"2009 Ice In Space Almanac" - the coffee table book?

[Omaroo]

Coffee-table style, short run books are very easy to design, print and distribute these days. Most of the large photo chains can supply them at a very reasonable cost per unit.

What if we all contributed our best personal photo taken over the past 12 months and produced a book (as per Jeanette's original thought here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=39606&page=4 ) ? Each photo might also be accompanied by the author's blurb on the opposite page.

I think it'd be a ripper idea personally.

EDIT: There is a poll running here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=458241#post458241) which asks the basic questions of you - would you be interested, and if so, for how much?


Here's a suggestion for the front cover, a set of opposing pages, and now for single-page sets too:

[Octane]

+1.

Onya, Jeanette and Chris.

You can get Big Mike's Centaurus A page ready. :P

Regards,
Humayun

[toryglen-boy]

what a great idea !!

although nothing i have taken, is hardly worthy ... maybe set a date for pics taken, so we can co-ordinate entries?

i mean, in the current climate, it would be a book full of Lagoon nebula pics !!

;)

[[1ponders]]

check your link Chris...I get "Image not found"

[jjjnettie]

:lol: Beat me to it Chris.

I can see one chapter showing the full diversity of members scopes and mounts.
Imaging rigs, big dobs, ATM's, top of the range Taks as well as the more modest scopes and mounts that the majority of us have.

[Omaroo]

Sorry Paul - does that work now? I replaced the original image with one that incorporates a white border. The black page on a black website background lost its ability to show you the edge of the page.

[jjjnettie]

Paul, check the posts on the bottom of page 4 and the top of page 5.:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

:thumbsup:

It wasn't a problem with the image....I simply got a page that said "Image not found" :shrug:

[Omaroo]

Oops...sorry - you meant the page link. Works OK for me?

[Omaroo]

Everyone's images are absolutely fine Duncan! :thumbsup: Everyone is at their own skill level. What we'd make sure of is that everyone got to supply just one of their images from the last 12 months. This way the more experienced astrophotographers wouldn't be over-represented, and the novices would each have a spot. Equality for all. When you pick up the 2009 edition in a couple of years time, you'll see how far you've come.

[jjjnettie]

Just throwing out ideas here.

Members Observatories- maybe if someone has taken a series of step by step images along with some blurb to explain what's happening during each step, that would be very interesting to lots of peeps.

[jjjnettie]

There's sure to be heaps of Etas, Lagoons, Omega Centauri's etc.
Variations of a theme. Same object, different scope/camera/widefield/up close and personal.
I'd love to see Geoffro's (inmykombie) spiral moon collage make it into the book. He did such a great job with that.

[lacad01]

Perhaps include a companion cd/dvd of helpful files e.g. Bambo's 600 :whistle::)

[jjjnettie]

I like that idea too. Though it would push the cost up.
It could include tutorials by members, on processing, polar aligning, drift aligning etc.

[toryglen-boy]

right then!!

well, we better get some good weather, and get a good pic taken

:)

[Alchemy]

glossy full colour ?

how many pages ?

and..... how much $ ?

looks like a fun idea. i think if you want a coffee table book stick to pics and simple ... not too technical.

[Omaroo]

An example of pages 17 & 18.... ? Maybe just a presentation idea?

[erick]

Yep, the bottom line question - how much would you pay?

[h0ughy]

sounds good - but a lot of work for who ever runs with it

[h0ughy]

LOL i see your at page 17 there chris!

[toryglen-boy]

i like that Chris, that really works, then it could start as a kinda presentation for each person submitting an image

:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

sorry i should have been more specific. The page link is fine, the image link though was the problem. Both are working for me now.

[iceman]

I'll add more thoughts later, i'm enjoying seeing others throw in some ideas now.

The first thoughts that come to mind is that if this was designed as a yearly book, I could see it being well supported and ultimately bought in the first year, but I don't know how many people would continue to buy it year after year.

Pulling it all together would also be a significant amount of work, but it sure would look great.

[Omaroo]

For a one-off, short-run, exclusive book like this? I've had quotes before for an 8"x8" hard cover of around 40 pages for about $35-$40. Maybe even more. Short run isn't cheap - but then again, go to Porters and see how much a glossy hardcover coffee table book is. We'd need a lot more pages than that - so you'd probably go soft cover to bring the price down.

Anyone willing to get some quotes?

[erick]

Volunteers to supply all labour for free?


Sorry guys - the logical realistic side of me coming out...............:rolleyes:

[toryglen-boy]

"Alas poor Yorik, i knew him Horatio, an fellow of such excellent jest, and infinite fancy ...."


:lol:

[Octane]

I can get AsukaBook quotes, but, I guarantee they'll induce cardiac arrests. :rofl:

Regards,
Humayun

[Omaroo]

I'd be happy to take on coordination duties in cooperation with someone else, and then design/edit it for this time around. Question is - would people be interested in it? I'm doing a small-ish one for my astro society already, so this would just follow on. Anyway - suggestion only.

[erick]

OK, yes I would be interested and would probably pay up to around $45 for one.

[toryglen-boy]

+1

:thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

Hell yeah! For your own favourite image, a blurb on your setup and imaging story in glossy print? Priceless :)

[erick]

That's even if I don't make a contribution to the content. :P

[Omaroo]

I know - non imagers to nominate their favourite astro image on IIS (double-ups prevented), and then still provide an image of their own setup/rig and a brief on themselves. That way you're still in it - participating as part of the "crew".

[Octane]

7,000+ page yearbook! :rofl: :P

Regards,
Humayun

[Omaroo]

LOL! One would assume a less than 100% contribution rate... :whistle:

[erick]

Maybe an opportunity for the observers - photo of gear and selected best observation reports?

[jjjnettie]

Yes, it can't just be imagers. I'd still like to see pics of observers with their scopes. Some group photos from various camps too
I'd pay up to $50.
Have it as a once off publication and see where it goes from there.

[jjjnettie]

I'd love to see a little something about Irwin V. and Nick Williams in there somewhere.

[BerrieK]

What a fantastic idea. I'd certainly buy a copy.

Kerrie

[leon]

Just got back from a week away, ;) and this was the first post I opened, sounds like a great idea, and I would be happy to purchase and to help if i knew what to do. :whistle:

Leon :thumbsup:

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

:D:D:DSounds like a great idea i will have a copy thanks haha :P
Add a few emoticons, splash around the purple text and Jens first ever pic of the moon lol it will be a hit :rofl::rofl:
Funny astro moments, DIY projects, IIS astro party pics most memorable posts in forums for the year and lots and lots of pics
How to do pages colimation, eye pieces etc etc.... space stories (see Trevor he writes good stories) :thumbsup:

[toryglen-boy]

I've told you before mate, if you wanna post here, then keep off the drugs, ok?

:P



:lol:

[Lester]

Good thread Chris. I like Jen's suggestions with some DIY, How to; plus a few pages mentioning our IIS Sponsors. Then they may help.

You may even need 2 editions, one for the DSOs and one for the Solar System, as this seems to be a definate line that seperates most people on here.

Just thoughts to chew over.

[Omaroo]

Thanks all


I'd prefer to try to keep it member-oriented, not by object type - just a members fave of their own, whatever it may be. We'd need to keep it as tight as we could. If we start to add stories, projects, party pics and purple (it will never happen LOL!) text we'll blow this book out of our region of affordability. Also - we have to remember that whoever ends up being the editor will have a nightmare on their hands. Two pages each - image plus story about yourself and rig - and then maybe a small section up the back (or in the middle) with some random fun stuff. If the number of contributions went through the roof, then maybe we just up the page size a little and have each member and their image/story on just one page each.

Hmm...

[Liz]

All sounds great .... count me in :):)

[toryglen-boy]

that sounds like a winning formula.

:thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

I know - images in the coffee book as originally conceived - and I'd look to do a full-blown big boy in PDF form. Print your own! :)

[lacad01]

Perhaps to get the ball rolling a dedicated part of the site could be allocated to garner actual contributions based on a template Chris has used for his sample/example. That way it would show who's really interested. :shrug:

[Jen]

:eyepop: why not :argue::argue:
i can lend you the color printer if you dont have one LMAO :lol:
That purple text is member orientated from an awsome member of IIS ;)
:D:D

[Omaroo]

Allright then Jen - I'd do your name in purple... :lol:

But that's all! :whistle:

[Jen]

:clap::clap::clap:
Yay thats a start, i would be happy with that woohooo :D

[Alchemy]

id like to see one book encompass all the varieties, rather than separate. just have different chapters, chris,s page 17 setup looks good.

id buy one if its a quality book and well organized , softback is ok . you might have a problem if it gets too big though

[Bassnut]

Excellent idea, id pay $50-80 NP, would that work?.

[RB]

Pay for all of us.....that would work. :P

I like the idea btw.

[Bassnut]

Lets say 100 members are willing to pay $50 ea, thats $5k for 100 copies , including a pros time to put it all together. Are there any printing insiders out there who know if this is the going rate for 100 glossy coffee table rags?

[StephenM]

Hi all,

This sounds like a really great idea to me - especially given that it's the International Year of Astronomy!

I'll happily contribute an image, and would certainly buy a copy if the price was around $50!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Gallifreyboy]

What a great idea Chris. I think the book should reflect this website's unique and key attractions :
1) education (from newbie to pro)
2) interesting stories and characters
3) brilliant images to reflect above features

If unpaid input from volunteers is excessive an IOU from Peter Ward's new SUCCER foundation (see climate change thread) would be in order

This website is a credit to everyone who contributes to it and a book to celebrate that is a great idea :thumbsup: Count me in.

Peter

[AstroJunk]

It's going to need a built in screen so that I can add some asteroidal occultation videos.

Will that effect the price?

[BerrieK]

If cost of production ends up prohibitive, members could financially 'sponsor' a page.

[Glenhuon]

Great idea, would be a thing to treasure, so count me in too.

Bill

[PeterM]

Terrific idea.
I'm in for a copy.
Wearing black hat...
Legals / liabilities to consider? i.e. disclaimers, copyrights etc.
GST / Accounting type issues to consider?
Wearing white hat....
Keep it simple, but keep it as an informative, beautiful expose of the fine talents on this site.
PeterM.

[erick]

Your page might just be a detachable CD/DVD? :P

[Omaroo]

Thanks Peter

Not too sure that I can see any copyright problems that hit me immediately - certainly none to defend anyway. All material contained within would be copyright 2009 Ice in Space and contributing authors. Short blurb on image capture technique for main image and description of gear used - nothing sensitive. As far as accounting goes, that'd be up to Mike and crew to detail as it would be no different to the method by which he sells, distributes and funds his beanies.

[Lismore Bloke]

Count me in too, if the excellent idea gets off the ground. Chris's initial layouts are a great starting point. I'm a printer by trade, although our small family firm is not into hardback book production, the sorts of questions printers will ask are:

1. Number of copies.
2. Number of pages.
3. Binding method: hard case, burst bound etc.
4. Size of pages: A4, or square, such as 280x280mm which will
cut out of standard size stock without too much waste.
5. Type and thickness of paper.

I have access to the Adobe suite of page layout programs and am very
familiar with the types and standards of PDF files that printers require for production, if that is any help.

[Lismore Bloke]

Thinking further on this. It is almost time for the site moderators to have a brainstorming session and decide on a few of the basic parameters. Copies, size, pages, content etc and obtain some quotes so that everyone knows the costings involved. If enough members want the idea to succeed enough to make it work then a definite commitment to donate can be made with facts before us. Otherwise this great idea will remain just that: an idea that never got off the ground. We should not expect Mike and the guys to bankroll this.

[Omaroo]

Thanks - and I'm ex prepress, so all of that is covered. I do appreciate the heads-up though! :thumbsup: I also have both chem and 3DAP-compliant digital proofing systems at my disposal. Writing software to automate the preflighting of PDF files to printer/publisher mechanical spec is what I do - magazine (200+ line screen) included.

With all that in mind, I'm looking into Rabbit Photo-style short-run printing services today. They provide dedicated services which are hard to beat in terms of cost-effectiveness. As I said, 40-odd page hard cover books, one-off, for tens of dollars. Pretty impressive. I gather they'd be using Indigo short-run digital presses - digital end to end.

http://www.rabbitphoto.com.au/photobooks.htm

I've seen a few hard cover examples that friends and family of mine have had done, for wedding albums and such, and they are simply brilliant.

Anyway - I'll get some per-page pricing today, and this will give us ballpark figures to work with.

[iceman]

I'm happy for the idea to continue to evolve with discussion for the time being. The thread hasn't even been going for a day yet, so there's plenty of time.

If we do decide to go ahead with it, I would expect that IceInSpace would pay the upfront costs, and people would then buy it afterwards for IceInSpace to recover the costs.

It just depends on the upfront cost, the price it would be sold for, how to guarantee we sell enough copies to recover the costs, etc.

It's also going to be a LOT of work pulling it all together. I don't think that part can be under stated.

[Omaroo]

Costs can be managed on a per-order basis Mike. If, for example, five members order copies this week, we have five printed off and mailed out directly from the service bureau. You won't need to carry stock, as such. This is digital printing, and it's only (slightly!!!) more expensive to do one-offs.

[iceman]

Yeh, if using the Rabbit Photo service, then that's definitely the safest option for everyone.

Not having to carry stock = win! :)

[Omaroo]

Only problem I could see with Rabbit, per se, is that they will want to supply you with a pre-determined set of templates to work from - which won't suit. I'd prefer to typeset the entire thing the way we want it and not be limited by their accepted method. However - this doesn't mean that they won't still print the publication the way we've designed it. I'm speaking to them soon - so I'll let everyone know what the caveats are. There are quite a few prepress houses around that do digital printing on Indigo presses.

[iceman]

I'll speak to Anthony (Bird) too - I think he's part of the company that does the software for the photo kiosks. Not sure if it's the kiosks Rabbit uses.

He might have some ideas or alternatives.

[lacad01]

In terms of up front costs, if people are really keen, might be a good opportunity to make use of the "Donate" facility below the time zone secton...or is that strictly limited for the development of the IIS web site ?

[Alchemy]

looks like its taking off, it would be nice to have a book to see whos who on IIS and what they do

i keep posting without knowing anything about so many here.

[Lismore Bloke]

The Indigo production method is ideal. Looking forward to further details. If Ice In Space is prepared to cover production costs, as is proposed, it would seem to be fair that Mike and Terry and possible the moderators, act as an editorial panel. Determining content is going to take time and might forestall possible arguments.

[ving]

hey guys, this is a great idea... i recon tho just a coffee table type book of pictures only...

I have done such a thing myself of pictures thru an online publisher... have a look at these 2 sites, they are reasonably priced and the quality is ok too

www.blurb.com
www.lulu.com

[Omaroo]

Not enough creative freedom I don't think David. You choose from templates, which won't work.

[Marclau]

And what about a nice 12" or 16" DOB as the Centrefold.............sorry, I could'nt resist.........

Have you guys also thought of a possible calendar as well?

[jjjnettie]

I'd buy a calender!
Sounds like a good fund raiser too.;)

[Darth Wader]

I'd definitely be interested too:)

[BerrieK]

A calender, what a good idea!! I'm not buying any lamingtons though ;).

Kerrie

[Omaroo]

I've got the calendars sussed - they're cheap. ... and easy!

[Marclau]

If your looking at things as a fundraiser, and I'm sure you would have done this, car stickers.........!!
I use to do calanders for the karate club and always successful.........same with stickers and tshirts......:)

[jjjnettie]

Good-O.
Just in time for Christmas!

[Matty P]

What a fantastic idea! :) I'd definitely be in for a copy no matter the cost.

I'd love to see this become an annual iceinspace tradition. :thumbsup:

[Jeff]

If done as a once of, then the International Year of Astronomy would be a fantastic time to do it.

Some content ideas might be:
- brief history of IIS site/community ... & key milestones along the way
- resources (astro societies, star parties, local vendors, etc.)
- selected articles/reviews (with permission from contributors)
- maybe a couple of edited/condensed key threads ... from each forum?
- promotion of the hobby/knowledge ... aka goals of the site/community
- pictures, pictures, and more pictures

I'd probably part with about $40 to $50 .... or ask Santa for it.

[Octane]

You might want to think twice about doing a calendar.

People will get miffed if their images don't get chosen for one of the months. :) I guess the only way to alleviate that is to conduct a vote. Assuming, of course, that someone/people is/are up to the task of finding the images in the first place to be voted upon.

I can't complain, though; two of mine got chosen for the Canberra Astronomical Society 18 month calendar, lol. Yay, another publication! :P

Regards,
Humayun

[iceman]

At this stage, I'm not really interested in doing a calendar.

Well, I was interested a few years ago and started looking at prices etc, and then realised that Astrovisuals already do a stellar job on astronomy calendars and I couldn't get them done for nearly as cheaply as he is.

Marcel, I already get stickers done and literally give them away.

[Omaroo]

I've been thinking overnight about this Humayun - and I agree with you. When you have to choose only 12, you'll invariably lose favour from those who weren't represented.

[Omaroo]

I'm still waiting for some indicative quotes to come back from the few places I contacted yesterday. I've looked at Rabbit Photo and a couple of other photo-finishing houses like them here and overseas, as well as a couple of short-run digital printers.

Prices that they indicate over the phone for a 100-odd page book are a little frighteneing at the moment, I have to say.

Sorry to do this to you again Jeanette and Mike - but I'm going to post a poll which will give us an indicative breakdown on who might contribute an image (main image plus personal/rig photo) and then who might spend what to buy a copy. This might give us an idea of both quantities required and more importantly how many pages we're likely to have to pay for.

[Omaroo]

Single page per member - more crowded, but maybe OK?

Image resolution would need to be fairly high, so I'd look to keep the page size down to around 20cm (8 inches) square. any larger than this and we'd start to seriously limit the viability of most of your imges.

[jjjnettie]

That's the go Chris.
You'd get more bang for your buck then.
BTW
Where the hell did you dig up that old photo?:scared:

[Marclau]

Points taken............then perhaps Like Humayan pointed out an 18 month calendar and you could either split it inot 2 persons per calendar etc or vote. We always ran a vote and worked well without any other members getting upset.....In fact, one of the members went on to have their entry on the front cover and the other last page........

Whatever works I guess and was just an idea.

Mike, you can send me a sticker...........:)

[iceman]

Buy a beanie (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/73-393-0-0-1-0.html) and I'll send you 3 :)

[Alchemy]

have smaller images and 2 or 3 underneath then . gear, personal portrait and possibly one other item .... not everyone is an imager (even though i am), i dont think it would be overcrowded on one page per person.

[rogerg]

Agree, even though I often think the images chosen could be better, the content in general of that calendar is near on impossible to better, and at such a good price.

[ian]

dont know if this helps but there is an online publisher, www.blurb.com (and others no doubt), who allow you to create a digital book, then upload it to their website for preparation as an actual book. others can then go to the website and order the book - therefore there are no overhead costs, just a charge per book to anyone who orders it. no need to know how big the print run will be as its all 'to order'.

in another hobby of mine, they create a year book. members supply 2-3 photos with a blurb about themselves and their equipment, the volunteer editor creates the book uploads it to blurb.com and then anyone who wants one orders it.

a variety of book types are available but a soft cover book of about 80 pages will be about US$50, plus shipping to Australia is another US$20. creative editing can ensure a reasonable price based upon pages/cover type/paper type selections.

food for thought? the site is worth taking a looksee.

[Omaroo]

Thanks Ian - yeah, there are tons of these sites around these days - including the Rabbit Photo one I mentioned up front. The problem with them is that they usually limit creativity (some severely), so I'm looking at doing this one in InDesign from scratch. Getting them printed at a local Australian digital printer on an Indigo digital press will be cheaper than doing it in the States I suspect. Once I get a good feeling for the total number of pages, I'll start to ask for quotes. I'll have another look at Blurb (which is one of the services that provide a standalone application) and see if they've progressed any since last time I looked.

[ian]

heya Chris, sorry, i didn't realise things had progressed so far. what you describe sounds ideal!

[Octane]

Careful with Blurb. Their quality can be hit and miss. Scratched/bent covers are often blamed on transit.

Regards,
Humayun

[trudi68]

Hi Everyone,

I think the Coffee Table book is a wonderful idea!! Given the plethora of photographic skills amongst IIS members, I can't see why every human being wouldn't want one on their table! (lol) Put me down for a couple............

Cheers,

Trudi

[Benno85]

Hi gang,

Just catching back up with this thread, if a year/coffee table book is on the cards I will be more than happy to look at arranging quotation from a number of large print companies in Sydney who I've worked for over the last few years. While I'm not in that game anymore my father still is and has a wide range of contacts.

On the cost side of things, with full colour printing it's more economical to keep the number of pages in multiples of 16 (ie, 32, 64 etc), as this is the largest that most machines can print. These sections will cover the "text" pages, and then it's a simple matter of setting the 4 page cover to run on a smaller size press (usually printing 2 covers on the one sheet)

I hope none of that was too baffeling, trying to keep it in non-print terminology!!

Cheers,

Benno.

[Omaroo]

Thanks Ben - I'd appreciate that. I'm in pre-press, so understand your thoughts on page imposition completely. I'm looking at using a short-run service based on an Indigo digital press, not offset. The reason for this is to totally avoid the cost of setup and a minimal print run, and concentrate of the per-unit cost that only digital printing affords us the luxury of. We don't want to hold stock, and be able to order short numbers (a few copies to maybe dozens) as required.

Could I ask that you PM me to discuss further? :)

[Jeffkop]

Great Idea .. Whatever support is needed by the members ...count me in

[Omaroo]

Thanks Jeff :) We're getting closer.

OK - After a little more thought, I think that some peoples' concern over the name "almanac" has merit. To keep this publication affordable, we need to keep the page count down as much as we are able to - so this will preclude us from including lots of stuff that would let it otherwise earn its "almanac" moniker.

I'm thinking "compendium"...

[Alchemy]

i see its been narrowed to - an images by members book,

why not just call it 2009 the images or something like that.

whats the book at now... pages ? etc as it seems to have developed further since i last looked.

[Omaroo]

Not sure that it was ever any more than that Clive - along with data describing each image.

Judging by the number of semi-firm entries, we could be looking at 60 pages or so.

[duncan]

Hi Chris,
Definately the first photo as the cover. The "ICEINSPACE photo should be on it". Just my thoughts on the issue. I'll go with most things and voted for $100. I really think it is worth the money.
Cheers,
Duncan:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Just thought it could do with this little addition? :)

I like the version on the right best.

Otherwise looks great Chris

Mike

[duncan]

EXCELLENT!!
Onya Mike

[Omaroo]

LOL! Thanks guys.

Mike - anyone ever told you your choice of fonts suck? :P

The secret to good design is placing eyeline objects on thirds and keeping it simple. I agree that the IYA logo should be there. It must be kept clean however, and not become overcrowded. Too much text is distracting and I'm not too sure about the bluish planet/deepspace collage - it's really too busy IMHO. Looks good on the website but the key logo component is the text itself.

Anyway guys, could I humbly ask that we try not to turn this into a design competition here? We need your images though! :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Are we allowed to use the IYA logo without their permission?
It's looking good though.

[strongmanmike]

Was going to add that LOGO, just where you had it actually, but I assumed it would cost money to use or at least permission would be needed, hence just the words instead.

Confucius say, man who doesn't consult only hears his mistakes :whistle:

But I go now :thumbsup:

Mike

[Omaroo]

Logo is no problem. Being the professional that I am (:lol:) I'd already sussed that out:

http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/branding/

We'd dedicate a page at the front explaining the object of the book, along with a brief on the IYA.

[Benno85]

Hi all,

I should have some indicitive quotes by the morning to see where we stand (let's see if keeping it in the family works!!:lol:)

I was speaking with Chris yesterday afternoon and mentioned to him how much I love this print stuff and miss the industry so much, so thank you to everyone for allowing me to indulge one of my passions. This is really going to be a world class project and I'm honoured to be a part of it.

Cheers,

Benno

[Omaroo]

It's great to have you involved Ben. :thumbsup:

Everyone - based on these quotes, I hope to have an all-up per-unit price sorted soon - which will then be subject to approval by the powers to be here.

[White Rabbit]

Great Idea, I'd buy one.



Oh, I dont know about that Duncan, I thought your submission of the "Vomiting gold fish" was particularly good ;).

[White Rabbit]

Here’s an idea.

You could put it in a section that has comparisons of what can be done with different budgets, all of the same subject i.e. pictures taken with gear under $1000/$2000/$3000 and so on.

I agree with mike that you would want to make this a one off that you can rerun when you need to rather than an annual year book.

[Omaroo]

Yeah - not sure about that Rabbo. Those sorts of comparisons should probably be left to the forum to explore. It's over-complicating things. The main thrust of this nice and simple coffee table book is to present individuals within our member base who contribute their favourite image - plain and simple.

[iceman]

Yeh it just needs to be a visual feast - not technical or complicated.

Something you can show guests when they come around to visit. Something you can take into work and show your work colleagues why you love this hobby so much.

[White Rabbit]

no problem, just spit balling thats all.

[Phil Hart]

great idea.. and sounds like you've gone way past where i can help already, but one other good spot for photo books if anyone is interested in printing their own stuff is snapfish.com.au.. my partner has printed a few books for friends as gifts already but i haven't tried any astro images yet..

and of course i'd love to submit an image..

phil

[Jossy]

Hi all,
Just registered today with IIS, although I have been floating around the forums for a few months (sneak that I am).

I just wanted to say that I cannot wait until the almanac becomes available :thumbsup:.Unfortunately I am in the process of saving some $$$ for decent astrophotography equipment (including telescope) and won't be able to provide any images - but if we get one rolling, I am assuming that there may be another chance in later years.

Do you have a particular date on when you think this will be completed?

-Joss

[Octane]

Hey Joss :welcome:,

I think Chris may have mentioned a timeline of about 6 weeks or so.

I'm looking forward to it. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[mozasaur]

is this open to Ice in Space members that live alternately on each side of the Tasman sea, at various intervals? Would the images have to have been taken in Australia? have you chosen the final set for printing yet? just wondering..

[Omaroo]

OK everyone - it's on. Please go to the sticky thread in General Chat to see how to upload your images to me. See post #11 for server entry and login details.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=48708

[seanliddelow]

I cant wait to get my hands on it:D.
I think there should be chapters about the history of IIS and the IIS users who won the Malin awards

[Omaroo]

LOL! Sorry mate - the formula is set in stone. We have to keep the page count down. One main image per page, a small rig image and some text - that's it! We will have a one-page intro and a contents or index page.

:thumbsup:

[seanliddelow]

Thats okay the images will be great:thumbsup:
Do you know how many pages there will be?