What are astronomy communities?

Communities for space enthusiasts covering astronomy, astrophysics, astrophotography, and space exploration. Discord servers host newcomers and experts alike with dedicated channels for launches, telescope recommendations, and trivia, alongside Reddit communities for sharing images and discussing discoveries.

Where do most astronomy communities live?

Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (58% of 19 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

68% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical astronomy community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 238K members and the median is 18K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.

What do these communities usually include?

Forum is the most common (79%). Others that show up often include online/offline events, newsletter, and paid community.

How does Hive Index collect this data?

Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.

Where can I see the full list?

The full directory is on Hive Index's Astronomy topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Astronomy Communities Report: Stats, Platforms, Trends &...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 19 astronomy communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: astronomy listings cluster on Independent Platforms, while a few large groups pull member averages up.

Source: Hive Index community database · Updated 2023-06-08

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Communities: 19
Platforms: 4
Avg members: 238K
Median members: 18K

Where Astronomy Communities Are Hosted

Independent Platforms
11(58%)
Discord
4(21%)
Reddit
2(11%)
Facebook
2(11%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
15(79%)
Chat communities
4(21%)

Forum / feed-based is most common (79%), but chat communities is also well represented (21%).

Independent Platforms leads with 58%, but Discord also has a meaningful share (21%).

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
0(0%)
Small
20-100 members
0(0%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
1(5%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
6(32%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
6(32%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
1(5%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
1(5%)

4 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (238K vs 18K), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Astronomy Differs From Other Categories

Astronomy is less free-to-join, and more paid or gated, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Astronomy	Hive Index average
Free to join	68%	85%
Median members	18K	25K
Average members	238K	669K
Paid or apply-to-join	32%	15%
Live chat	21%	38%
Discord share	21%	16%

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
79%
Online/Offline Events
53%
Newsletter
32%
Paid Community
32%
Live Chat
21%

Niche Features

Member Perks
11%
Pairing
11%
Courses
5%

Forum appears on 79% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 49

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Discord	4	21%	48	98%
Facebook	2	11%	1	2%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Discord gets 98% of clicks but only 21% of listings, so visitors click it more than you'd expect from supply alone.

Most-clicked formats

Chat communities
48(98%)
Forum / feed-based
1(2%)

Most-clicked features

Live Chat
48(98%)
Online/Offline Events
22(45%)
Newsletter
19(39%)
Forum
1(2%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Large
29(59%)
Huge
20(41%)

Top-clicked listings

Spacecord
19(39%)
Science and Technology
19(39%)
Cosmos Domain
7(14%)

Most clicks go to chat communities and forum / feed-based communities.

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

This report uses communities in the Hive Index database tagged as Astronomy. We exclude removed or suppressed listings. Member counts, traffic, features, reviews, and ratings may vary by source and are updated periodically.

•This is a smaller slice of Hive Index's database, so read trends as directional.
•Last updated 2023-06-08

FAQ

: Communities for space enthusiasts covering astronomy, astrophysics, astrophotography, and space exploration. Discord servers host newcomers and experts alike with dedicated channels for launches, telescope recommendations, and trivia, alongside Reddit communities for sharing images and discussing discoveries.
: Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (58% of 19 listings).
: 68% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 238K members and the median is 18K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Forum is the most common (79%). Others that show up often include online/offline events, newsletter, and paid community.
: Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.
: The full directory is on Hive Index's Astronomy topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.