Normally, every few months I post a blog sharing the results of some of the more interesting polls we do on the Astronomy.com home page. But this time, I want to focus on only one poll result because, well, I thought maybe you all could provide some insight and feedback.
Last week, the poll was a basic demographic question, one I’m surprised we’d never asked before (at least, we don’t have a record of it): “How long have you been active in astronomy as a hobby?” I was expecting a high number to select either less than 1 year or 1-5 years because Astronomy.com generates a lot of new traffic every week (if you put “astronomy” into a search engine, our home page is at the top of list). But I guess I wasn’t expecting the almost inverse bell curve the rest of the results created. The numbers go as follows:
Less than 1 year: 20.64%, (122 votes)
1-5 years: 23.35%, (138 votes)
6-10 years: 9.64%, (57 votes)
11-15 years: 8.29%, (49 votes)
16-20 year: 5.25%, (31 votes)
More than 20 years: 32.83%, (194 votes)
Total Votes: 591
Do you think these results reflect the state of the hobby? Was astronomy a very popular pastime 20+ years ago that is just recently starting to gain new steam now that the digital age has enveloped our hobby as well? Or is it just a typical hobby — one that someone either picks up for a short time or a lifetime? Maybe your personal experiences in astronomy could provide some insight. I’m curious to hear your stories.