Feedback

AstroImaging Contest?

Mike Salway — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:19:17 GMT

I'm just wondering what happened with the AstroImaging contest?

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=7819

The page hasn't been updated, I haven't seen any results or updates - I didn't even receive any notification about my entry being received.

Cheers

The New Calendar

leo731 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:59:55 GMT

Dear Editors,

I opened the e-mail you sent to me in order to view the new calendar for 2010 from Astronomy and was suprised to read that besides the usual dramatic pictures of the Horsehead Nebula, The Tadpole Galaxy, and the Milky Way's core that I would be treated being informed about nine more astrological events.

Please be aware that such events are of no interest to me and thus I have to regretfully inform you that your new calendar holds no interest for me as I can read about the daily astrological events for free in my local paper. I understand your possible wish to branch out into that other arcane science to attract more buyers but I for one am perfectly happy to stay on my side of the fence and deal with astronomical events.

Regards,

(Oh, and if this is a typo that escaped the proofreader, well: nevermind. )

astro confidential

vigilante — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:56:14 GMT

I think Michio Kaku and Alexei Filippenko would be interesting people to feature in astroconfidential.

java version nags

starmusic — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:10:03 GMT

Several pages, and stardome in particular, constantly pop up msgs about an EARLIER version of java being required. Could you please either get yours current, or tell me exactly what you would expect me to do to suppress the messages?

Vista, IE7, java 1.6.0

Thanks

New DVD Promotion

Treehopper — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:18:19 GMT

I can appreciate Astronomy's desire to drum up interest in their products, but this latest idea just isn't going to work for some folks. In the apartment building where I live, the postal workers refuse to put anything larger than a business-sized envelope or reasonably slim catalog or magazine into our teensy weensy little mailboxes. All other parcels are left on a bench or table nearby. If I'm not expecting a package, I never check these areas. So it came as a surprise when I got a call from our security booth last night informing me I had a package that had been sitting down there for some time.

Some time indeed. If I'm reading the enclosed letter correctly, it was nearly a month to the day between when it was sent and when I got it. In all candor, these "opt-out" plans don't work, and they tend to annoy certain types of folks, of which I happen to be one. This is basically the same set-up that certain "album clubs" used to use back years ago. Essentially, they send you a product unless you specifically tell them NOT to send it by a certain date. If they don't receive word, they'll just "assume" you want whatever it is they're pushing, and charge you accordingly.

I realize you've made provision for returning the DVD if we don't want it, but that's entirely beside the point. For someone like me on disability, even something seemingly simple like getting out to a post office to return your DVD is a semi-major undertaking. Please consider this an "opt-out" for all perpetuity from me. If there's something I want, I'll order it and pay for it. Otherwise, save yourself the postage and me the aggrevation.

Thank you.

Binocular astronomy and observing?

tkerr — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:05:27 GMT

I sent a message to the moderators asking them their opinions, so now I will put the question on the table for everyone else think about and offer their feedback.

Last night was the first time in a long time that I spent outdoors observing the night sky with only a pair of binoculars, and I had a really enjoyable time of it. Probably because I have had so little opportunity this summer.

So I got to thinking,,, I know that can be dangerous, and it gives me a headache too. But I know many people are only interested in binocular astronomy. And, what is one of the first things we often recommend that beginners buy before they buy their first telescopes? Binoculars! So why don't we have a forum dedicated to Binocular astronomy and observing where we can share our binocular experiences, and observing tips and tricks?

Additionally, I'm not sure that we really need a General stargazing forum when we already have a Solar System and Deep Sky object forum. Those two along with the Extreme and Aurora observing forums Generally covers stargazing and observing with the naked eye and telescopes.

Astronomy's new observatory

zachsdad — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:54:53 GMT

As a subscriber to the magazine I don't see a benefit to me from this added cost. Subscribers are paying for the land, the equipment, the buildings, and will continue to pay for upkeep and upgrades, so what can we expect in return? Are there going to be better photos taken from there than those we see posted in the On-Line Reader Galleries, or published in the astrophto section of the magazine each month? Or, will the photos taken by staffers take up space which could be used for member and subscriber pictures? Will there be projects like supernova searches, or comet hunts in which subscribers, readers, or forum members are allowed to participate, or are we paying for a staff toy?

Over the past couple of years we've seen reports of trips to Arizona Sky Village, and Rancho Hildago which have read as little more than boondoggle shilling for an advertiser. Businesses exist to provide value to their customers (in this case the magazine readers), not to provide perks for the management.

Suggestion for Online Reader Gallery

tkerr — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:44:28 GMT

The online reader gallery has areas for almost all kinds of astro-imaging. Except one! if it's there I haven't been able to find it. Animations / video

Over the years I have seen some very nice short videos of the Moon, Jupiter, Comets, and Solar prominences in motion.

As some might be aware I've also been experimenting with a little Time Lapse photography since last winter producing some short videos of the night sky in motion, and more recently star trails in motion. Bloodhound31 is another member here who has produced some wonderful time lapse videos of the night sky from down under. People such as Larry Alvarez have shared some awesome Solar images and animations, and I am sure there are others. I believe Jeff has made some of Jupiter himself.

My suggestion is to add an area to the On Line Reader Gallery for people to share those videos here at astronomy.com. You shouldn't have to worry about storage space on your system, unless you want to allow video uploads similar to how MySpace and Facebook does. Otherwise most image host web sites supply us with links and or source codes to embed images or videos into a web page either full sized or thumbnailed. Youtube provides both direct links and Embeding code as well.

If by chance you would allow video uploads to astronomy.com, I would probably put the same size and length restrictions on them that Youtube has.

Annoying Advertising

craterdavy — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:14:10 GMT

I find this advertising that you have flashing constently on the right side of the page very annoying,.,,and it makes this website very slow for us dial-up users,..,.,O+O

Speed

tasco-60mm — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:36:22 GMT

this website is so slow, its getting beyond totally ridiculous, im sure dial-up users dont even bother with it anymore

the magazine gone missing and missing again !

foreigner — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:15:31 GMT

Since last November, my subscription stopped arriving, although an replacement was sent to me every time I wrote to complain, it simply is not arriving regularly and it is very annoying. When I wrote my first complain, I receive a standard reply saying that there has been a problem with the foreign freight carrier, unfortunately I received the same reply for the last four months. I seriously want to know what actually happened ? Is the magazine actually being sent monthly to me after you switched your shipment contractor? Does my issue carriy a full address at all? With consecutive issues missing, is there anyone looking into the problem seriously? I got the replacement issues so it is not a post office problem. I post this here because I may not be the only person suffering, if other subscriber out there is having such bad experience please reply and let Astronomy realize what is going on.

No Friday "Digest" Email for 9/11/09?

Treehopper — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:57:10 GMT

I usually look forward to reading the Astronomy Newsletter every Friday in my e-mail. Was a little bummed to not see it arrive all day. Wha' happun?

Suggestion for a new section

cjw — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:55:04 GMT

I think there should be a section titled Useful Links. And in it people could supply helpful and cool links they've found that others may not know about. It would be a continuing compilation of old and new links. There would have to be a screening process where a magazine member ok's the site first. You could have catogories like the other sections, such as astrophotography links, solar system links, general knowledge links, etc. There would be no talking it would just be a place to gather links to help people.

cjw

reviews forum

craterdavy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:19:09 GMT

Hello.,.,I was just thinking that it would be nice to have a forum that was for "reviews" of equipment.,, and distriputors.,. of astronomy products,,.this would give members of this forum a place to post their yaa's+naa's about gear they have .,.,and companies that they have dealt with,.,and it would give new members a place to look at,., to get some idea as to where to shop,.,.and what other astronomers.,, had,., and liked or didn't like.,.any feedback on this idea is welcome.,.,clear skies to all.,.,and to all.,. a good morning,.,O+O

Forums are deteriorating.

johnjohnson — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:13:11 GMT

Maybe it is just me but I have noticed a definite deterioration in the intelligent postings on these forums. It seems that at least a year ago there were actual questions that were pertinent to astronomy. What has happened in these forums. Seems to just be a blog site now with ramblings from one time posters that have nothing to do with amateur astronomy. The moderators have to read this drivel all the time.

I usually log on and check the Active topics and find that the same old questions are being asked repeatedly. Doesn't any one check the archives first any more? How many times must the same question need to be asked or are the posters just looking to "Have a chat"!

As you can see I have probably lost my interest in this site due to it's loss of relative content. I really wish this had not happened as I used to look forward to logging on and reading some thing new or relative. Just seems like the same old stuff over and over and over!

The intellectual content & points of real interest that once made this forum fun & educational has really dwindled , as has the magazine itself .

astronig — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:42:43 GMT

By locking a thread & not allowing a rebuttal , once again exemplifies the "High Horse" mentality of the hierarchy due to the fact that the "Members" do not have this option . So this , "I'm going to express my view & not allow yours" is proof once again .

A 'Moderator" is basically a managerial position & it is sad but true that most that are put into a position like this behave more like a "Bull Dog" than a true ' "Manager" .

As the old saying goes , "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar" pertains well here .

So many "Managers" play the "Power Tripper" roll , & they are despised by their employees . This will more often than not create a hostile environment in a workplace which in turn has a negative effect on production to say the least . A truly good "Manager" keeps a happy crew & is talented in the art of doing so . He also knows that a happy crew is more productive & tend to care about what they are doing , hence the fact that quality is enhanced while production is increased .

It is sorely too bad that a big part of our population doesn't get this aspect of the game . This is no doubt exactly the reason that the more intellectual , informative & educational content has dwindled from this forum . The members responsible in a big part for this , (IMHO) , higher quality of content , have seemed to drift away as they also got tired of the "do as I say , not as I do" process of the hierarchy . Note that it is not just a mere few , so maybe the so called "reins" are not what the "reins" should be . ????

It was said in another post , "The moderators are here to help you & keep things in line" but playing favorites to some while swat teaming others is only not fair , as it is prejudice , and is not a quality that should be tolerated in an appointed "Moderator or Manager" . If you want to maintain quality & integrity & intellectualism in such a forum , these are not the kind of people that will continue to contribute constructive interaction for long , putting up with one sided favoritism or condescending treatment .

We could get off our "High Horses" & humble ourselves to the fact that we are just moderators & we are not the owners of the website . Then , "moderate" in a fair & balanced way , or we can just stay on the same course as we watch the forum slide on down the tubes farther than it has in the last six months .

This is all I can do for the cause & my hands are tied past this . Fulfilling personal desires when there is a constituancy involved is what put this once great Nation of the USA into the tank . Hopefully , the forum here can be saved .

Binocular Universe, R.I.P.

DaveMitsky — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:48:26 GMT

I, for one, regret the fact that Astronomy will no longer be running Phil Harrington's excellent column on binocular observing.

Dave Mitsky

Star Dome

CelestronDaddy — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:16:31 GMT

I'm having trouble getting the Star Dome applet to run on my pc when I log onto Astronomy website. I uninstalled and reloaded the latest version of Java (JRE 1.6.0_15). I'm running Vista on a Dell Desktop. Here is the report:

Java Plug-in 1.6.0_15
Using JRE version 1.6.0_15-b03 Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM
User home directory = C:\Users\Tony
----------------------------------------------------
c:   clear console window
f:   finalize objects on finalization queue
g:   garbage collect
h:   display this help message
l:   dump classloader list
m:   print memory usage
o:   trigger logging
q:   hide console
r:   reload policy configuration
s:   dump system and deployment properties
t:   dump thread list
v:   dump thread stack
x:   clear classloader cache
0-5: set trace level to <n>
----------------------------------------------------

load: class a.a.a.a not found.
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: a.a.a.a
   at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
   at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadCode(Unknown Source)
   at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager.createApplet(Unknown Source)
   at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run(Unknown Source)
   at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.net.SocketException: Permission denied: connect
   at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
   at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.Socket.connect(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.NetworkClient.doConnect(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.<init>(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getNewHttpClient(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)
   at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.HttpURLConnection.getResponseCode(Unknown Source)
   at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.getBytes(Unknown Source)
   at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.access$000(Unknown Source)
   at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
   at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
   ... 7 more
Exception: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: a.a.a.a

Any ideas on how to get this feature to work?

Thanks, Tony

Staff Participation (lack thereof)

tkerr — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:28:15 GMT

FORUM INVITATION

There was a time when some of the astronomy magazine staff would participate in discussions within the astronomy.com forums. Nowadays it seems the closest they get is their own blogs which I for one rarely view. They are just something that's not on my mind while logged on here so I tend to overlook them. The only staff participation these days is when on the very rare occasion someone like Wade will respond to messages posted in the Forum Issues. Karri, who is the most active responds to Forum Issues and Feedback as soon as she sees them. She will stop into other topic areas and make a comment or two, however, that is rare and most often only when directed there by a member or moderator which usually indicates some kind of trouble beyond the control of a moderator.

Why doesn't the editorial staff or other astronomy magazine staff contribute some of their time and valuable knowledge to the forums?

Show members and magazine subscribers that you really do care and want to be part of the astronomy.com community. Keep yourself abreast of what is going on in the forums rather than just listening to hearsay. More importantly, your knowledge and experience would be more than welcomed.

He who stands on the highest rung should not ignore those who hold the ladder.

What happened to Beautiful Universe?

vigilante — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:19:58 GMT

Why hasnt there been a beautiful universe picture in the magazine for the last several months? I used to like turning to the beginning of the magazine and seeing a nice picture covering 2 pages. I hope that the magazine will resume its beautiful universe section, thank you

New Messages

Treehopper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:16:43 GMT

Typically when I read through forums, I tend to "cherry pick" topics that have some interest to me. Usually there is some sort of "Read New" gadget near the thread to pick up where I last left off. Either I'm totally missing that feature here, or it's very conspicuous by its absence.

Is there a way to simply read the new entries in an individual thread, or do I have to use the comparitively cumbersome "read all new" and just zip past the ones that are of little to no interest to me?

Thanks in advance.

Can't load magazine website

clhazlet — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:52:44 GMT

For several weeks I have been unable to access the magazine's website. Whenever I try to my browser freezes and even the task manager can not kill it. I have to re-boot my computer. I wrote to customer service and they said I had to have the latest version of Explorer but I already have it so what do I do now? Is anybody else having this problem? I also checked my Java app, it is the latest version and works with other sites. Can anybody help?

No deliveries of Astronomy Magazine

Matthew Ota — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:36:15 GMT

I changed my address and I still ahve not recieved any Astronomy magazines since July of 2008. Please contact me via email to resolve this issue.

Was it necessary

tkerr — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:12:51 GMT

I'm just a little curious, was it really necessary to re-post the forum policies and rules in each and every forum? If it was then what is the purpose of the very first forum topic, "Forum Guidelines"? I thought that area was for posting policies, rules and forum guidelines that are not included in or are not clear in the Web Site Usage policies. Those Web Site Usage Policies which people should be required to read and agree to when joining the web site.

I think the first time was more than enough. I think everything was covered then and still is. If it wasn't within your post it was covered in the Web Site Usage Policies already.

IMHO, what was done did nothing but clutter the forum index. Many people like the idea of being able to see what was last posted in each forum to see if they might want to go there or if their thread has a recent reply etc.

I understand the staff of astronomy.com is pressed for time with deadlines, blogging along with other duties pertaining to the magazine and is the reason issues pertaining to the forum are placed on the back burner. Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder how much time was waisted updating each of those posts in each and every forum area. Besides, I didn't see anything different other than todays date.

If this was done to get someone's attention then that should be dealt with privately on an individual basis to those who violate the policies. If it is directed at new members then I refer to my above comment, Everyone should be required to read and agree to the rules and policies when joining.

Just as we have asked other members in the past, I think it would be a great idea to lead by example. Refrain from duplicate posting in multiple forum areas. It's a waist of space, it is clutter, it looks terrible not to mention how it makes the person who posted it look. It's not necessary and is a matter of proper forum etiquette which is often impressed upon newcomers to the use of Internet forums such as this.

Just my

Our forum policies, including no advertising (updated July 8, 2009)

Karri Ferron — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:10:36 GMT

If you are new to Astronomy magazine’s Reader Forums, welcome! Below is an outline of our general forum rules. If you ever see any of these being violated, please use the “Report Abuse” link that’s found in the lower right-hand corner of every single post in our forum. An automated message will be sent to our moderators and the infraction will be dealt with.

Thanks for participating in our forums. Your contributions make our forums a great resource for astronomy enthusiasts from around the world. Your assistance policing our forums helps keep the environment positive and enjoyable for people of all ages.

Now, to the rules:

Please keep discussions on topic (that is, astronomy-related).

Your forum signature should not be used as a place to express your personal beliefs (religion, politics, marital status, sexual orientation, etc.). Remember, this is a forum tied to our common bond of astronomy; don’t let your personal viewpoints on unrelated topics interfere with the common reason we’re all here.

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For further guidelines, please visit Frequently Asked Questions or our Web Site Usage Policy.