Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2020

52 Until the 1960s, astronomy magazines were mostly made with very classic criteria and pub- lished in a decidedly retro style, comparable to that of nineteenth-century publishing. The few advertisements that appeared in those magazines were certainly not irresistible to the few readers, and often the products of- fered, although modest, were far beyond the economic possibilities of the average reader. Not rarely, those pioneering telescope and ac- cessory traders disappeared from the market along with the magazines in which they placed their ads. It was evident that, without a sufficiently large number of readers and adequate adver- tising revenues, no astronomy magazine could have afforded a wide distribution, an attrac- tive layout, diversified contents, or long-term editorial planning. Starting right from the 1960s, but especially in the following decade, the world of amateur astronomy underwent a decisive turning point: the market was flooded by mass-produced telescopes at rel- atively low costs. At that point, the relation- ship between the manufacturers and retailers of these instruments and astronomy maga- zines became symbiotic. The telescope symbol of that turning point was probably the 8” Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector produced by well-known Californian firms. It was the dream of many amateurs − an instrument of the future compared to small Japanese refrac- tors − but it was quite expensive, just like the many other innovative models of those years. As a result, a lot of ads were required to be able to sell many of them. From the 70s until the mid-90s, the most suit- able channel to advertise the new generations of instruments for amateur astronomers was that of astronomy magazines, which in turn, recognizing the business, began to sell adver- tising spaces at exorbitant prices. The only ones who didn’t earn were the amateur as- tronomers, but everyone was happy anyway. In this idyllic scenario, amateur astronomy boomed. Although the apex was reached at different times in different countries, we will not be very wrong if we place that golden pe- The boom in amateur astronomy