Re: ATM "The New S&T"

["Mike Marchand" <marchanm@kent.net>]

 Let the so & so's at S&T drop TM'ing. The lifeblood of this 
hobby lies in the hands of those who practice it and are willing to 
share the wonder of it (using whatever vehicle they deem appropiate - 
web pages, listservs, demos at star parties, small paper publications 
like ATMJ, webchat, etc..). The future of TM'ing doesn't (and 
shouldn't) lie in the hands of a commercial publication crammed full 
of ads which (without proof) exaggerate their claims about how 
wonderful their products are...

 Kalmbach dropped Telescope Making, so what if S&T drops their
dinky column covering it too?

 They want to turn their backs on this topic, I say fine...

 Let the chaff fall to the ground! It would look good on the 
"biggies" in the astronomy publishing business if the  
next time they showed up to a star party like RTMC or Stellafane 
looking for filler to "keep track of the pulse of amateur's" if
 they were barred from entry. After turning their backs on us, 
I can't imagine any self respecting telescope maker wanting his work 
depicted or featured in either rag from this point on!

1) Tell them to either get involved or get lost !!!!!!!
2) Maybe it would be better if they just inserted a brief note like: 
For information on constructing your own telescope... (then followed 
with info on how to subscribe to this list). They should probably 
stick it in with that little goofy section on how to convert your 
time zone to UT or what frequencies WWV transmits on!!!
3) And yeah, they should change the name to Telescope Shopper!

 Feeling rather miffed, aren't I ?? <GRIN>

 Time to put on my asbestos pyjamas, right?
 - mike
  Mike Marchand
e-mail:  marchanm@kent.net