If you were a professional astronomer...

[gurney]

Just thought I'd start a thread to tap into your inner dreams.

If you could do astronomy full time, and you had the chance to use any of the various telescopes (visual, radio, space based, infra-red, ...) what would you love to study and why?

Personally I've always been split between that which is closest to home - our sun and the stellar wind interacting with the earth, and at the other end of the spectrum, galactic structure.

I love the STEREO mission looking at our sun, so I'd love to be working on that.

But I think giving half the chance I'd love to be freezing my butt of up Mauna Kea in Hawaii - it must be a fascinating community to live and work in - and the days off would be pretty nice too!

[Ant]

I'd like to be an optical engineer. Actually make lenses and mirrors etc.

Ant

[timetraveller]

hi gurney for me it would have to be the Hubble researching deep space imaging with a very heavy leaning towards super massive black holes and gravity lensing I have a real passion for high energy physics and in the interaction of mater

[FLO]

I'd get a real kick out of knowing that something I designed or built is actually 'up there' 8)

[NickH]

Mission specialist on the deep space probes...telemetry was my thing back in Uni

[StarMan1701]

I'd like to be on the imaging team of one or two of the planetary exploration probes.

Lee.

[RichieJarvis]

I think Radio Astronomy would be where I would be headed - no problems with Clouds

[stefski]

This is a tricky one....I think I'd like to do visual work studying nebulae of different kinds.

However, I'd really like to be able to use my own equipment, in a light polution-free environment, to do professional work of some kind!

Stef

[SteveL]

Something that a friend once told me is that amateurs astronomers tend look up at the sky, professionals tend look down at data. I know which I would prefer to do.

[Ford Prefect]

Something that a friend once told me is that amateurs astronomers tend look up at the sky, professionals tend look down at data. I know which I would prefer to do.

I agree

cheers Jon

[SteveL]

And you know EXACTLY who I am talking about

[Jonileth]

i dunno about doin work, but i'd like to use one of these multi million pound scopes (like the ones at mauna kea) just to look at the sky. i'd like to see what they double double looks like through such a scope, maybe see what m13 or m42 or sod it the whole messier catalogue looks like. just observe, using a very big scope - bliss

jonileth

[James]

If I were a professional astronomer.... I'd be at an observatory in Chile/Hawaii at high altitude delegating the hard work to an assistant. This would be so that I could set my scope up outside and happily observe all night long.

James

[beamer3.6m]

I would like to ride the Hubble telescope, I reckon it might take better pics that the Toucam Pro II

[Talitha]

Visual lunar observing for me!! When Luna's not visible I'd like to help out with NEO detection, and my nights off would be spent hunting for Comet Talitha.

[Naz]

Visual lunar observing for me!! When Luna's not visible I'd like to help out with NEO detection, and my nights off would be spent hunting for Comet Talitha.

Keep looking, one day you will find it

Archie

[Sam]

I would like to be a large (that's telescope not me) amateur telescope tester - with a budget to travel to the world best dark sky sites.

[GazOC]

I'd like to look for exo planets or KBOs, they seem to be the places where you can actually discover an object...like in the 'old days'.

[Talitha]

Keep looking, one day you will find it

Archie

Thanks, Archie!

[Whippy]

I think I'd like to get paid researching the Oort Cloud, not quite sure what but it would appear we know so little about it and yet it's so close.

Tony..

[lunator]

I would like to be involved in a project to follow up on the Hipparcus & Tycho missions.

Combining Astrometry & spectroscopy. A prject like this should lead to a better understanding of Stellar evolution etc.

Cheers

Ian

[dph1nm]

Something that a friend once told me is that amateurs astronomers tend look up at the sky, professionals tend look down at data. I know which I would prefer to do.

OK, so as a professional astronomer I would just like to point out that this is not always true! As an optical observational astronomer I have been taking and reducing CCD images for nearly 25 years, and before that I played with photographic plates. You get to go to the best observatories in the world, with the darkest skies, and meet loads of people who are keen amateurs as well. And you often find the odd smaller telescope lying around unused just waiting for someone to look through it. What more could you want!?

NigelM

[StarMan1701]

What more could you want!?

Er, your job? 8)

Lee.