"AMATEUR" IS NOT AN INSULT. An amateur astronomer is anybody who learns the skies. Anybody who may learn how to observe or photograph the incomprehensibly distant and huge objects out there. Anybody who may learn about spaceflight, or space in popular culture, or scientific history, or cosmology. Especially anybody who shares this knowledge with others - not because it's a paid occupation, not for recognition or praise, but because they love it.