Career Interview Series: How An Amateur Astronomer Turned Her Passion Into A Business.

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy has compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers, planetary scientists, and enthusiasts. These interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals who have navigated both traditional and non-traditional paths in the field.

Vicky Derksen’s journey into astronomy didn’t start with a childhood telescope or a university degree. Growing up in northern Idaho, she saw the Milky Way all the time and simply assumed everyone else did too. She took that night sky for granted until she moved to Phoenix at twenty-one and had her first serious encounter with light pollution. The stars that had always been there were harder to find, and she missed them, but life continued as Derksen began raising her children.

Vicky Derksen, Night Sky Tourist

The real spark didn't ignite until she was in her early forties and homeschooling her children. She looked up one night and realized she had a vast resource above her but no vocabulary to describe it. She realized she wanted her children to know the sky better than she did. "I had everything to look at, and I knew none of it. I could find the Big Dipper; I could find the Moon. That's it," she recalls.

Determined to change that, Derksen began teaching herself naked-eye astronomy. Her method was practical and shared; as she learned a constellation or a star story, she immediately passed it on to her kids. This personal passion soon became contagious, leading her to teach a class for homeschool students. It proved a popular topic, with parents joining in as well. As Derksen learned more about the night sky, her enthusiasm for dark sky communities grew. This grassroots interest pulled her into a larger mission: working with a group to get Fountain Hills, Arizona, designated as an International Dark Sky Community, a goal they achieved in 2018.

What started as a personal quest for knowledge evolved into a flourishing business almost by accident. The transition began when a local resort requested telescopes for their grand reopening. By now, Derksen had connected with a local astronomy group of mostly retired older men. They agreed to bring their telescopes out for the event. The resort’s marketing dubbed the group the “Star Dudes." This event led to others, and Derksen realized the strong interest in the Phoenix area for astronomy events. People wanted to look up and learn about the night sky. They just needed a little help.

Through this revelation, Night Sky Tourist was born. The astrotourism business launched into the untapped market for high-quality, personal stargazing experiences, with Derksen hiring the “Star Dudes” for the events. “They would do it for free,” she adds with a laugh. “They love it that much, but I pay them.”

Derksen at the telescope for a Night Sky event.

Phoenix hosts many business conferences, receiving travelers from all over the U.S. and even internationally. These groups are looking for unique events to offer attendees, and Night Sky Tourist is a great fit. The demand for their unique brand of entertainment has exploded, particularly as "astrotourism" becomes a travel trend. In February alone, her team handled twenty-one events in twenty-eight days. 

Derksen has carefully curated these experiences to be more than just looking through a telescope; she offers "Twilight Hikes" and "Starlight Full Moon Hikes" that connect people to the environment and the cultural history of the stars. Her favorite events include the opportunity to tell the story of the stars across cultures, using these cultural myths to connect us more deeply to the night sky and each other. People often tell her it’s these stories that stick with them after the event.

She has also been involved in the development of the International Dark Sky Discovery Center in Fountain Hills, a new facility opening in the fall of 2026 that will hold the largest telescope in Arizona, a planetarium and theater, and an exhibit on the growing dark sky movement.

In addition to the physical events, Derksen has built a digital home for sky enthusiasts through the Night Sky Tourist website and podcast. The podcast was born out of a friend’s suggestion and a "leap before you look" moment where she announced the launch on social media before she even knew how to edit audio recordings. Now, with over 130 episodes, she has found her stride in a medium that allows her to reach people far beyond Arizona.

Vicky Derksen teaching naked eye astronomy, helping others understand the night sky.

Her content is built on four intentional pillars that reflect her holistic view of the sky. She emphasizes naked-eye stargazing because she believes the barrier to entry shouldn't be an expensive telescope. She also highlights dark sky destinations, like national parks with dedicated astronomy programs, and explores cultural astronomy by sharing sacred star stories from indigenous cultures. Finally, she uses her platform for dark sky advocacy, educating listeners on the ecological importance of preserving darkness—not just for the sake of the view, but for the health of the planet.

To learn more about Vicky Derksen’s business, Night Sky Tourist, or to find a dark sky destination for your next trip, visit nightskytourist.com.

Crosspost: Amateur astronomer discovers a tiny moon around Jupiter

Written By: Dorris Elin Urrutia for space.com 

Gif showing a  series of images taken onFeb. 24, 2003 by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope revealing the newly discovered Jovian moon. Credit: S.S. Shepard/CFHT/CADC

An amater astronomer has discovered a previously unknown moon around Jupiter after poring over old telescope images, a major first.

"I’m proud to say that this is the first planetary moon discovered by an amateur astronomer!" moon searcher Kai Ly said in a July 8 Sky and Telescope report that details the discovery.

Jupiter may have dozens or even hundreds of undiscovered moons orbiting around it. This massive planet boasts a substantial gravitational field that allows it to capture space debris into its orbit. Jupiter currently hosts at least 79 moons, and the number continues to grow. The latest discovery was made by Ly, an amateur astronomer, and it's the latest addition to the catalogue of the Carme group of Jovian satellites.

Learn more about Kai Ly's amazing discovery and the relevance of citizen science in astronomical discoveries at the link below: 

https://www.space.com/amateur-astronomer-jupiter-moon-discovery 

A Lack of Women in Amateur Astronomy in the US

By Rachel Freed

Rachel Freed is a co-founder and the President of the Institute for Student Astronomical Research (InStAR), as well as a seminar instructor, with a mission to incorporate true scientific research into secondary and undergraduate education. She helps to coordinate international conferences around the use of telescopes in education and is currently working on a PhD in astronomy education. She is also a faculty lecturer in the School of Education at Sonoma State University. She has a B.S. degree in Biology from UC Davis and an M.S. in Neuroscience from Northwestern University, where she studied neural transmission using confocal microscopy and electrophysiology.
Rachel taught high school chemistry and astronomy for 10 years and has conducted research on chemistry education, helping to design, build and evaluate an online formative assessment system for high school chemistry. She is involved in curriculum design and implementation and trains educators in the use of technology and remote telescopes for research. She has been an amateur astronomer for 20 years and is involved in public outreach. She is a public speaker with a focus on bringing telescopes to students around the globe as well as promoting changes in education that build on a child’s intrinsic motivations and interests.

I have been an amateur astronomer for 19 years and a member of five different astronomy clubs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in California during this time. I also get to work in the arena of public astronomy and do a lot of education and outreach. For these almost 20 years I’ve been hearing the amateur astronomers say amongst themselves “we need to diversify, we need younger people, we need people of color.” And for 19 years it hasn’t changed much from what I am seeing. While there has definitely been an increase in women in professional astronomy, it’s still nothing close to 50-50 and over the last four or five years, there has been a lot of news about sexual harassment in the field. While I don’t know if this is a significant part of the problem in the world of amateur astronomy, there are certainly many subtle and not-so-subtle issues that contribute to this lack of diversity.