What is astronomy like?

Question

I am currently enrolled in college and now trying to decide what science to take. Biology and Chemistry have always seemed a little bland to me, while on the other hand i have always had a deep interest in space. I know astronomy is a physics class, but what does it entail? A lot of math? from what i understand there are a lot of formulas. Just looking for a general idea...

Answer 1

Like any other subject. You have unit tests, exams, passing them and your degree or diploma handed over to you.

It is a lot of imagination that implies lot of mathematics, esoteric and at times apparently intractable. Imagination can soar into the sky only on the broomstick of hard mathematics. So brush up your trigonometry for it is the pathway to spherical trigonometry. All this effort to fathom its Physics. Without Physics, Astronomy is blind.

Once you pass the bend of 'up/down, falling' you are on firmer ground, so far as Astronomy is concerned.

While in Astronomy you thank God every moment for having given the 'sight' and 'eyes'.

First gaze the stars every night (I hope there is some corner in your city that'll permit it!). Follow each of the 5 visible (to the naked eye) planets, day after day. Study a bit of spectroscopy and know what is Doppler's effect.

Many hours of happy viewing!

Answer 2

Once you get to the college level, pretty much all the sciences have a lot of math. There's no getting away from it.

Astronomy is pretty interesting, but it's also a great deal of work, just like all the rest of the science classes. The labs tend to be at night, that's the big difference.

Answer 3

At the beginning (undergraduate level), astronomy is a lot of physics, with some chemistry and optics mixed in.

At the graduate level, it becomes more like math.

Most people who have gone to their PhD level say that it is better to take science and math at the undergraduate level, as opposed to an astronomy program.  

Once you slip into astronomy at the graduate (and PhD) level, you need solid math and physics, plus some of the other sciences.

I've done the math route myself (two undergraduate degrees in math) before taking a graduate astronomy program.  I wish I could trade one of the math programs for a science program.

Also, if you are already a very interested amateur astronomers, you would find that a lot of undergraduate astronomy courses are going over stuff you'd already know.

However, depending on the institution and on the teacher, your mileage may vary.