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Old 29-07-2013, 03:51 PM
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barx1963 (Malcolm)
Bright the hawk's flight

barx1963 is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Mt Duneed Vic
Posts: 3,982
The demographics of the astronomy community is definitely much older these days, which as the article says is impacting on sales. S&T had an editorial on ths issue in their latest US edition. We see this at star parties and in the people on forums are mostly 50+.
Not sure there is a solution, I know when I talk to others about my astro interest, 90% of people display a range of reactions from indifference/incomprehension to actual outright hostility. One friend of mine's reaction was "Well, what do you get out of it?" meaning he couldn't understand why I would spend so much time on a hobby which couldn't reap financial rewards. (this from someone who will spend hours watching cars go in circles!!).
A few have as mentioned have reacted with actual hostility, querying my motives and sanity.
Given this sort of experience, no wonder the market for telescopes is shrinking.

Malcolm
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