ATM RE: Changes to Sky & Tel

[Art Russell <artrussell@mindspring.com>]

On Monday, May 26, 1997 11:15 AM, Fred Maxwell - No spam e-mail accepted. 
[SMTP:fmaxwell@erols.com] wrote:
> 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 Telescope 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
Dear Sirs,

I recently read with dismay reports that changes were in the works for the 
current "Telescope Making" column. Over the years I have always looked 
forward to the Telescope Making column and its predecessor, "ATM 
Gleanings." Unforutunately, it seems that both Sky and Tel and Astronomy 
Magazine as well, are becoming increasingly homogenized, in an apparent 
dumb-down effort to appeal to the widest(?) possible market. Unfortunately, 
in that process, the inevitable result is a product so amorphous in texture 
that it appeals to no one. If it is in fact your intent to reformat the 
"Telescope Making" column to something less specialized, please reconsider 
as you'll be losing part of what has made yours a special magazine.

Clear Skies!

Art Russell

Masters Candidate, Educational Psychology, Georgia State University, 
Atlanta, GA
Part Time Amateur Astronomer, Deep Sky Zombie Wannabe

"Only the educated are free." -- Epictetus, Discourses