Sky & Space magazine

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

I won a 6 month subscription to S &S at a star party and received two or three issues so I reckon I have done well and am grateful for the freebee ..anyway I never subscribed but always bought newsstand

well I guess its now gone for ever..but now I buy the "sky at night" at my newsagent and is that a fine replacement or what

[stephenb (Stephen)]

am not overly familiar with this magazine as it did not interest me a great deal, but I notice that they have shopfront of sorts listed on their website. Any Sydneysiders know if this still exists?

Also, from memory, the editor, Dave Reneke runs the Astro Space News? I used to get the news emails from him. I think I used to hear him on ABC radio from time to time, Am I thinking about the same bloke?

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Enchilada

More the pity is that many here probably didn't or have never seen one of them to compare them to current popular magazines on amateur astronomy.
It would be real great if those old articles were made available on-line - might also lift the game of the current crop, which IMO, is missing a crucial edge of significance to readers.

Agreed. As to the 2nd part of your paragraph, the sad thing is it'd be a breach of copyright. This is how silly copyright is - something like this won't get digitised and anyone who does it privately is breaking the law. Some magazines understand it - atomic mpc has previously released CDs of entire previous issues (and for free). That's *really* appreciating your readers and not milking them like so many magazines do. My Southern sky magazines are all in storage, I'm trying to find the suckers, but it isn't easy amongst so many boxes that haven't been labelled as to what they contain.

Oh, another great book, Burnham's Celestial guides - discontinued I believe, no digital version, likely never to be. How silly is it to let information like this rot due to stupid copyright laws? The whole idea of copyrights initially was for the owner to make money for a period of time, I think that it was initially set to a very reasonable 25 years. After that it'd be released into the public domain, for the cultural benefit of society. These days, with copyrights now commonly extended to lifespan of owner + 75 years and increasingly having this time frame expended more and more, the original intent and design of copyright is meaningless.

Dave

[Enchilada]

Originally Posted by dpastern

Agreed. As to the 2nd part of your paragraph, the sad thing is it'd be a breach of copyright. This is how silly copyright is - something like this won't get digitised and anyone who does it privately is breaking the law.

Dave,
This, of course, also assumes that the publishers would be against digitising their material's copyright. Of course, the might say yes if they were approached in a formal and nice way.
Might be worthwhile forwarding a nice letter or two to them - say making the point on distribution "educational" or "useful knowledge" grounds. It would also make a nice basis for a good Australian Astronomy Reader. (Another would be to "buy the rights.")

Note: Of course, I am not here encouraging anyone to copy these - just commenting on its comparative value as a quality magazine against the current crop we can buy today.

[Enchilada]

Originally Posted by seeker372011

..but now I buy the "Sky at Night" at my newsagent and is that a fine replacement or what

True. It is. However, "Sky at Night" is not overtly southern hemisphere oriented, even though it contains mostly relevant stuff. Positively, the price at the newsagent is quite competitive.

Note: All I've only really assumed here is debates on Australian-based publications.

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Miaplacidus

Many people here are remarkably more tolerant than myself. I can only admire such a charitable attitude being extended to an organization that is, at base, not a charity. If my morning newspaper didn't turn up, I'd be expecting answers that day. I could be pretty sure of receiving a genuinely contrite response straight away, and offers of reparations immediately. Especially once I pointed out the bleeding obvious: "You took my money!"

You put me in the shade with your generosity. I hope you guys are as kind to me if ever I need it.

Actually...

Totally agree.
Geoff

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by CALISTO7

It's hard to beat Australian Sky and Telescope, for the variety and depth of articles!
Sky and Space was alright, but it never really satisfied my search for a good all-round magazine on the many facets of Astronomy.
I so look forward to going into the local Newsagency and perusing all the mags on my favourite subject!
There are now such a bevy of them!!

Well I find that just about everything in Australian S&T is taken from the US version, and there's lots in the US version that doesn't appear in Aust S & T, so unfortunately I have to get the US version for more coverage.

[Greg Bryant]

Originally Posted by ghsmith45

Well I find that just about everything in Australian S&T is taken from the US version.

That's not quite right Geoff. Since I became Editor in 2006, it's been roughly a 50:50 split (+/- 15) between content from the US edition and locally-written material.

I invite you to look at the current July issue.

Greg

[astroron (Ron)]

Many of us gave up on S&S years ago.

[iceman (Mike)]

Originally Posted by Miaplacidus

Many people here are remarkably more tolerant than myself. I can only admire such a charitable attitude being extended to an organization that is, at base, not a charity. If my morning newspaper didn't turn up, I'd be expecting answers that day. I could be pretty sure of receiving a genuinely contrite response straight away, and offers of reparations immediately. Especially once I pointed out the bleeding obvious: "You took my money!"

You put me in the shade with your generosity. I hope you guys are as kind to me if ever I need it.

Actually...

I don't think I've seen the issue so eloquently explained before. Thanks Brian.

In fact this exact analogy happened to me 2 weeks ago - our Sunday paper didn't get delivered. That day we were down at the newsagent complaining, and we received a credit on our account, and apologies from the newsagent.

I'm sure there are many other similar analogies one could use from real life. eg: buying a foxtel subscription, paying your money and not receiving the set top box for 6 months.

In my opinion, it's extremely unlikely that S&S will return. Lyle seems to be too busy with other business interests right now. Which is a shame for some of the editors who have produced great work. (You can see Ian Musgrave's work at his AstroBlog).

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Enchilada

Dave,
This, of course, also assumes that the publishers would be against digitising their material's copyright. Of course, the might say yes if they were approached in a formal and nice way.
Might be worthwhile forwarding a nice letter or two to them - say making the point on distribution "educational" or "useful knowledge" grounds. It would also make a nice basis for a good Australian Astronomy Reader. (Another would be to "buy the rights.")

Note: Of course, I am not here encouraging anyone to copy these - just commenting on its comparative value as a quality magazine against the current crop we can buy today.

It'd be really cool to have those earlier magazines digitised and a lots of other stuff. I can see why so few do it - it's easier for people to pirate digital items than paper based items. Imagine Burnham's celestial guide in a large format 1 volume - wouldn't that be awesome? Imagine a digital version of it, again, you could have it on your laptop when you're observing. All of this limited by close minded and lazy publishers.

As to S&S's demise, who knows. It is disappointing (and technically illegal under the trade practices act) for them to not honour subscriptions. I'm not suggesting anyone formally complain btw, but in the end, they are a business, they have paying customers who have paid for a product that they are not receiving. Worse, the communication between the business and the paying public is non existant. This is unforgiveable. As someone else said earlier on in the thread, the trust is now broken, and even if they came back, they wouldn't buy the magazine.

Dave

[Virgs]

My simple wish is that the editor of sky and space would make a public statement informing everyone of what is going on. The subscribers deserve that as a minimum - I find it frustrating that they will not acknowledge their subscribers nor do they show any intestinal fortitude and simply state what is their intention. If they have gone under at least admit it, if they have not at least tell us when the next issue is due and if they dont know, then it is time to admit defeat and give up on this whole sorry mess... surely the next step from the subscribers can only be a legal one...

[iceman (Mike)]

Originally Posted by Enchilada

More worrying is the subscription is still open.
http://www.skyandspace.com.au/cache/....html?cache=no

Pity for anyone unknowing of the history of the magazine in question here!

Someone told me that they tested it, and it did not accept the subscription. So it's just misleading, but it won't take anyone's money.

(I haven't tried it myself).

[Enchilada]

Originally Posted by Virgs

My simple wish is that the editor of sky and space would make a public statement informing everyone of what is going on. The subscribers deserve that as a minimum - I find it frustrating that they will not acknowledge their subscribers nor do they show any intestinal fortitude and simply state what is their intention. If they have gone under at least admit it, if they have not at least tell us when the next issue is due and if they dont know, then it is time to admit defeat and give up on this whole sorry mess... surely the next step from the subscribers can only be a legal one...

More worrying is the subscription seems to be still open.
http://www.skyandspace.com.au/cache/....html?cache=no

Pity for anyone unknowing of the history of the magazine in question here!

Also the "Australian Made" symbol is still on the main page, and it still says; "NEW issue now released! The NEW issue has been sent to all subscribers and the NEW magazine is available in all major newsagencies." It refers to the September/October 2007 Issue.
I.e. http://www.skyandspace.com.au/public/home.ehtml

[Paul Haese]

I was not going to get involved in all this as I am friends with Lyle and many of the chaps who edit or contribute to Sky and Space. However, I am disheartened by the time that is involved regarding the last publication. For nearly two years I paid for subscription to members who won our rant of the month competition on SCP (this is not an add for the site). It totals something like $500-$600 and to the best of my knowledge no one has received a full subscription yet. I was prepared to accept that Lyle was ill and due to the structure of the magazine it was impossible to release a new edition whilst this was happening. Other unfortunate circumstances also transpired which affected Lyle too. That was over a year ago since I heard that things were now back on track and now I think it is time for some results. I have all but written off the subscriptions, but hope that everything is sorted out one day. I don't know when that will be, but I hope it is soon.

I tried to contact the mag last night and found that the contact link did not work. Perhaps this is something to do with my IE version (most likely given Microsofts impeccible performance in the past).

Lyle if you are reading this please do something about this whole issue, tell us what is going on and if you cannot get S&S out to us at least give a refund to as many of the subscribers as possible.

Having one magazine of Australian origin is not good for the hobby, competition is always good.

That is all I have to say on this matter.

[erick (Eric)]

Dave Reneke's latest Astro Space News contains:-

"Effective from this week I am no longer involved with Sky and Space magazine.... Sky and Space is currently in a hiatus situation at the moment with plans by the owner to re-publish again sometime in 2010."

[iceman (Mike)]

Interesting, thanks for the update Eric.

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

'Bout time you started up Ice-In-Space Magazine Mike!

I'll buy it

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by AstroJunk

'Bout time you started up Ice-In-Space Magazine Mike!

I'll buy it

LOL! Coming from publishing circles, it's somewhat of a quantum leap form running a web forum to publishing a fully-fledged magazine title. I helped with the technical side of a start-up magazine years ago, and it went for one issue before the pin was pulled. The publisher lost their house, life savings and was left with a rather huge debt he couldn't pay.

Still... Mike?

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I can just see Mike's eyes rolling at that Jonathan.
But a year book..... there's an idea.....with contributions from members.