Telescope Reviews: A word on this forum's purpose. PLEASE READ!

Folks:

The "mission statement" for the Beginners Forum reads "A place for people new to the hobby to ask their questions and receive some helpful answers. We're here to help you."

It has strayed far from that original purpose.

Therefore, management has decided to move Beginners back to what it was designed for.

What this means to our members:

- New and novice members may post any general astronomy or equipment question, or any observing, new equipment, or star party report to Beginners.

- All members may answer any question or respond to anything posted. You are requested to keep your answers and comments on topic, and at a "beginners" technical level.

Any question that the moderators deem to be beyond the scope of this forum will be moved to a more appropriate forum; a pointer will be left in Beginners for those following the thread.

Members are urged to submit essays to Administration to be considered for publication as a Cloudy Nights article. Any essay posted to this forum will either be moved to a more appropriate forum or deleted, at the moderators' discretion. All essays currently in the Beginners forum will be locked, and may be added to the "Best of Beginners" thread at some future time - again, at the discretion of the moderators.

We ask that our more accomplished and knowledgeable members refrain from starting threads in Beginners. While there is no outright ban on opening threads here, please remember that this forum is for our novice members to ask questions and get answers - not for our experienced members to hold seminars. The disposition of such posts and threads will be at the moderators' discretion.

This is NOT a change in direction or policy - it is what Beginners is supposed to be, has been in the past, and will be from this point forward.

Thanks, all.