Telescope Reviews: Re: The Trouble with the Magazines

Having waded through this thread, I'd like to offer my opinions:

- Yes, I am fond of both S&T and Astronomy. I subscribe to both, both out of interest and support.

- I suspect a significant portion of the readers are armchair astronomers, like myself, for one reason or another. Don't underestimate our economic impact to the subscriber base!

- I also suspect that there are a significant number of armchair ATMers. That is, we are unlikely to build things, but we love to read about it.

- By the way, it has been said America is becoming less of a "Do it yourself" country and more of a "Do it for me" country. This statement was made in automotive circles and yet the hot rod magazines continue. That said, compare my youth in the 1960s to now: Heathkit and other electronic kits are gone, amateur radio on a similar path (discrete components reduced to a chip), chemistry sets are emasculated (legal and toxic waste fears gone awry), routine family car work also limited (but for different reasons), the Amateur Scientist column gone from Scientific American, ... Don't have the astronomy magazines join this trend!

- I do think the balance of articles is good between observing, ATM, science, and opinion. I have enjoyed the few articles in a last few years, like "Whatever happened to so-and-so or manufacturer x?" If S&T is up for tinkering with the format a little, perhaps one article in each issue should be labeled "Master Class" and another be labeled "History" each month. I know that Fine Woodworking magazine did the former starting a few years ago and I believe it has served them well.

- Don't you editor-types of different magazines communicate through the back channel? I don't mean just astro magazines, but all magazines. Can't the editor at S&T take the editor at Fine Woodworking out to lunch for an afternoon to talk about what works and what doesn't work? Can't all you editors of all magazines have your own private conference with workshops? You would be surprised at the lessons in common.

- I would welcome a PDF of the magazine, but the whole magazine, advertisements and all, not just the articles. I would appreciate it one year per CDROM with an updated master index each year.

- I would really welcome a PDF archive of all issues, dating back to issue 1, including "The Sky" and "The Telescope". Call me a completist, but it should be possible. I know that National Geographic magazine has offered this, as well as The New Yorker magazine. I believe National Geographic was just scans of the pages (and there were complaints that the dpi was too low), but the New Yorker may have been scanned into text. What I'm saying here is (a) a complete archive is possible, and (b) there are several levels to choose from: scans only, scans with a searchable master index, or scans where the text is searchable/selectable/pastable. However, compared to the present state (nothing available), I'll take whatever I can get. By the way, I see nothing that says it will cannibalize sales of current issues.

- I do wonder about the Q&A column. I enjoyed it and wished some of the answers were much longer. It was two pages, then one page, then ??? I also had a couple comments about its technical editing, but that's another topic.

- Lastly, yes, more scantily-clad women!

Cheers!

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