Variable Star Observing and Amateur Astronomers

Abstract

Doubt has always existed among amateur astronomers regarding their contributions to the science of astronomy. Naturally, your eqipment cannot compare with the professional’s; you’re unable to build a large telescope on some lofty mountain top and, if you’re like the great majority of amateur astronomers, you lack the specialized training and experience of the professional astronomer; so the question of quality is posed. Occasionally, you may wonder, “Are my contributions even needed today?” when orbiting telescopes and 10-meter mirrors are being used by professional astronomers. The superiority of the professional and their equipment appears to leave not the slightest niche for you and me.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, as least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt