Can a programmer find a job in oceanography/astronomy?

You'll be surprised how much programming is involved in astronomy. However, astro organizations, research institutions, and so forth rarely hire people who only do programming. Instead, astronomers learn to code, usually during their PhD. read more

I personally had an oceanography programming job about two years ago. You certainly could, too. In fact, you have greater chances of landing an oceanography job. A quick google search for "oceanography programming job" reveals this: Job Title: Oceanographer - Senior Programmer and Data Analyst. I don't know how appealing that is to you. read more

The way that MIT does it is to split astronomy into "planetary science" (which includes the planet earth) and "astrophysics". The MIT term is EAPS (earth atmosphere and planetary science). read more