This topic is locked
Welcome to the Solar Observation and Imaging Forum!
Purpose
This forum was created to serve as a place to discuss all aspects of solar observing and imaging. It is not the appropriate place to discuss the observation and imaging of planets or non-stellar solar system objects or phenomena.
Any question or topic that the moderators deem to be beyond the scope of the Solar Forum will be moved to a more appropriate forum or locked.
We would also like to remind members not to double or cross post questions. Please choose to post in the forum that you feel is most appropriate. If you decide that your post would be better answered in an alternate location, feel free to click the “Notify Moderator” link on your message and request to move it to a different forum.
Safety
While many people are quite capable of safely modifying and using modified solar telescopes and observation equipment, we choose to err on the side of caution. CN will not allow posts dealing with the modification of commercial equipment intended for solar astronomy or the modification of other potentially harmful devices (e.g. laser pointers). While the results of modifications may seem attractive, the possible adverse consequences are deemed significant. Any posts dealing with these types of modifications, or linking to sites which feature them, may be removed by the moderator.
The moderation and administration staff reserves the right to decide on the appropriateness of posts. If after reading the above, you wonder whether you should post something then you probably should not. CN's policy on this matter will always be safety first.
Images
Cloudy Nights exercises a strict image posting policy. This policy includes both original images as well as derivative works (such as memes.) If you do not, personally, own the image or it does not come from a tax-payer-funded agency which grants the right to redistribute their images; please do not post the image. When we say “post” an image, this refers to images that are uploaded to Cloudy Nights, as well as images that are hyper linked so that the image is displayed from within your message.
Moreover, due to the connection speeds of the myriad of servers and client machines involved, we ask that you not display any images in a single message that are individually, or collectively, larger than 500 kilobytes in size. While it is acceptable to use thumbnail (or miniature) images in your post as hyperlink anchors to larger off-site images (images stored, for example, on AstroBin or Flicker) which you own, it is not acceptable to use thumbnails to link to images which you do not own or are not public domain tax-payer funded images. Finally, you may hyperlink to other peoples’ images so long as the hyperlink anchor consists of text only and you are not displaying another’s work from within your message.
The Cloudy Nights Terms of Service (TOS)
When joining Cloudy Nights, all members must acknowledge that they have read the Terms of Service. A hyperlink to the TOS is located at the bottom right of every page on the system. You can also find a copy here. We would like to take a moment to remind you of a few key points. Specifically:
- Play Nice
- Share
- Be Polite
- Be Honest
- Respect Others
Please do not use profanity or offensive language and avoid discussions that would be inappropriate for younger members. If you have concerns about a post, we ask that you click the “Notify Moderator” link located at the bottom of the message.
Other useful information:
Best of Solar Threads
The Best of Solar thread is a read only collection of links to posts in the Solar Forum as well as external sites. Often, the answers to many common questions are several posts down in these threads, so be sure to read through these threads to make sure you get the maximum benefit from them.
Even though this thread is read only, if you have questions or comments pertinent to any of these threads, you can add them to the original threads. If you feel that a particular thread should be included in the Useful Links thread, kindly advise the Moderating team and we will look into the matter.
Commercial Issues
As with the rest of the Internet, the Cloudy Nights community can be victimized by scammers and con artists. If you choose to buy or sell on Cloudy Nights through either the Classifieds (a general market place available to members) or the Swap & Shop (a smaller market place for more established CN members), please exercise caution and research anyone with whom you do business before you commit to a transaction.
Please take the time to read through the hyperlinks above to familiarize yourself with issues that may arise during such transactions.
Grievances with Vendors
Although it is always acceptable to voice your opinions or experiences, we ask that you refrain from bashing vendors. Specifically, if you have a problem with a vendor, please settle the issue directly and do not try to use Cloudy Nights as leverage. If you are a vendor yourself, please remember that Cloudy Nights is primarily intended as a discussion site with some ancillary commercial sections. Cloudy Nights is not intended as a place for vendors to simply come and make money by selling or advertising.
System Glitches
The Cloudy Nights system is hosted on a WWW server paid for by our sponsor, Astronomics. At times, there may be more traffic on Cloudy Nights than the hosting server can gracefully handle. When this happens, parts of the system, especially relating to the databases which track your past reading activity, may suffer. Long delays when loading pages or saving posts can also occur. If this happens, you may think that your post was interrupted and did not get through, causing you to repost or hit the send button again, even though it is possible that your first post was submitted as intended. This is also an issue for members posting ads in the Classifieds section. Instead of resubmitting your post, first copy it and paste to a secure location, then please refresh your browser to see if your initial attempt was successful.
We thank you for your attention to these matters. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact a Solar Forum moderator or Cloudy Nights administrator.
Have fun and clear skies.
- Your Solar Forum moderation team
