Astronomer

An astronomer is a professional, or amateur, scientist who is skilled in astronomy, makes observations of astronomical objects, or does astrophysics applied to astronomy.

Quotes

It is quite common, for example, for an astronomer or a physicist to claim that he has found a 'mathematical proof' the physical universe must behave in a particular way. All such claims, if interpreted literally, are strictly nonsense. If cannot be possible to prove mathematically that there will be an eclipse to-morrow, because eclipses, and other physical phenomena, do not form part of the abstract world of mathematics; and this, I suppose, all astronomers would admit when pressed, however many eclipses they may have predicted correctly.
- G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology. Cambridge University Press. 1992. p. 107. (153 pages; 1st edition 1940; foreword by C. P. Snow added in 1967)

… the assistant who has charge of an instrument looks, from time to time, at his star-regulated clock, and when it warns him that his expected planet is nearly due, he leaves his companions and quietly repairs to the room where the telescope is ready. The adjustment of this has previously been arranged with the greatest nicety. The shutter is moved from the slit in the roof, the astronomer sits upon an easy chair with a moveable back. If the object he seeks is high in the heavens, this chair-back is lowered till its occupant almost lies down; if the star is lower, the chair-back is raised in proportion. He has his note-book and metallic pencil in hand. Across the eye-piece of the telescope are stretched seven lines of spider-web, dividing the field of view. If his seat requires change, the least motion arranges it to his satisfaction, for it rests upon a railway of its own.
- Frederick Knight Hunt, (25 May 1850) "The Planet-Watchers of Greenwich". Household Words: Conducted by Charles Dickens: 200–204. (quote from p. 202; see Royal Observatory, Greenwich)

As youngsters, all of us are curious about the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars. Some of us never lose this curiosity, and we are privileged to devote a major effort of our lives to studying and attempting to understand the universe. We are called astronomers.
A telescope is our tool, and this telescope is a very special one, as it initiates a new generation of telescopes. It has a new type of mirror that is polished in a new manner; it is mounted in a different way, and it will be used by a unique set of astronomers—astronomers of the Vatican Observatory. There have been astronomers at the Vatican for over four centuries, and the present Vatican Observatory was founded in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII. The distinguished line of Vatican astronomers includes the beloved Fr. Cecchi, who very early founded the science of stellar composition.
- Vera Rubin, "Dedication of the Vatican Telescope". Bright Galaxies, Dark Matters. Masters of Modern Physics. Springer Science & Business Media. 1996. pp. 80–83. ISBN 9781563962318. (236 pages; quote from p. 80; Vera Rubin gave the speech "On the Dedication of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope” in Tucson in 1993 at the Inaugural Dinner of the Vatican Telescope.)