What Is An Amateur Astronomer?

Let us begin by defining “amateur astronomer”. According to a dictionary, an amateur astronomer is “someone who loves astronomy, and cultivates it as a hobby”. At IAU colloquium 98 (The Contributions of Amateurs to Astronomy), Williams (1988) discussed this issue at length. He proposed that, to be an amateur astronomer, one must be an astronomer – able to do astronomy with some degree of skill; he then defined an amateur astronomer as “someone who carries out astronomy with a high degree of skill, but not for pay”.

Unfortunately, the word “amateur” has negative connotations to many people. This is partly because of the unfortunate choice of the word; “volunteer astronomers” might be a better choice. It is partly because there are indeed a few amateurs whose ideas and attitudes might be judged rather bizarre – but the same is true for some professionals. There might even be a hint of snobbery, especially in cultures in which qualifications (as opposed to ability) are paramount. Professionals certainly respect the contributions of the “superstars” of amateur astronomy: Prank Bateson, Robert Evans, Patrick Moore and the like. We tend to hold these people as examples, though very few amateurs are willing or able to contribute at this level. There are thousands of “rank-and-file amateurs” worldwide. They can and do contribute significantly to the advancement of astronomy.

I prefer to define amateur astronomer extremely broadly. In this case, their education, knowledge, skills at instrumentation, computing, observing, teaching and other astronomical activities could be anything from zero to PhD level in astronomy or a related field. Many amateur astronomers are professionals in other scientific or technical fields.