On January 1, I put up one of my favorite polls on Astronomy.com: “What is your astronomy-related New Year’s resolution?” I like it because I think it’s very telling about the interests of the people who frequent our web site. It’s also fun to see if the results changed from previous years. Well, the results are in, and they’re definitely interesting.
Just as it did in January 2009, a resolution of “get out of the armchair and observe more” took the top spot for 2010. In fact, it received the same percentage of votes as it did last year, 34 percent. Learning more about the science of astronomy came in second (as it did last year), and buying a new piece of observing or imaging equipment was third. A new addition, “work on astroimaging,” is the goal for 14 percent of our visitors, but it’s what finished last that really surprised me.
Last year, the
International Year of Astronomy (IYA), caused 16 percent of readers to say their resolution was to get involved with outreach surrounding this yearlong celebration. A separate 14 percent wanted to join an astronomy club in 2009. But now that IYA is over, only 6 percent of voters said joining an astronomy club OR participating in more astronomy outreach was their top priority.
Now I’m not judging or pointing fingers. I admit that my goal this year belonged in the “learn more about the science of astronomy” category (specifically cosmology, as I am more of a planetary science gal). But the results of this poll have made me stop and think, so I thought I would share them with you to get your feedback. Why do you think a goal of outreach has fallen so much? Is it backlash from IYA (“I did that last year, so I’m going to focus on something else this year”)? Or did IYA just make it easy enough for it to be a realistic resolution? If that’s true, how can we make outreach a more reachable goal for our fellow amateur astronomers? I’d love your input, as I’m going to shift my resolution (well, just add to it) and continue to put an emphasis on outreach. I hope you will, too.