Re: ATM "The New S&T"

[Mel Bartels <mbartels@efn.org>]

>>> telescope making/ gleanings for atm column no longer to appear regularly in Sky and 
>Telescope magazine <<<

(I've only seen this as a story appearing today on the net --- I hope
that the above is accurate)

I too wish to add my voice to those sadly regretting this turn of
events.  I have learned over the years not to offer outside advice to
those running a business, nonetheless, as a subscriber to Sky and
Telescope magazine for most of the past 25 years, I feel that I am
entitled to a comment.

It is the amateurs with their innovations that drive this hobby.  The
dobsonian mount, the cookbook CCD camera, and the ongoing integration of
computers and telescopes are examples that have changed the face of our
hobby.

Sky and Telescope magazine is walking away from fully participating in
the evolution of our hobby.  Indeed, this walk has been underway for
years, with the transition of the telescope making/ gleanings column
from seminal articles worth researching years later, to 'cutesy'
'fluffy' articles smelling of poorly conceived focus groups and interest
surveys.

I know that amateur astronomy has run away from telescope making in
recent years.  25 years ago our local club had 25 members, 1/3 engaged
in making telescopes, and another 1/3 at least tinkering with scopes. 
The height of the dobsonian revolution 12 years ago found 1/2 of the 75
members actively building dobs.  Now maybe there are only 2 or 3 of 50
members building scopes.

Online we have 1100 subscribers to the atm list, the vast majority of
them American.  If one guesses that 1/10 of amateur astronomers are
online, then active telescope makers number at least 10,000 nationally. 
Surely this is a number not to be ignored, if nothing else, because the
subscription base of Sky and Telescope (pardon my memory) is roughly
100,000.

I doubt that telescope making will disappear.  We have our online
resources, niche magazines like Amateur Astronomy and Amateur Telescope
Making Journal, plus new books being published.  I am sad to see that
Sky and Telescope has choosen to no longer participate in the core of
our hobby.

P.S. Does this mean that you are going to drop 'Telescope' from the name
of your magazine?

-- 
Clear skies, Mel Bartels    Programmer/Analyst, amateur astronomer
Eugene, Oregon, USA         homepage: http://www.efn.org/~mbartels
mailto:mbartels@efn.org     atm, atm-digest list-owner
Motorize A Dob: http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~mbartels/altaz/altaz.html