Each to his own.....
I would hate to be chained to a desk and look at stamps all night long...
thats how some would view our hobby,.... they all oooh and ahhhh at the Hubble pics, but what we see is something many would not blink at,,,
my wife says I'm nuts to sit out in -11deg cold on a mountain top to take pics of a little fuzzy ball ( as she calls Omega Cen) and she likes looking at the moon and a few planets, now and again.... but ask her to see the grace in a spiral galaxy and she say..."uhhmmm ok, what you smoking out there again... where is it.... oh you mean that little smudge!!!)
Our hobby is an aquired taste....like bird watching, train spotting and things that drive nutters like us. We should not force it on the youth or others...
but what we should do, is be available to the un-educated when they ask "why, where and what!!!"
I have done many scope demos before, the biggest being an annual event called ScopeX in Johannesburg, every year. The last had about 14,000 visitors and international guest speakers. If we get twenty new memebrs to the society from it each year, that stay... we where happy...
I'd go to say about 49 in 50 department type scopes ( the cheapies) get binned with in a year to the back shed.
I'd say 4 in 5 $200~300 scopes get resold or gather dust to newbie kids.
and I'd say 9 out of 10 scopes over $500 get used ( if only once a month they still used).... so make them buy expensive and then thay have to justify it to Dad when not used...lol...
Tony