NavList:

There's a lot of "grey" in NavList. As I noted a few months back, our median age is somewhere around 60.

At the little presentation I gave on lunars twelve days ago at a very fine old observatory in central Rhode Island, a NavList member was present and before the presentation, he looked across the crowd and noted "looks like a NavList demographic, doesn't it?" We laughed. There were more women present than in the community of celestial navigation enthusiasts, but there was clearly a lot of "grey" in that room (among both genders). Out of about 35 total in attendance, there were two people under 25 (one definitely "in tow" and not there from his own interest). Maybe five were from 26 to 45. The rest were in the "grey" category. Where are all the young people? There's an article on this topic on the Sky & Telescope web site here:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Wanted-More-Young-Stargazers-218774471.html

It makes some good points. And do read the comments after the article. I especially enjoyed the point made by Tony Flanders about clubs generally.

Any thoughts? What brings young people to old subjects?? Relevance? Entertainment? Challenge? Resume-building? It's easy to grumble about "these kids today" but it's no explanation. That applies in any generation.

-FER

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