Any professor of astronomy is a bright fellow. Often, they're the easiest to hoax, because in the ivory tower world, there's a lot of gullability. Scientists tend to trust one another's data, and genuine hoaxes are quite rare. So a "street hoaxer" is likely to pull one over on those guys. The magician, Randi, has a ball showing how easy it is to fool academic types.
Anyway, I'll keep an open mind. If some signicant, verifiable evidence turns up, a bit more persuasive than mere craftsmanship in the bean fields, I'll pay more attention.
I'd say the opposite is usually true, where they can see through a hoax clearer than most. They can also see what isn't a hoax clearer as well.
That's the whole entire reason why they ARE scientists, to sift the wheat from the chaff....