Astronomers here have observatory duties such as developing new instrumentation, serving on telescope allocation committees, and supporting archives of data from NOAO instruments. Some astronomers would say they spend lots of time writing grant proposals, and certainly astronomers spend a lot of time traveling to meetings and observatories. A solar astronomer needs to be at the telescope from sunrise until sunset. A nighttime astronomer is just the opposite, arriving at the telescope late in the afternoon to prepare for the night's observations and working until dawn. Astronomers rarely look through the telescope eyepiece anymore.
Computer literacy is a necessity.
While not all astronomers are skilled computer programmers, all should be comfortable using a computer for editing files, transferring data across networks, and analyzing their astronomical data and images. Other valuable traits are patience and determination for sticking to a difficult problem or theory until you've seen it through - which can take years. The final product of scientific research is the dissemination of the knowledge gained, so don't overlook the importance of communication skills like effective public speaking at professional meetings and the ability to publish well written articles in scientific journals. As the field becomes more competitive, these communication skills are becoming increasingly important. Math, science, computing.