Amateur Astronomy from Its Origins to Camille Flammarion

Abstract

It is not possible to sketch the history of astronomy by amateurs without first defining what the term “amateur astronomer” truly means. But we must avoid using “the benefit of hind-sight” to interpret the past in terms of a concept, the relevance of which has been perceived only during the course of the last one hundred years. In order to avoid the sophistry arising from such a purely imaginary history that is based on false conceptions, it is useful to examine amateur astronomy’s precise status, since its emergence in the dawn of classical science, by outlining the type of relationship that it has had with “professional” astronomy. In doing so, we can evoke some of the major developments in amateur astronomy, the scientific contributions of which, although often of high quality, have at times reached the very forefront of the discipline of astronomy.