Australian Sky and Telescope 50th Issue

[V-Man]

I am becoming increasingly despondent over the word "Australian" being used in conjunction with "Sky and Telescope" Magazine

For anyone who has followed Australian Sky & Telescope since its release in January 2005 and have a copy of that very first issue, there is an article by Australian amateur astronomer Steve Massey about imaging the thermal emissions of the night side of crescent Venus in the morning sky of June 2nd 2004.

In some kind of strange irony, as the magazine celebrates on the cover of the latest edition "50th issue" January 2011, there is a story extracted from the U.S magazine about imaging the night side of Venus by Daniele Gasparri. It immediately occurred to me.. wow, I'm sure I've heard of this before. It mentions Christophe Pellier as the first amateur astronomer in the world to image the thermal emission of the dark side of Venus very near to inferior conjunction which is, I think, technically right. In curiosity though I scrambled through all my old AS&T issues dating back to the first special collectors issue and behold, an article by an Aussie on just this same imaging technique.

To my surprise and given that our own AS&T is supposed to be customised for Australian consumption, it sadly neglects to mention the achievements of one of our own Aussie amateurs, Steve Massey who imaged the planet with even more detail in near infrared only weeks after Pellier's announcement. He had also been planning this for sometime an may perhaps have beaten the Frenchman's achievement had it not been for some problematic calculations and timing according to the AS&T article.

While it's probably no direct fault of AS&T not to mention or even feature one of Massey's images published from that first issue in this current one, but it is interesting to note how Americans and their European counterparts live in somewhat of an insular existence.. I Quote "in recent years a number of amateurs have also captured this phenomenon.."

Well not just in recent years guys! Aside from Massey achieving it a only few weeks after Pellier, during the following apparition, a bloke in the U.S.A became the 3rd amateur then followed closely by others including another Aussie.

But as always we are led by the USA edition. How strange that the first "Australian" edition featured Massey's achievement but the fiftieth edition neglected to mention this fact :shrug:

[Greg Bryant]

Thanks for noting the first few amateur observations done of Venus' surface in recent years. The article in the current issue is of course more about Daniele Gasparri's work. He rightly notes Christophe Pellier's first observations before writing about his own imaging and the techniques employed.

Although I don't reference old issues of the magazine in articles as often as I used to, I wish I'd remembered to note that 1 page article in the 1st issue of AS&T!

Regards,
Greg

[Rodstar]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for another great edition of AS&T, it was the first item of Christmas holiday reading I purchased recently!

I love the image on page 15 of the spiral shaped pre planetary nebula...just wish I could see that kind of detail visually through the Mary Rose!

[V-Man]

Thank You for your response Greg

However I wonder if somehow you are missing the point. That is that in the first ever issue of "Australian" Sky and Telescope an achievement by an Australian was recognised but in the current edition which is specially flagged as a milestone 50th (and well done BTW) a foreign article on the same subject has clearly been lifted from the US version without regard.

Given that both issue No1 and issue no50 are significant I can't help but think that perhaps as Editor you should perhaps stay more in touch with your publication, and perhaps ensure a more "Australian" flavour in a matter such as this. Or more specifically in this case it would have been nice to see something like "Its fascinating to note that a similar article was published in our first edition, when an Australian achieved a similar result"

Regards

Vic

[V-Man]

Nice post Rod

However I am not sure of how your appreciation of a photo on page 15 of the current edition of "Australian" Sky and Telescope has any relevance to this subject.

Vic

[Michael Clark]

Hello V-Man,

Have just picked up on this thread and I have to agree with you in regards to this oversight by AS&T in regards to paying a true tribute to it's inaugural issue and it's Australian contents, after all it is the Australian S&T, isn't it.

In saying that though, 50 editions is no mean feat by any stretch and congratulations to all, just seems a bit unusual to me though that in celebrating 50 editions there seems to have been little thought given to reviewing the first and the significant achievements therein by Australians.

cheers
Michael

[higginsdj]

Is it really about Australian content or about content that is of interest to Australian Astronomers of all shapes and sizes? I would argue it should be the latter and for me that would include mostly foriegn content since that is where the bulk of the work in my field of interest is undertaken....

Cheers

[Gas Giant]

Hi all.
If the issue is about lack of Australian content, then the obvious answer is that more of us should submit articles. The website of the magazine has an invitation and guidelines for contributors. With all the great work - for want of a better word - that Australian amateurs are carrying out, maybe if the local mag received enough good itmes from local people, there would be less need to fill in the gaps with overseas content.

In the meantime, I enjoy having a local publication with whatever good content they can continue producing the magazine with.

Happy new year:)

Andrew

[V-Man]

Not necessarily

If Australian content matters not to you then you can have the full 12 per year editions of US Sky and Telescope delivered to your door for around $70 Aus, same price as the yearly charge for the 8 per year Australian editions and I imagine that there would be more total content of interest, whatever your unspecified interest is, but apparently articles produced in the US parent magazine

My personal attitude on your point is that after buying 50 editions I am subscribing to a magazine that was once more Australian than it is now, and each edition becomes less Australian. If I wanted to read the US edition (and I don't) then its cheaper to subscribe direct.

[V-Man]

I very much doubt that this case applies. ie not enough Australian contributors available so the magazine needs to be padded out with US content. My suggestion is totally opposite. My perception is that we don't have a local publication, we have a US publication where Australian content is fitted in where space is available

Maybe Greg Bryant could explain?

[h0ughy]

Can I ask what your motives are? So far I have not seen one positive post from you apart from some for sale items, and you remain fixated on one issue? I subscribe to a few printed and electronic magazines and after a while you get to see the same stories rejigged throughout the lands - worldwide. If you don’t like it - don’t buy it? Simple! But to continue to drag this out I feel is superfluous and unwarranted. We have a very small astronomy base in Australia - no where near as large as EU or USA etc.

How about you write an article and submit it?

[Greg Bryant]

Vic,

In the 4+ years I've been Editor, Australian Sky & Telescope magazine has had a fairly consistent ratio of locally submitted material to content sourced from overseas.

We always welcome article ideas, and those interested in writing should e-mail me direct rather than here.

Greg