I’ve been using Feedbin since Google Reader shut down. Been very happy with it. I access it through the web on desktop and using Reeder 4 on iOS; both work well.
Really depends what you mean by “a career in astronomy”.
Being a research astrophysicist at a university or major lab likely requires a PhD and (to achieve tenure) many years of postdoctoral experience.
However, systems like Rubin (which I have worked on) require complex data processing and management systems to make them effective. Building those doesn't require expertise a PhD astronomy — although some level of interest and enthusiasm certainly helps — but rather the sorts of engineering skills that the typical Hacker News reader might possess. Skillsets like that are increasingly vital as astronomy moves towards large-scale, data-intensive infrastructures like Rubin, SKA, etc.
That said, it's certainly true that taking your career down this path isn't likely to be as well remunerated as a career in commercial software development (although that varies a bit with geography).