Title: The Role of Amateur Astronomers in Astronomy Education
Abstract: Let us begin by defining “amateur astronomer”. According to a dictionary, an amateur astronomer is “someone who loves astronomy, and cultivates it as a hobby”. At IAU colloquium 98 (The Contributions of Amateurs to Astronomy), Williams (1988) discussed this issue at length. He proposed that, to be an amateur astronomer, one must be an astronomer - able to do astronomy with some degree of skill; he then defined an amateur astronomer as “someone who carries out astronomy with a high degree of skill, but not for pay”.