Astronomy is the study of celestial objects and phenomena that take place outside of Earth. Since time the beginning of time, stargazing has been an important part of many civilizations. It is through observation of the heavens that they determined the seasons and the direction of places people wanted to go to. The invention of the telescope revolutionized astronomy and more discoveries of celestial bodies and phenomena were discovered.
Observational astronomy was thus born as a way to acquire more data about the planets, sun and stars.
Basic principles of physics and mathematics were employed as a means to acquire the needed data. Determining a celestial body’s mass, density, size and volume already provides an astronomer enough information as to what this celestial body could be. Aside from this, its degree of temperature and degree of angle from the celestial equator can give an insight as to how hot or cold the celestial body is, and how far it is from Earth respectively.
As more people realized the importance of astronomy, they also realized the need to gain basic understanding of it hence schools began offering courses in Astronomy. Companies that specialized on Astronomy and Space, such as the famous National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) usually require their employees to have at least a degree in Astronomy, Physics or other related courses.