Curriculum for the Training of Astronomers

Extract

In a discussion on the training of astronomers, the question naturally arises: “Training...but at what level?” After all, the subject of astronomy happens to be unique amongst all sciences in that it interests children and educated general public at one end and professionals at the other. Before coming to these specifics, certain general remarks will be in order.

Astronomy is a branch of science. This fact is not readily appreciated at the “lay” end of the above spectrum. Unlike other sciences, which have Earth-based laboratories in which controlled experiments are performed, astronomy has its labs located in the heavens far beyond the reach, let alone “control,” of the terrestrial observer. So how can one be sure that what one sees out there is subject to the same rules and disciplines of science that govern the local laboratory experiments of physics and chemistry? Yet that happens to be so!