pretty awesome:
http://videolectures.net/charles_bailyn/
You might be interested on Slooh (http://www.slooh.com) which is pronounced like "slew", as in the motion of a telescope turning on its mount.
Slooh lets you control telescopes in the Canary Islands or Chile, for a modest subscription fee. You might start out getting your own images of nearby planets, or collect the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and then move on to more distant objects. You can do this on your own, but you can also collaborate with other Slooh members. Some of them are working to track comets, others are tracking asteroids, and in some cases submitting their findings to the IAU Minor Planet Center.
As others have already mentioned, paid jobs in astronomy are tight even for those with a degree. But if you are an interested adult learner there are lots of ways to learn more and satisfy your curiosity. As Mark Twain supposedly said, "never let school get in the way of your education" (or in your case lack of school).
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats
There have been unusually many good answers here, but this is the best one so far. This is the most realistic way to make a useful contribution to astronomy for the original poster, and it does not involve 25 years of training before probably not getting there.
then watch Physics for future presidents, The quantum mechanical universe and beyond, and then start watching leonard suskind lectures.
I graduated from high school nearly 50 years ago, and I too feel my mind is not as sharp as it was back then. It's much sharper. Perhaps not in sudden those flashes of insane inspiration, but much better in the cognitive and organizational things that matter.
If you worry whether you'll have the time and energy to pursue something, you nearly guarantee that you won't. Just do it. Pursue whatever leads interest you. Online, books, online courses, participate in astronomy groups. Many astronomy clubs have monthly outdoor telescope meetups open to the public. Google is your friend. You will meet people with similar interest who will expand your knowledge. Your interests will flourish and work out for you.
(At least I _think_ I graduated high school. "If you can remember the '60s, you weren't there.")
Figure out what you really want to do with this. Do you want to understand everything very broadly? Do you want to become a specialist in a particular niche?
If the answer is broad understanding, lookup dogvomit's post and take the traditional coursework in the traditional order at your pace. There are sets of problems honed over the last 100 years to train people to think like physicists. Then you can go read Einstein and dense particle physics books; that's a lot of fun but probably won't go anywhere. Very, very few physicists contribute generally any more.
If you want to be a specialist, find a very well defined project you could really dig in to and enjoy. Something like one particular measurement you think you could do on your own. Pick something recent that you like. It's all out there on Google Scholar. Fill in the general physics you need as you go, but you'll probably need more engineering, software (and money) than anything else. Above all, please do get in touch with the people who inspired your work!
If you're able to successfully repeat a set of observations, or just do something that looks at all like what some grad student did 5 years ago, you will make their year by sharing it with them. If you can do that even once, you will be well on your way to contributing meaningfully to their field.
To put the time commitment in perspective, this is the kind of thing a new "generalist" physicist will do for 2-3 years full time while learning their specialty. Unless you really like this and find more than 10 hours a week to do it, it could easily take you 10+ years. That's ok. I'd be thrilled to find out someone outside traditional physics replicated my results from 10 years ago.
There's something of a dearth of material out there for people who want to learn STEM topics on a casual basis and are somewhere in between a layperson and a specialist. Most of what you can find to read is either written for the general public (popular science books and magazines) or dry scientific papers. I've also had a lifelong interest in science, but did not pursue it as a career, and it's always a challenge to find stuff which I can read and yet which hasn't had the details filtered out...
"Science News" magazine is a stand-out example though - it's science reporting written for an educated audience, often people who are scientists themselves who want to keep up in other fields. It's amazing how concise and information-packed the articles can become when you can use words above the typical 6th-grade reading level (or whatever they use for newspapers these days).
But, I digress. In your position I'd try to find a mentor - maybe barter some IT services in return. There are lots of people out there who'd probably enjoy the process of helping a mature student get started.
Perfectly Normal Industries
Do you have a high IQ? Join a high IQ societies. You'll have your fill :).
you don't even need a scope, although it's great for kids
subscribe to Astronomy
read ScienceNews
RE: older scientists
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4519...
the catch is, they started when they were young
I'm not in the field, both are hobbies for me. If your looking for a position in the one fields I would forget it. Their are very few openings in the respective fields and from my reading you need to make a name for yourself in either discipline by time you are in your twenties. For a hobby pursuit I would start with either a local planetarium or community college intro to astronomy class. While there ask about any local astronomy clubs. It's been my experience that the members are more than happy to offer any advice they can. If you Google amateur astronomy projects you'll find lists of projects that an amateur can collaborate on .
If you are interested in testing the waters, join an amateur astronomical association.
The association I belong to has an actual observatory with an excellent amateur-built telescope (27.5" mirror), instrument shop for building telescopes and a planetarium for public outreach. All of these resources were built by dedicated members over a number of years. Many lessons were learned about what works and mostly what doesn't work. Of course, that is where the enjoyment is to be found.
Check this link out to see what is in your area: http://www.astroleague.org/
I agree, this is the most sensible path for someone with IT and programming experience. I spent over 10 years following this path, worked for top astronomy institutions and observatories. It was quite fulfilling and allowed me to contribute to many research papers and projects. But, this career is almost always based on soft-money (grants) and it is almost unheard of to get a truly tenured position without going the PhD/academic route. I eventually left astronomy due to fizzling of grants and the desirability of the skills I gained while becoming a data-analytics software engineer (eg. data scientist in today's parlance). I also wanted to start a family and have more control over my skills, location, and career options. Finally, working as a telescope support or astronomy software engineer, expect your salary to be in the $45k-80k (US). The skills you use as a successful astronomy software engineer will easily net you 1.5 to 2 times this salary, in industry.
I) Get your math up to snuff.
II) Find an area you're actually interested in that needs work (grok Magnetohydrodynamics and actually solve some stuff).
III) Publish your theories and results to your peers
If you can actually prove your chops mathematically Physics groups are chronically underfunded and love helper monkeys.
Christ on a shingle, what's up with the "Will it be a pointless venture?" You already answered that when you said you wouldn't be the next Neil deGrasse Tyson or Carl Sagan. If that's your only limitation, then there's a lot of room between doing nothing and being in the top 100 recognized members of the pack.
And, even if it is a pointless venture, who cares? A person doesn't need to justify his choice of hobby and we all need our recreation time. Astronomy and astrophysics seems to be a place where an amateur could potentially still contribute - there's EM radiation coming down in a lot of different wavelength ranges and not a lot of coverage for what seems to be a very big sky. Sure, it'll be a lot of work, but what worthwhile isn't? Besides, you'll be entertained and you don't seem to have anything else better to do.
That is all.
First tell them that wearing glasses makes them look sexy, Them offer them a ride in your new car.
I would recommend listening to Astronomy 161 (Solar system), 162 (General astronomy, like life cycles of stars etc.) and 141 (Life in the universe). These are three amazing and engaging Ohio University Astronomy courses uploaded for free by Richard Pogge. His lecture style is really great and I've yet to loose interest despite of listening through all of them multiple times (each one is about 45 lectures of 40 minutes each). I'd recommend these to anyone interested even a bit in astronomy. They're entry level courses so you don't need to know anything at all about astronomy (or geology, biology etc. in the case of 141) before going through them, although in that case I'd definitely listen to 161 first, then 162 or 141.
agree 100%. It worked for me. I learned physics and astronomy OTJ. I already had the technical skills. Besides the skills mentioned in the parent post, real-time programming and controls can get you into the other end of the process, sensors, and their associated control and data acquisition systems. In addition to the places mentioned above, many universities, national labs and FFRDCs have space science programs. Also, while its totally obvious, but nobody else has mentioned it, there's NASA and its contractors. If you have the skills and you really want to do this you can. You need to use your imagination, keep your eyes and ears open and be willing to relocate.
Aside from Khan Academy here are some great sites if you want to refresh your high school math.
math10.ca & math30.ca
Very well done sites and excellent flow of material.
If you're the practical kind, there's plenty of things you c an do. You can hunt for Near Earfth Objects. You can build your own backyard radio-telescope and hunt for cosmic radio bursts. And perhaps some little aliens.
If you're the arm-chair kind, you can run lots of (astro)physics simulations on a decent gaming rig. Heck, there's a crying need for a good multi-physics simulator in the FOSS domain.
If you're the theoretical kind, pick up this lesson plan at http://www.superstringtheory.com/math/index.html and run with it. Don't mind the smirks. String theory is finding applications in fields like superconductivity and metamaterials etc.
And please start now. God knows physics needs more passionate people than careerists. You can definitely make contributions, and if nothing, developing a physics/math mindset will make you an infinitely better IT guy than the hacks and codemonkeys out there.
I am late to the party here, but want to leave one last tidbit: read astronomy journal articles. Many you will not understand, many, you will understand the language, but not the math (especially articles, they omit many many steps since they are so short), but ultimately, you will understand some, and understand the data they took to arrive at a conclusion, and maybe even question the data, the measurement, or the data processing. Maybe even enough to contact the authors and ask for clarification, or suggest alternate methods. At this point, you are doing astronomy. One added bonus to being a college student: Awesome libraries that can access all these journals at no cost to you (except your tuition of course).
Some suggestions for more hands on stuff:
Kewl book: Exoplanet Observing For Amateurs, by Bruce Gary (free! courtesy of the author)
edX Courses: They actually teach from journal articles! Math is at the high school level.
Citizen Science projects:
Find Exoplanets
Dicover and measure KBOs
Age? Phooey on that. Upon completing my 2nd M.S. degree in my mid 50's, I got letters of recommendation for PhD school (which I chose not to pursue).
I am almost 70 and I don't have a problem with topics I may have been exposed to in high school or college. I have found that sooner of later you will revisit topics from earlier in your experience. The only issue is flexibility of your mind. A secondary issue is where to begin. I think that one must develop a sense of where topics fit together and then one's own curiosity propels one forward. And it is wise to sip at the font of knowledge and not try to gulp it all down at one sitting. Gluttony will defeat you. You must be patient.
Also, individuals have different abilities to make sense of different kinds of knowledge, so for example, I know that I will never be able to work at a graduate level in mathematics. I only recently realized that poor vision was a big impediment for me in reading mathematical expressions and understanding them; so I have had some recent success in re-reading math, but I will never be expert in it. On the other hand I have had an acute memory for music and have been able to remember large chunks of the classical literature for which it is easy to get and use the printed music and study it. I have been able to contribute at the upper division and graduate level because of this ability.
But what is more important about the OP is the tacit question of why you want to revisit these topics? Is it to earn a professional level of expertise? And the next obvious question is do you intend to pursue an advanced degree in the topics? You are free to do that. If for example, you wouldn't have enough years in a career with an PhD in physics to pay off the tuition needed to get the degree, then maybe you need to be content to enjoy the topic and keep your day job. Maybe, you want to consider getting a teaching degree so you can teach Physics in high school or a community college. There is nothing to stop you from enjoying any topic that passes your attention.
An additional thought on this topic. One thing that is interesting about knowledge in our era is that the rate at which it changes is so fast that by the time we reach middle age and beyond that what we learned in school has become significantly out of date. When I took Physics in college there was no Standard Model for QM and no unification of forces. There was still this bewildering zoo of resonances whose underlying unity was not understood yet. The Feynman Lectures in Physics are now available on line. They are clearly still relevant but they show well the state of particle physics as it was in 1961. Someone ought to write the addendum that brings that up to date. In astronomy the identity of quaesars was still a hot topic and no one had confirmed the existence of black holes, whereas today they may be the drivers of the evolution of the Universe, and Dark Matter and Dark Energy were not recognized at all and today they are universally accepted as major players.
I took my degrees in Geology and when I was an undergrad Plate Tectonics was just coming into acceptance. Its ramifications developed during the early years of my career. The high trophic activity of the dinosaurs was a concept that was developed after I completed my degrees, as was the affinities of birds with therapsids. One must keep reviewing after one has finished school even if one is not in a profession. Things you learned in school are bound to be changed.
The first programming language I learned was FORTRAN. My experience has carried me through procedural languages like FORTRAN and Pascal to C and to scripting languages like perl, but then to OO enhancements the result in Java and Python and finally to functional languages like lisp. Most of this I didn't know out of college but am still learning on my own, one has to do that and to be motivated to pursue new topics on your own. It is quite amusing to me how programming goes full circle and what is old becomes new again, the relevance of lisp to new trends in programming that are more functional and try to reduce side effects, like Haskell. But the ideas were developed before I existed in the 1930's and yet they are finding expression in new languages like Clojure.
I know of no one who contributes to modern science who hasn't also pursued degrees in science (I'm a physicist at a top university). If you want to contribute you need to go to school. This is how you will meet people who will give you access to equipment, show you what questions are worth asking, and tell you when you are going the wrong direction. Science is a community of people and those people are just as cliquey as everyone else. If you want to play, you have to join the club.
I enrolled in Swinburne University's Astronomy Online course a couple of years ago and have found it to be terrific. You can enrol in a Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma or the Master's degree. You can study one subject per semester, which would fit into your 10 hour p/w time allowance. I have no real background in mathematics or physics, but I'm finding the course more than manageable, and the staff and other students are really helpful.
Astronomy is perhaps the last science left where an amateur can make a significant contribution, just by observing something that the pros don't. It's a big sky with lots of things in it. Look at how many comets, for instance, are first discovered by amateurs, still.
However, it helps a lot if you live somewhere where there isn't a lot of nighttime cloud cover, or artificial lighting.
Do ou like Astronomy? Physics? Astro-physics? Run Linux! Stellarium, Celestia, Table of eriodic elements. 12 digit calculator, plus, many programs that simply solve poly-nomial equations! I distribute Linux Mint, and highly recommend it, because, it is supported in Linux Mint 13, to Aril 2017, and in Linux Mint 17, to April 2019! Has LIVE support of some 258 folks on the chat servers (both Chat and Help are up at a simple click!). What Free, Open source OS do you recommend / install on at least 52 computers each year?
This is really excellent advice. Once you're in the "industry" so to speak, you start building your resume and can pursue learning on your own time, and usually these jobs have flexible hours.
Also, it is worth noting that if you have a background in computer science, you can usually start working right away on research projects if you go back to school, because a lot of students who want to do research, even if they have the necessary physics and astronomy knowledge, struggle with coding programs to analyze the data so many researchers are happier to teach an undergraduate or MS student to do science rather than teaching them to do programming.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e...
Build then study.
Regards Eion MacDonald
MOOC, MOOC, MOOC, MOOC and MOOC. 'Nuff said.
With the exceptionally high standard of MOOC courses available (Coursera, EdX, Udacity, etc), FREE OF CHARGE, there are no excuses to not learn what you want to learn, when you want to learn. I have found the quality of the courses I have done to be exceptionally high, and presented by exceptional educators. I am addicted to MOOCs!!!
Other than those, there are the open courseware syllabi available from such distinguished institutions as MIT, but they aren't as much fun as MOOCs.
There are two possible levels: One is to look up at the night sky, and identify what you see, and be able to tell fascinating facts about it to your children and and wife. Another level is to sit down at a desk and to do the computations.
For the first, you need a telescope and the internet.
For the second, you will first need to keep you math up to scratch, and then look what area you want to look into. Stellar evolution (small things) or Cosmology (big things). For Stellar evolution, you will need quantum mechanics (although not too much), for cosmology, you will need general relativity (quite a lot of it). Knowledge about this can be obtained through text books.
Either way, good luck!