Re: ATM "The New S&T"

["Gene A. Lucas" <geneluca@ix.netcom.com>]

Mel Bartels wrote:
> 
> >>> 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)
>((much snipped)) 
>
> P.S. Does this mean that you are going to drop 'Telescope' from the name
> of your magazine?
> 
Mel:
S&T was passing out free copies of the "New & Improved" July, 97 issue
at RTMC, and yes, Leif Robinson indicates in his editorial that certain
"features" will not be run each month.
While there have been many memorable articles on telescope making in S&T
over the years (my first copies were acquired starting in about 1960,
and I have read _all_ issues from the beginning on), I would have to
point out that S&T also managed to completely miss the boat on the early
years of the Dobsonian revolution (large, cheap mirrors, alt-az mounts,
everything home built), possibly setting back ATM work or at least
slowing it down.  I don't see this recent trend as an "improvement". 
Consider the recent S&T article decrying the demolition of the NYC
Hayden Planetarium to allow modernization and thus allowing that
venerable institution to continue into the future, while the same issue
contains a self-serving editorial tooting their own "horn" about the
third "renovation" of S&T in the last 10 years.
My personal favorite "Gleanings" column is the one published long ago
about the equatorial mount made from a "cream separator" casting --
surely the epitome of an ATM project at once elegant and also completely
useless for anyone other than the originator.  Thus has the S&T
"Gleanings" column typically provided much less for the ATM community
than it could have.  Just scan any of the "Amateur Telescope
Making/Amateur Scientist" columns in Scientific American from the 1920s
thru the late 1950s by "Unk" Ingalls for comparison.  There is a gold
mine there for tips that are still relevant and useful.
Please share _your_ opinions with S&T.
P.S. -- Thanks for the free issue, S&T.  I like the new binding.
Gene A. Lucas (AstroVideoGrapher in Phoenix)