Full time freelance astronomy educator?

[Rhushikesh-Canisminor]

Hello!

I am from Mumbai regionand I am thinking about starting kind of a full time firm working only for conducting sky observation. Almost all the club's around are doing it as a hobby and only for weekends. We had our rainy season from the month of May till now so skies are recently starting to get clear. Here is the plan for now.

1.Regular night sky observation session.

2. H-alpha solar observation session (lunt 50mm f/7 scope is on its way) which will be focused on school/college students.

3. Observation sessions for rural area. I am trying to get government officials for this.

4. Nighsky photography around rural and trekking places. Since I am a trekker I come across many places which are great for stargazing but go unnoticed. Cataloging these will help for observers like us and for locals as tourism.

I wanted to ask whether doing this as a full-time work (till I get settled in mainstream job) is sensible or not.And if anyone is doing it or not.  Also, what might be problems that I might come across.

I can't do it as a free of cost activity like CBSAP because well we have a tendency not to take such activities seriously. Also organizations like Planetarium are not doing outreach programmes as we all think.Thanks in advance!

[noah4x4]

I am a Chartered Marketer and believe you need to carefully consider "who will be your customer".  I suspect that members of the  US and European astronomy community (or simply curious tourists) will be nervous of Indian Dark Sky locations due to a fear of snakes and similar. Other Dark Sky destinations with a reputation for local large observatories also seem to be like magnets (Hawaii etc). Celestial events are also key destination drivers; such as the recent Indonesian eclipse and 2017 US eclipse. Hence to attract serious astronomy enthusiasts I suspect you will need an eclipse or similar,  or an interesting observatory plus assurances about snakes!  But why travel so far to find dark skies unless paired with a routine tour of India?

I think your best opportunity is to partner with a regular tour company initially targeting people that are NOT members of the astronomy community. The regular tour operator might then offer a night's "astronomy experience" simply as a tour extension - instead of the usual (forgettable) "dinner with culture" show - but this needs guaranteed clear skies,  or an acceptable alternative should viewing conditions be grim. The merit is that they then do the marketing to customers (your biggest likely expense); they will drive demand; their reputation is a benefit, and you work to an agreed schedule.  You might even get paid a retainer. You might even get a "first mover advantage" as I have travelled on every continent and never once been offered an "astronomy experience" as something to do. 

[brantuk]

I wouldn't combine it with trekking unless you are specifically going to an observatory in the hills which is all set up to accommodate visitors. Backpacking even the smaller telescopes and tripods out into the wilds is going to be onerous.

Public outreach events, more often than not, start out as free or very cheap events, organised mostly by local astro societies - I think that's where your main competition will be. Properly organised astronomy holidays though are a different matter - but then - they tend to attract astronomers more than the general public.

You could offer yourself as a public "talker/demonstrator" and go round doing talks and demos using your own gear for schools, universities, and other clubs and societies for a small fee. Needs a lot of advertising though.

Sorry to sound negative but I'm not so sure it's viable as a going concern.

[Putaendo Patrick]

You have some very interesting ideas and I wish you lots of luck. However I agree that a solid business strategy is essential if you are to succeed!

How, for example, do you get into schools? Do they even have money for extra-curricular activities? Do you approach individual schools, or are there local government education committees etc.? Are there private schools which may have more resources?

For (non-Indian) tourists, could you put a local spin on astronomy? Perhaps talking about and demonstrating the Vedic traditions of Indian astronomy? See, for example: http://www.vedicastronomy.net/

I know nothing about the tourist infrastructure in the Mumbai region. Are there hostels in rural areas (national parks etc) which attract young people? Or would it be financially more viable to work with more established hotels with an older but richer clientele?

[Rhushikesh-Canisminor]

Those are some really nice ideas! I will try to reply everyone...never mind if I make mistakes, I am new to this forum.

@noah4x4 your idea is actually nice! We actually don't have any 'night sky tourism' over here (places like Ladakh in Himalayas are known for clear sky), which is actually sad since almost all of my regular stargazing sites have limiting mag of 6.5, with just 2 hours driving distance. Even professionals get awed with the clarity/travelling ratios. tour organizer will have a benefit surely. I hadn't thought about non-Indian tourists till you mentioned.

Your concern about wildlife is actually valid. Owners of those sites I mentioned have trained dogs who keep us safe even from leopards. But many people actually jump at the idea that they will be around wildlife. Pilot plan for one of my site is to develop it such a way that people can experience wildlife (like spotting wolves) and stargazing safely and then get forest department to get involved for this. I have to give them proof of the idea that both things can work without affecting the jungle. 

 

[Rhushikesh-Canisminor]

@brantuk You are not sounding negative at all. Those are the things that I am actually concerned about. People don't want to go out of city, already established clubs doing not so good work (crowd of 200 people, too much f cost for session and they will show only moon and orion)Because of that I  face problems because when I approach potential clients they think that I am doing the same. That's exactly why I am starting solar observation programme so that I can get into the market with something unique, otherwise I was planning to make my own observatory by this season.

 

@Putaendo Patrick our tourism structure is kind of weird. People take tourism as just boozing and sadly government develops places such a way which indirectly helps that. The local spin that I was thinking of, as I mentioned in earlier comment is the outdoor rural life. Once the locals get assurance that whatever I am working on (whether foreigners or Indian crowd) is not disturbing their lives or environment, instead it's helping them, locals themselves will discourage the 'boozing culture' coming there or they will work to maintain the area a dark site. It has kind of started to happen at one of my regular stargazing place as the owner is publicizing and working on light pollution.

SSince I talked sso much about that site here aare few photos from there.

[brantuk]

That's a nice site - fabulous skies.