What to study to be an astronomer

[Kateenaclarke]

Hello hope someone can help me to understand more about what I need to study at uni to become an astronomer. Is it maths and physics ? Or just maths and astronomy? And what's the difference between an astronomer and an astrophysicist ?help!

 

[mathman]

You would need both math and physics. The difference between astronomy and astrophysics is fuzzy. Astrophysics would be more about what happens inside stars, while astronomy would be more about external.

 

[Pulsar67]

I did Physics and Astronomy, but quite a few of my Astronomy lecturers had Maths only degrees. I would recommend taking Physics and Maths, those are the fundamentals and when you understand those, you can apply them to any branch.

Mathman is right, it's quite a fuzzy definition. I've always seen Astronomy as more observational and practical, and Astrophyiscs as theoretical.