Sky & Telescope July 2004 [antikvár]

No Adjectives Necessarywhat's the difference between a professional astronomer and an amateur? Most of us would probably answer this way: A professional astronomer is someone who gets paid to study the universe, and an amateur is someone who observes for the fun of it. In simpler terms, a professional is a scientist, and an amateur is a hobbyist. That's certainly how I'd have responded until recently But more and more, this is becoming a case of a distinction without a difference.Oh sure, some university astronomy departments have faculty members who enjoy shocking visitors by saying they've never looked through a telescope. These are usually theorists who came to astronomy via physics; you don't need to be able to find the constellation Taurus or know what the "M" in "Ml" stands for to build a computer model of the Crab pulsar's pulses. But in my experience most professional astronomers are as moved as anyone by the sight of the Milky Way on a clear, dark night. And since they tj^icaUy started out as backyard stargazers, many are as knowledgeable as any planetarium presenter and still enjoy getting out under the stars as often as possible just to relax and observe.Conversely, many amateurs are capable of contributing to astronomical research. The most obvious way is by making a discovery. Because there are so many amateurs watching so much of the sky so regularly, one of them gets lucky from time to time and spots something before anybody else does perhaps a comet, an asteroid, a Martian dust storm, or a variable-star outburst. Two recent, especially dramatic examples are Kentucty astrophotographer Jay McNeil's detection of a nebular brightening in Orion (June issue, page 114) and 76-year-old Australian William Bradfield's l8th comet discovery (see page 123).It used to be that when an amateur found something new, it fell to the professionals to jump into action and study it in detail with larger telescopes and more sensitive detectors. But thanks to the ready availability of large-aper-ture telescopes, af-Many amateurs use the same tools and techniques as professionals.fordable digital cameras, and powerful computers and software, amateurs are now doing much of the foUow-up work themselves. iVIany are using tools and techniques indistinguishable from those used by pro-fessionals to determine asteroid rotation rates, monitor nearby stars for transits by extrasolar planets (March issue, page 77), track down the visible counterparts of gamma-ray ljursts from distant galaxies (January 2001, page 92), and make other important measurements.Last year I attended the annual symposium on telescope science organized by the lAPPP-West, now renamed thankfully! the Society for Astronomical Sciences. (This year's meeting will be under way in Big Bear, California, as this issue begins to reach subscribers; see www.soeastrosci .org.) I asked the 100 or so attendees how many hold an advanced degree in science or engineering. About three-quar-ters of them raised their hands. So while they may not be employed as astronomers, many are nevertheless no strangers to the scientific method. It's not just their state-of-the-art telescopes and cameras, but more importantly their knowledge and training, that make them so effective in helping to advance our understanding of the universe.Recognizing the value of the two communities working together, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) established the Working Group for Professional-Amateur Collaboration (S&T: June 2000, page 76; www.aas.org/wgpac). The WGPAC was Initially chartered for a five-year term, but m a sign that pro-am collaboration is anything but a passing fad, the society recently granted the group permanent status. On June 1st, as part of its summer meeting in Denver, Colorado, the AAS will convene a special session on pro-am collaboration to highhght some of the most successful joint projects and to brainstorm new ideas for the future. If you can possibly attend, please dol (See www.aas.org/meetlngs/aas204 for details.)By their very nature, the adjectives "professional" and "amateur" serve to point out differences. I think it's more productive to concentrate on similarities. Maybe we should aU just call ourselves astronomers.8 January 2004 I Sky & Telescope