<p>I am thinking of becoming an astronomer becuase I love looking through my telescope at night, and may want to make it my profession. Is there money to be made working at an observatory, or is the BLS median annual wage of $114,590 primarily from other career paths within astronomy? How hard is it to get a job at an observatory?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-12T13:16:03.463Z
The income will depend wildly from country to country, but if money is a concern I'm not sure astronomy is the right path to choose. I think 114 kUSD sounds unrealistically high, though I'm not sure of the US standards. Perhaps it includes all the ones who studied astronomy out of a love to the Universe, but ended up disillusioned but rich in banking, insurance, and data-crunching. Getting a job is not easy either, and typically requires you to be willing to move around from country to country for a number of years.
pela
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-12T17:20:41.143Z
From my experience, working at an observatory pays a heck of a lot less.  Way back in 2007 I could have taken a job at the VLA for \$42k or a job in industry for \$68k.  I took the industry job and never looked back.  Also, there aren't very many jobs at an observatory (at least the big ones) where you are actually observing.  Usually the observatory workers are keeping the thing running for visiting astronomers to use.  I don't know how hard it is to get an observatory job these days.
Connor Garcia
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-12T22:42:36.973Z
@ConnorGarcia well you do look back a little bit, at least by participating in SE :-)  Way back in the mid 1980's when my university's observatory closed due to budget cuts due to national economy issues I got scared and took a different path, and I look back every day that I log in here. Life is one bifurcation after another.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-12T22:47:05.793Z
@Sam getting a job you really enjoy that pays >100 k certainly happens to some, it is possible. BUT it doesn't happen that often. These days the people who "look through" telescopes do it at a desk (or a laptop), often sitting on the other side of the Earth from the telescope, and they might not do it in real time; they might schedule the observing and review later. People at the observatory will certainly participate in making this happen and can catch a buzz off of being part of cool science, but their job is more focused on the instrument's performance and maintenance, troubleshooting, etc.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-13T11:56:39.223Z
You really need to find a detailed account of what BLS classify as "astronomers" to get a proper picture here.  I've found these classifications to be quite different from what a "man in the street" might expect them to mean.  I wonder how many of the positions they define this way are actually senior admin roles - e.g. dept heads and so on.  They might classify people in technical roles in a different way - these government stats can be somewhat perversely defined when you deep dive them, in my experience.
StephenG - Help Ukraine
<observational-astronomy>
Salary of observatory worker?
Sam
# Salary of observatory worker?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-11-12)

I am thinking of becoming an astronomer becuase I love looking through my telescope at night, and may want to make it my profession. Is there money to be made working at an observatory, or is the BLS median annual wage of $114,590 primarily from other career paths within astronomy? How hard is it to get a job at an observatory?

**Tags:** observational-astronomy

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The income will depend wildly from country to country, but if money is a concern I'm not sure astronomy is the right path to choose. I think 114 kUSD sounds unrealistically high, though I'm not sure of the US standards. Perhaps it includes all the ones who studied astronomy out of a love to the Universe, but ended up disillusioned but rich in banking, insurance, and data-crunching. Getting a job is not easy either, and typically requires you to be willing to move around from country to country for a number of years.  
> **username_2**: From my experience, working at an observatory pays a heck of a lot less.  Way back in 2007 I could have taken a job at the VLA for \$42k or a job in industry for \$68k.  I took the industry job and never looked back.  Also, there aren't very many jobs at an observatory (at least the big ones) where you are actually observing.  Usually the observatory workers are keeping the thing running for visiting astronomers to use.  I don't know how hard it is to get an observatory job these days.  
> **username_3**: @ConnorGarcia well you do look back a little bit, at least by participating in SE :-)  Way back in the mid 1980's when my university's observatory closed due to budget cuts due to national economy issues I got scared and took a different path, and I look back every day that I log in here. Life is one bifurcation after another.  
> **username_3**: @username_0 getting a job you really enjoy that pays >100 k certainly happens to some, it is possible. BUT it doesn't happen that often. These days the people who "look through" telescopes do it at a desk (or a laptop), often sitting on the other side of the Earth from the telescope, and they might not do it in real time; they might schedule the observing and review later. People at the observatory will certainly participate in making this happen and can catch a buzz off of being part of cool science, but their job is more focused on the instrument's performance and maintenance, troubleshooting, etc.  
> **username_4**: You really need to find a detailed account of what BLS classify as "astronomers" to get a proper picture here.  I've found these classifications to be quite different from what a "man in the street" might expect them to mean.  I wonder how many of the positions they define this way are actually senior admin roles - e.g. dept heads and so on.  They might classify people in technical roles in a different way - these government stats can be somewhat perversely defined when you deep dive them, in my experience.  

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## 0 answers

