Conclusion

                      During this class, I learned not only specifics of astronomy, but also how science is an ever-growing field that heavily relies on the cooperation and work of previous scientists to advance. From the beginning of the course, we learned how modern astronomy had its roots based in ancient Greek astronomers, who themselves had to base their work on previous scholars; each scrutinized and in their own ways attempted to refine astronomy to better fit observations. I saw this concept clearly when we learned how to estimate distances to galaxies and stars, as each step of the ladder (radar, parallax, standard candles, etc.) is a small but specific example of how science relies on itself, and how the modern view of the evolution of the universe continues to change and refine as new data is recorded. In the end, a big take away from the class is that in astronomy, and science in general, individual datum and contributions may not always seem incredibly important, but it is precisely because of the work of thousands (nowadays hundreds of thousands) of people that meaningful advances are able to be made.