Telescope market size?

Anyone have any idea how large the market is for
telescopes? Like how many ED-80's does Orion sell each
year in the US? How about the high end refactors - how
many units do companies like AP and TMB move per year -
and ideas? My guess is the market is pretty small - I
doubt if it's more than a few thousand units, even
for something like the ED-80.

Also, what are peoples impressions on the status
of amateur visual astronomy. I know the consensus a few years
back was that we were (are) losing amateurs interested
in visual astronomy. Seems to be an aging hobby. I don't
think we've been helped by the increasing amounts of light
pollution, but I'm certain there are other factors too.

As an aside, I've been really impressed with some of the
new CCD imagers out there. Wow! Stunning pictures taken
with instruments of modest aperture. And computer image
processing (stacking) allow amateurs to get planetary shots
better than pro's were getting a few decades ago. Check out
these two sites - the DSO images are stunning!

http://www.cosmotography.com/
http://www.rc-astro.com/

Some of these images rival stuff taken with the HST! But
the exposure times are crazy - hours.

-Eric B

Some years ago (1997?) the total, world-wide market for consumer optics
was about $2 billion. That figure included binoculars,
rifle/spotting/birding scopes as well as all amateur astronomy goods
from the $49, 900X Tascos to the 16" SCTs. Given the inflation since
then and the emergence of many small vendors of imaging systems, I
wouldn't be surprised to see the total at $3+ billion today. As others
have noted, the telescopes most of us are interested in buying account
for only a small fraction of sales.

As for the status of the hobby, I suspect it's following most other
"hands-on" hobbies - into the grave (literally). Grey-haired men (over
80% in our club) play with their astro toys while the younger crowd
plays video games and wonders why. This may not be a bad thing for
telescope vendors as this group of baby boomers has more disposable
income than any generation in history. Although they'll never admit it,
baby boomers will not live forever, and when they begin to die off in
10-15 years, that is when the market for high-end scopes will probably
see a real decline in volume.

If you think the amateur images are good now, wait until someone
introduces an interferometer system with adaptive optics (an excuse to
buy another large aperture scope).



wrote:
Anyone have any idea how large the market is for
telescopes? Like how many ED-80's does Orion sell each
year in the US? How about the high end refactors - how
many units do companies like AP and TMB move per year -
and ideas? My guess is the market is pretty small - I
doubt if it's more than a few thousand units, even
for something like the ED-80.

Also, what are peoples impressions on the status
of amateur visual astronomy. I know the consensus a few years
back was that we were (are) losing amateurs interested
in visual astronomy. Seems to be an aging hobby. I don't
think we've been helped by the increasing amounts of light
pollution, but I'm certain there are other factors too.

As an aside, I've been really impressed with some of the
new CCD imagers out there. Wow! Stunning pictures taken
with instruments of modest aperture. And computer image
processing (stacking) allow amateurs to get planetary shots
better than pro's were getting a few decades ago. Check out
these two sites - the DSO images are stunning!

http://www.cosmotography.com/
http://www.rc-astro.com/

Some of these images rival stuff taken with the HST! But
the exposure times are crazy - hours.

-Eric B