AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS
What have they achieved for science?
We all know what an amateur astronomer is, a lover of everything out there in the universe. However for most people the daily work of a professional astronomer is a mystery and one that I'm saving for another time. What is easy to define is who was the first British professional astronomer, other countries are quite different.
After King Charles II was restored to the throne, one of the many innovations he created was the post of 'King's obversator' later to become astronomer royal, the first being a great man called John Flamstead, a fascinating and very clever chap. The King hadn't suddenly become curious about the night sky, but he was very keen to improve British trade and that needed better navigation which in turn needed better star maps, and so the story began.
In our modern world we know a great deal about the universe but it's also clear that there is a vast amount still to learn, so what can today's amateur possibly contribute? Firstly, comets, in the short time I've lived in Spain, nearly 300 comets were found by amateurs, that's nearly half the total. If you discover one, it'll be named after you, and your namesake might soar through the heavens until the end of time.
Now for a few quick but important contributions. Patrick Moore made moon maps the helped NASA with the first Moon landings. More recently an Australian amateur discovered an anomaly on Jupiter after something big hit the planet. The planet Uranus was discovered by an amateur, The comet Shoemaker Levy smashing into Jupiter was another amateur discovery, this planetary collision kicked off the whole Spacewatch program that is mapping the movements of anything that threatens our Earth - rather important that is!
I could go on and on, but that would be boring, to know more you can use the internet. What might interest you more is what you and I can contribute, and you don't even need a telescope, just a computer. European citizen science is a catch all term that includes some great astronomy projects such as searching for black holes, near Earth objects, asteroid hunting and much more. All you need to join these projects is as little or much time as you want, and a computer or smartphone. You don't need qualifications or to be super smart, just an interest.
I would recommend looking at a website called SKAO, just Google it. It lets you use the time when your computer is idle to analyse signals collected by radio telescopes. You can look for supernova, or pulsars and much more.
That's all for this month, I'll finish by mentioning that the nova we are expecting in Coronae Borealis hasn't gone off yet, and I must add that after seeing my crack about the flat Earth society last month, my son pointed out that when the society first started, they advertised that they had members all over the globe. 'Nuf said.
Charles Oates,
Vega Baja Astronomy Group.
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