Is Astrophotography A Dying Hobby?
In this new format, we talk about topics that have sparked discussions in our Facebook Community!
For this second edition, let’s try to answer a bit of a provocative question.
Marco’s post is our place to start.
Light pollution, smartphones, social media and other constant distractions are not helping young people getting into old-school and contemplative hobbies such as astronomy.
Not too long ago, the space race was at the centre of the cold war, and many have dreamed of space for years, following the first space trip to the moon.
Today, not much of that gigantic effort towards space exploration is present. Still, space remains fascinating for the majority of people.
We don’t lack movies that talk about space, and thanks to CGI in such films, we can immerse ourselves as never before (Yes, 2001 Space Odyssey is an unrivalled masterpiece, but more recent movies such as Interstellar are good too).
Whenever Marco finds himself teaching astronomy or even talking about what we do at Telescope Live, most people remain fascinated.
“I remember having 18 years, and the only way to know about astronomy was what was on the TV and magazines.”
Valter thinks that amateur astronomy has never been so popular. If you go back 20 years with only a few dedicated publications, like Sky&Telescope, or a few dispersed websites existed. Now, there are a lot of o ways to engage in amateur astronomy. Of course, social media helped a lot, but there’s also citizen science that, with the internet, has grown.
He remembers having 18 years, and the only way to know about astronomy was what was on the TV and in magazines.
“It’s growing big time right now.”
Andre doesn’t think it’s a dying hobby; more likely, he would say it has the potential to grow. Why? Since last year he is feeling considerable hype about space, amateur astronomy etc.
He has seen a lot more people, even young ones, getting interested in it. The reason behind that could be all the new space programs. (Artemis, Mars explorations) and so on. A lot of new spacecraft getting developed. Not to mention the launch of the James Web telescope.
Every time he talks about his hobby, people are super interested and want to know more; even tho he is just a beginner, they seem interested. Conclusion: it’s growing big time right now.
“The theatres are mostly closed except the big theatre of the sky. “
For John, Covid has more of us interested than ever. After all, the theatres are mostly closed except the big theatre of the sky. Equipment has been selling out.
“I don’t know the answer to that yet. But there are also questions about Elon Musk’s satellite network and how that will affect the hobby. “
Ron says there’s been a surge in interest during the pandemic, but it remains to be seen if that can be sustained or if we’re going to see many telescopes taking up residence in closets someplace. He thinks another exciting question might be “how” the hobby of astronomy will be done in the future. And that depends, he believes, quite a bit on where you are and what you want to do.
Ron lives on the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois, a vast city with a lot of light pollution. His particular interests are astrophotography and hoping to get into some citizen science work. He recently retired, and he is just getting back into using his telescope. Probably bad choices for his location, so that might mean switching to something like Telescope Live instead of having his local telescope.
For him, he doesn’t know the answer to that yet. But there are also questions about Elon Musk’s satellite network and how that will affect the hobby.
“The last few events we were able to do before the pandemic were as widespread as they ever were “
Chris doesn’t think so at all. They’re still getting new applications to their local Astro society even in lockdown, and the last few events they were able to do before the pandemic were as widespread as they ever were.
So much so that they were struggling to handle the numbers of people.
“I have seen a boost in buying and selling stuff. “
From where Claudio lives, he caught the interest of kids and young people on the topic. The first thing is to do some outreach, showing them the accessibility of equipment and other materials, such as images, affordable or free. He has seen a boost in buying and selling stuff. Still, quite often people ask...yeah, ok, but roughly, about how much are we talking about? it is a costly hobby, so making it accessible is one crucial aspect, and he believes that there is a lot of things that can be done almost at no cost, but people need to know that. GIMP is free, DSS is free, and so on, and many data banks full of beautiful images are also free. Astrobin allows to post the work based on public libraries of pictures, so the opportunity is there, so outreach is, in my opinion, quite an important issue. Another essential thing is astronomy clubs, they can raise funding, and in one year or two, collectively, they can get access to pretty decent equipment, so that is another issue, stimulating astronomy groups or clubs.
“The comments and interest are from all ages, which is excellent “
Rob thinks it has the potential to grow due to social media. Covid has certainly helped, judging by telescope stock levels. He posted the moon and a couple of DSO images to his local community Facebook page saying this is above us right now, and the response was terrific. He now gets chased for the next shot, and at least two people got telescopes for Christmas. Thanks to telescope live, he has managed to keep the pictures coming. The comments and interest are of all ages, which is excellent.
As Claudio said:
“It is a costly hobby, so making it accessible is one important aspect”
Our mission is to build the most accessible and connected astrophotography platform in the world at Telescope Live.
We will make sure amateur astronomy won’t die soon.
Image credit:
Eagle Nebula (M16) Pro Dataset by Kate Nambiar