From SkyInsight

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In 2005 Sky Insight conducted a general astronomy survey.
The following is a summary of results from the survey.

Contents 1 Telescopes 2 Eyepieces 3 Binoculars 4 Observing Interests 5 Purchasing Plans/Habits

Telescopes

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Eyepieces

Telescope Brand Percent Meade 25.6% Celestron 16.2% Orion 15.5% Tele Vue 6.5% Coronado 4.7% Astro-Physics 4.4% Obsession 3.6% Takahashi 3.5% Hardin Optics 3.2% Discovery 2.7% Stellarvue 2.7% Vixen 2.0% Starmaster 1.9% Telescope Design Percent Schmidt-Cassegrain 27.1% Newtonian 26.8% Achromatic Refractor 17.5% Apochromatic Refractor 16.2% Maksutov-Cassegrain 10.6%	Telescope Aperture Percent 205mm / 8 inch 16.9% 254mm / 10 inch 10.7% 80mm 10.7% 100mm / 4 inch 10.1% 152mm / 6 inch 8.0% 130mm / 5 inch 6.1% 90mm 5.5% 60mm 4.4% 304mm / 12 inch 4.3% 114mm / 4.5 inch 3.9% 355mm / 14 inch 3.1% 70mm 2.7% 279mm / 11 inch 2.5% 234mm / 9.25 inch 1.5% 508mm / 20 inch 1.5% 457mm / 18 inch 1.4% 120mm 1.2% Telescope Tracking Percent Mount with Tracking 85.3% Mount without tracking 14.6%
Telescope Mount Percent German Equatorial 31.4% Dobsonian 22.9% Fork (Alt/Az) 17.7% Fork with Wedge (Equatorial) 16.8% Other Alt/Az 9.6% Other Equatorial 1.2%	Telescope Navigation Percent Star Hopping 31.0% Go To - Computer Controlled 29.1% Go To - Stand Alone/Hand Controller 17.9% Digital Setting Circles 13.0% Analog Setting Circles 8.9%

Eyepiece Brand Percent Tele Vue 23.3% Meade 21.9% Celestron 15.2% Orion 12.9% University Optics 7.7% Pentax 4.4% Vixen 3.3% Coronado 2.5% Takahashi 2.0% Williams Optics 1.4% Eyepiece Design Percent Plossl 39.8% Nagler 23.5% Orthoscopic 15.0% Kellner 7.4% Erfle 4.4% RKE 2.6% Panoptic 1.6% Huygens 1.4% Radian 1.3% Eyepiece Size Percent 1.25 inch 59.9% 2 inch 40.0%

Eyepiece Focal Length Percent 9mm 7.2% 12mm 6.4% 26mm 5.8% 10mm 5.7% 32mm 5.3% 20mm 5.1% 6mm 4.9% 40mm 4.9% 25mm 4.7% 15mm 4.3% 5mm 4.2% 7mm 3.5% 4mm 3.4% 17mm 2.8% 30mm 2.7% 22mm 2.7% 8mm 2.7% 18mm 2.6% 14mm 2.4% 13mm 2.2% 16mm 2.2% 35mm 2.2% 24mm 1.9% 3mm 1.6% 19mm 1.5% 11mm 1.3% 50mm 1.0% 55mm 1.0%

Binoculars

Binocular Brand Percent Bushnell 17.3% Celestron 14.6% Orion 12.6% Nikon 11.3% Canon 6.1% Pentax 6.1% Meade 5.2% Zeiss 3.6% Minolta 3.4% Fujinon 2.7% Oberwerk 2.7% Leica 2.3% Apogee Inc 1.9% Tasco 1.6%

Binocular Size Percent 10x50 26.7% 7x50 19.7% 15x70 8.4% 20x80 6.8% 8x32 5.8% 8x40 5.3% 10x70 4.2% 8x42 3.8% 12x50 2.2% 12x63 1.7% 25x100 1.7% 8x56 1.7% 9x63 1.6% 7x35 1.4% 11x70 1.2%

Observing Interests

Targets Observed Percent Planets 20.4% DeepSkyObjects 20.3% Lunar 17.7% Stars 14.2% Comets 13.0% Solar 10.4% Asteroids 3.7%	Type of Observing Percent Telescope 31.4% Naked Eye 23.2% Binocular 22.0% Imaging 17.7% Sketching 5.6% Observing Set Up Percent Portable 77.9% Permanent 22.0%
Limiting Magnitude Percent 4 to 5 21.5% 5.0 to 5.6 18.0% Less then 4 11.9% 5.6 to 5.9 11.5% 5.9 to 6.2 11.2% 6.5 to 7.0 10.3% 6.2 to 6.5 9.9% 7.0 to 7.5 2.8% 7.5 to 8 2.6%	Observing Frequency (# of days in week) Percent 1-2 74.0% 3-4 19.4% 7 4.1% 5-6 2.3% Observing Location Percent Rural 54.6% Urban 45.3%

Purchasing Plans/Habits

Buying Telescope within 12 months Percent No 62.4% Yes 37.5%	Last Telescope Purchased Percent New 72.9% Used 27.0%
Buying Imager within 12 months Percent No 65.2% Yes 34.7%	Last Imager Purchased Percent New 80.0% Used 20.0%