Average age of AstroBin members ?

I’ll be 35 in a couple months. Been into astrophotography really since 2020, but looking at my Amazon order history I bought an adapter for my camera to a telescope back in 2014. I don’t have any images from back then though.

I built my first telescope in 8th grade and later took my first images with it in 1968 or ‘69 when I was in high school. Then I laid off until maybe 2012 before picking it back up again with a C14. I guess that makes me a geezer. The crazy thing is that I still have that first telescope that I built.

- John

9 years into the hobby now at 65 years of age. My time and commitment to the hobby gained momentum when I was able to retire early at 58.

51 years ago I looked at Saturn through a 2.4” Meade Refractor with a .965” 12mm Huygens eyepiece. I have thought about telescopes everyday since then. Astrophotography came into my world with a modified web cam and Mars several years back when we had Mars closest to Earth in something like 65,000 years. First time I saw a Damien Peach picture. WOW. Then I backed off of astrophotography and went back to my eyepieces. AP became front and center for me was 2017 during the Solar Eclipse. My home in Missouri was directly in the center of the path of totality and within 60 miles of maximum duration. My front yard was full of telescopes of friends and a few strangers. 8 years later, I am retired at 60 and opening a Remote Hosting Facility in NM for myself and fellow astrophotographers. It has been a long and interesting path this hobby has taken me on, I have enjoyed all of it, no regrets, can not wait to see what is next!

63 no idea how that happened, still feel like 25 and 33 years of doing AP.

Geoff · Oct 9, 2025, 08:23 AM

Just passed 80. Built my first telescope in 1959–a 6” Newtonian. 
Geoff

You Win!

I turned 60 this year. As a teenager, I started observing the sky with a department store telescope, and for the past five years, I've been practicing astrophotography.

45, been doing astronomy since I was a kid - Moon & planets. Been taking pictures of the Moon and planets since 2005, been taking pictures of DSO since 2020.

I took my first image of a partial solar eclipse in Yuma, AZ with a Polaroid Land camera through a Tasco 60mm refractor, 15mm eyepiece and solar filter when I was 15. I have that photo somewhere and want to post it here whenever I find it. I didn’t take up the hobby seriously until I retired at age 64 back in 2018. Meeting Dr. Bopp (of Comet Hale-Bopp fame) in 2017 re-ignited my passion and, at 71, I have been learning and enjoying it ever since.

I just turned 62 and bought a CPC 1100 ten years ago to do visual. I still remember the thrill of my first views of the Ring Nebula and Saturn through the telescope lens. I started making videos of Jupiter then quickly crossed over to photography and never looked back.