RE: ATM "Say it ain't so!"

[Ken Carter <kencar@worldnet.att.net>]

I'm afraid that this is symptomatic of our entire society.  "Hey, if I'm 
doing this, I want the most bang for the buck. It's my ball and I'll play 
the way I want to play!"

S&T you are absolutely right, it is your ball!  Now go find a different 
field, to play catch in.  I made a selection of S&T over Astronomy 
magazine, due to content.  My subscription dollar is my ball and I think I 
will just have to pitch to a different publisher, if this is not reversed. 

We in the ATM community are the heart and soul of amateur astronomy. It is 
our efforts that provide the built in, research and development lab for the 
commercial manufactures of telescopes and astronomy equipment, who's' 
dollars have apparently turned your head.  Without our innovation, costs 
would be skyrocketing for astronomy related products. Without our drive to 
do it better, there would be nothing but dime store telescopes for the 
masses. And yes indeed, without the ATM community, the amateur astronomy 
market place in general would, be a smaller populace, with fewer dollars to 
spend, and with less frequency.

The narrowing of scope in the S&T format, to generalize the ATM section to 
become "Telescope Techniques", is nothing short of biting the hand that 
feeds the your advertisers market.  I have been looking for more not less 
coverage of ATMing in your publication.  I will be watching very closely to 
see what transpires here, as I'm sure many other ATMers will. If we don't 
like what we see, we will be gone along with our subscriptions, and our 
referrals to the fledgling amateur astronomers that build the bulk of your 
new subscriber base.

You will find that if you look at ATMs, as a segment of your subscribers, 
that we are the most passionate and the most dedicated, to amateur 
astronomy. I'd think that these are the people you'd choose to nurture, not 
alienate.
Yours,
Ken Carter...

Visit my Web Site at http://kencar.simplenet.com
Channel Master of the #ATM Channel on the Undernet http://www.icstars.co  
m/carrolls/atm

-----Original Message-----
From:   Fred Maxwell - No spam e-mail accepted. [SMTP:fmaxwell@erols.com]
Sent:   Monday, May 26, 1997 11:15 AM
To:     atm@skypub.com; skytel@skypub.com
Cc:     atm@shore.net
Subject:        ATM "Say it ain't so!"

Dear Sirs,

I recently received the following disturbing message through the Amateur
Telescope Makers' list server on Internet:

> The new S&T has dropped the name for the department Telescope Making and
> renamed it Techniques. Also this department may not appear every
> month!

I have watched "Gleanings For ATMs" turn into "Telescope Making."  Back
in the '70s, when I was in high school, the column used to feature
articles about beautifully crafted telescopes -- sometimes the featured
telescopes were on the front cover.  More recently, it seems just as
likely that one will find themselves reading about how some numb-nuts
with a circular made an 80 pound, "portable" observing chair.  Still I
have soldiered on, buying hundreds of issues at my local newstand.

If there is no column devoted to amateur telescope making in a given
month, I will buy Astronomy or one of the Canadian or British astronomy
magazines instead of Sky and Telescope.  I will think about whether I
really need each month's issue of S&T even when it does have the
column.  It won't be the automatic buy that it has been -- unless the
column appears on a monthly basis.

When amateur telescope makers have supported S&T since the 1940s, they
deserve more than a bone thrown to them when it is convenient.  There is
no lack of material.  Between Stellafane and Riverside, there are enough
innovative telescopes to give you rich columns every month.  There are
technical articles to be written on everything from basic mirror
grinding to effective light baffling to collimation tools and
techniques.  Even reprints of older, but still useful, "Gleanings for
ATMs" columns would be better than months with nothing.

I ask you to reconsider your editorial decisions about the ATM column.
Even the new name, "Telescope Techniques", sounds more like a how-to of
telescope operation than a column for ATMs.

Comets Shoemaker-Levy, Hale-Bopp, and Hyakutake have given a boost to
your magazine (and the amateur astronomy industry as a whole).  You have
new readers and increased circulation.  What happens when we go through
another 10 year dry spell, where the brightest comet is magnitude 5?
All of your excited new readers will have mothballed their telescopes
and, if you play your cards right, you'll have your long-time readers to
fall back on.  If not, Sky & Telescope will "go gentle into that good
night."

Regards,
  Fred Maxwell