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Don't worry about being a professor, you still get all the action a normal astronomer gets. Being a professor simply means you have to teach a few kids some basic principles of astronomy, easy stuff.

Anyway, keep in mind that the job openings for astronomers are small, so make sure to stay focused on your studies should you want to compete with the others.

Keep in mind that it's not just peacefully observing planets, some of them have to work on things such as the physics of their movement how certain objects might have come to being.

Might have to sacrifice some sleep as well considering the fact that, well... It's kinda obvious isn't it.

Now then, the classes you want to take are lots of math and physics. I'm sure an ordinary state university offers the courses need (although it's best to always aim for a location out of state if you can). With an astronomy major you can end up as an astronomer of course, a astrogeologist (self explanatory, if your lucky enough you get to mess with actual extraterrestrial soil samples!) and even an astronaut.

Personally if you're really passionate about astronomy you might want to go for amatuer astronomy. Modern astronomers nowadays may get the highest pieces of imagery but as a price they must make all these research papers and have become slaves to the computer. That's why I'm aiming for the indirect approach by aiming for aerospace engineering and hoping that I might get to design a orbiting telescope. Don't forget that amatuer astronomers have actually discovered some extrasolar planets.

Still, if you really want to be an astronomer then go for it. It's still a pretty neat occupation.

www.careercruising.com is a great tool. my school used it with us when we got out explore tests back(checks out the things you are interested in and gives you possible career choices) but it will give you many good things to go on... like interveiws with accual astronomers and like salary ranges and you can even search for schools that have astronamy majors. but the one thing that i do know is that almost all astronomers have PhDs, at least thats what the website told me oh and it even states possible highschool classes too

i dont know... if you do have to pay, my school pays... there are ways to get around that, just keep starting 30 day trials whenever you need to look at it, the only bad thing is that it will probably reset every thing... but it will still come up as the same info.... just you will have to do every thing again

I'm on the way to becomming an astronomer, so I have a good idea of this. Math and physics is essential. I hardly learned any astronomy is elementary and high school. Just the occational little bit here and there. Most of it was me just reading books on astronomy. Make sure you take math and physics though. Those are essential. So, after high school what's next? Univeristy or Collage. Look for a uni or collage that has a physics or astronomy program. You could technically become an astronomer with just a physics degree. Some of my astro profs that I have now did just that. So, once you're in uni or collage you'll probably be there for a long while because you're going to need to get a PhD probably, unless you're lucky.
As for jobs in astronomy, well more are either at a university or in research (usually with the government). If you work as a university prof then about 40% of your time is teaching either math, physics or astronomy classes, 40% is for your own research, and 20% is administrative stuff. If you work in reasearch then all your time will just be working on the research task you are assigned to.
So, hope that helps you out. If you want to know more feel free to pm me. ^_^

I know this topic has been dead for some time now, but thanks for your password and name! I learned quite a bit about what I was curious about Astronomy... sweatdrop

Also, on a less idealistic course, many companies in the private sector will look for anyone with any degree in mathematics, physics or astronomy.
The reason is because people who can get that degree will have minds that are very well trained and can deal with complex situations and numbers without knowing what it is they are actually dealing with.

Unfortunately this usually means that while you make a decent amount of money, you have no idea what it is you are helping your company make. It could be research into the curing of AIDS, or you could be working on one part of a thousand parts of a virus being made to only kill people with certain genetic markers. So be kind of carefull if you decide to get a degree in that fiend and work elsewhere.

Yea I've heard that as well, that physics degrees are highly sought after by industry. They're also good because P&A people are good at problem solving. I mean all the work that you do for classes you're given certain info and you have to find the solution. Problem solving is handy in the work place and it's what P&A people are trained to do.