If they aren't teaching, they are analyzing data from multiple observatories, as well as planning mostly automated observations involving imaging and spectroscopy.
Gone are the days of the professional astronomer peering through the telescope or riding a cage at the top of a giant telescope (Edwin Hubble comes to mind). That romantic image is gone.
Amateur astronomers who aren't paid often contribute valid observation data to professional astronomers. Unlike professionals, they DO get hands-on with their telescopes.
Gone are the days of the professional astronomer peering through the telescope or riding a cage at the top of a giant telescope (Edwin Hubble comes to mind). That romantic image is gone.
Amateur astronomers who aren't paid often contribute valid observation data to professional astronomers. Unlike professionals, they DO get hands-on with their telescopes.
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Most astronomers don't stay awake all night, every night, working at a telescope! They work fairly normal daytime hours most of the year, and only a few times a year they go to a telescope. These trips usually last just a few days. On most workdays, astronomers work on analyzing pictures from the telescope and writing computer programs to help them with that work. They plan what kind of pictures they need for their next trip to the telescope. They work at a computer analyzing data or making computer models. Most astronomers work at colleges and universities, combining teaching with research.
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Besides working? Shopping, errands, cleaning house, picking up after the kids. Pretty the same sort of thing that everyone else does daily.
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Since they are up all night, in the day they sleep. Then they are pretty much like anyone else on third shift. They shop, eat, call friends, go fishing, etc.