The explosive growth of big regional star parties in the last 25 years, coupled with the incredible diversity of commercial products we see today, is why I don't give much credence to the oft-heard statement that interest in amateur astronomy is dying. It's a rationale for a club's focus on public outreach that doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Public outreach is great, don't get me wrong, but the real reason some amateurs do it isn't to save the hobby, it's because they enjoy doing it. There are millions more amateur astronomers today than when folks like Brent, Ziggy, and myself first started seriously looking through a telescope in the 1960's. I'm not worried about the future of the hobby in the least. On Nov 19, 2012 2:23 PM, "Brent Watson" <brentjwatson@yahoo.com> wrote:
The idea of a Utah star party is not new. We talked about starting a similar activity back in the 80s when we observed from the Bald Mountain site. If I remember correctly, this was before the Texas Star Party started. My memory says that the only private parties were Stellafane, the Winter Star Party in Florida, and Riverside. The idea did not continue because we didn't feel like there was really room for another large gathering. I think times have changed (or we were proved wrong), and I would support the idea of a Utah gathering.
Brent _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
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