<p>This is to inform that I am a third-year Physics Major student. I am enrolled in a five-year dual degree BS-MS programme at IISER Bhopal, India.
I had a keen pop-science-like interest in astronomy since childhood. I hardly knew anything on a mathematical basis but was deeply moved by the stuff when I learned about it.</p>
<p>I have a habit of getting deeply into the topic and understanding the core of it. I am managing fine in my coursework, but I am not able to figure out what I really want to try out.
I garnered a fascination for programming in my first year and, gained Web and app dev skills, learned SQL, C and Python. I also tinkered with OS and familiarised myself with Linux, command line tools and server management. I went on to do a couple of internships in App dev, server management and made quite a few websites.
I, however, had a desire to shift towards something related to astronomy, but whenever I delve into topics to try my hands on, I cannot figure out why I should choose this and not that!! I am fascinated by almost anything, and that doesn't help.
I tried getting a casual read of an undergraduate course textbook at the suggestion of one of my professors, (Astronomy: A Physical Perspective by Marc L. Kutner (Author)). I enjoyed the read but mostly skipped the General Relativity part. I was most fascinated by the chapters on stellar evolution and galaxy formations. To probe more into the topics, I inquired my professors and started reading (<a href="https://www.astro.umd.edu/%7Erichard/ASTRO620/MBW_Book_Galaxy.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.astro.umd.edu/~richard/ASTRO620/MBW_Book_Galaxy.pdf</a>) a book on Galaxy Formation and Evolution. However, it stopped making sense after 2.5 chapters, and I felt my knowledge of mathematics and physics was lacking.</p>
<p>What I wanted to ask was, when I am trying to look for internship opportunities, I am intimidated by the topics people are working on and hardly have any clue, so how do I really get into doing actual stuff? How would I approach people in granting me an opportunity to get my hands dirty?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-01-19T16:11:37.293Z
Not really a suitable Q for Astronomy SE. Opinion-based. No definitive answer is possible. Possibly better on  Academia SE.
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-01-19T16:20:35.223Z
Sure, I will post it there then.
Kartik Mandar
<observational-astronomy><star-formation><galactic-dynamics>
How to decide and narrow down the broad topics I should get an astronomy internship on?
Kartik Mandar
# How to decide and narrow down the broad topics I should get an astronomy internship on?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-01-19)

This is to inform that I am a third-year Physics Major student. I am enrolled in a five-year dual degree BS-MS programme at IISER Bhopal, India.
I had a keen pop-science-like interest in astronomy since childhood. I hardly knew anything on a mathematical basis but was deeply moved by the stuff when I learned about it.

I have a habit of getting deeply into the topic and understanding the core of it. I am managing fine in my coursework, but I am not able to figure out what I really want to try out.
I garnered a fascination for programming in my first year and, gained Web and app dev skills, learned SQL, C and Python. I also tinkered with OS and familiarised myself with Linux, command line tools and server management. I went on to do a couple of internships in App dev, server management and made quite a few websites.
I, however, had a desire to shift towards something related to astronomy, but whenever I delve into topics to try my hands on, I cannot figure out why I should choose this and not that!! I am fascinated by almost anything, and that doesn't help.
I tried getting a casual read of an undergraduate course textbook at the suggestion of one of my professors, (Astronomy: A Physical Perspective by Marc L. Kutner (Author)). I enjoyed the read but mostly skipped the General Relativity part. I was most fascinated by the chapters on stellar evolution and galaxy formations. To probe more into the topics, I inquired my professors and started reading ([https://www.astro.umd.edu/~richard/ASTRO620/MBW\_Book\_Galaxy.pdf](https://www.astro.umd.edu/%7Erichard/ASTRO620/MBW_Book_Galaxy.pdf)) a book on Galaxy Formation and Evolution. However, it stopped making sense after 2.5 chapters, and I felt my knowledge of mathematics and physics was lacking.

What I wanted to ask was, when I am trying to look for internship opportunities, I am intimidated by the topics people are working on and hardly have any clue, so how do I really get into doing actual stuff? How would I approach people in granting me an opportunity to get my hands dirty?

**Tags:** observational-astronomy, star-formation, galactic-dynamics
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Not really a suitable Q for Astronomy SE. Opinion-based. No definitive answer is possible. Possibly better on  Academia SE.  
> **username_0**: Sure, I will post it there then.  

---

## 0 answers

