Sky and Telescope - September 2015 - 6

Letters

More Sketches, Please!

You don't throw away diamonds.
Steven Morris
Professor of Physics
Los Angeles Harbor College
Wilmington, California

ALEXANDER'S ASTRONOMY SKETCHING

Articles such as "Edge-on Galaxies" (S&T:
Mar. 2015, p. 20) are a great addition to
the monthly columns by Sue French and
others. One improvement would be to
make use of more sketches instead of (or
besides?) astrophotos. They are much
more informative, especially when accompanied by information about the aperture
of the instrument used and the limiting
magnitude of the sky involved. For some
fainter objects, long-exposure astrophotos do not do justice to the challenge of
observing them visually. Also, giving the
noble art of sketching more attention will
hopefully inspire more people to give it a
go. There are some really great sketching
artists about, and with more of an equal
distribution between astrophotos and
sketches, the magazine will acquire more
charm rather than losing it.
Esther Hanko
Purmerend, The Netherlands
Attention, sketchers!
Send your best astronomical renderings to
gallery@SkyandTelescope.com (put "sketch"
somewhere in the subject line), and if we
get enough good-quality submissions we'll
showcase them in a future issue.

Australian observer Alexander Massey spent 3
hours at the eyepiece of his 17½-inch reﬂector
to render all the detail in this sketch of the Ink
Spot (Barnard 86) and the nearby star cluster
NGC 6520 in Sagittarius.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

and have become lifelong friends. I look
forward to receiving every issue and hope
you continue to publish this astronomical
Bible for many more years.
William Speare
Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania

Decades and Decades
After opening my April issue, I immediately read your editorial (p. 6) asking
"Why have you saved your old S&Ts?" Still
on my shelf is the ﬁrst issue, November 1941, which was printed during the
height of World War II and cost all of 20
cents. That was before Sputnik, before
eclipse chasing, and at a time when our
local library had all of six books dealing
with astronomy.
I became a subscriber in 1951, when I
was in 9th grade, and now can proudly say
I own every single issue. This is the magazine that sparked my lifelong interest in
astronomy and, as a result, my becoming a
planetarium director. One would be hard
pressed to ﬁnd a better reference source.
Perhaps best of all, it put me in touch
with individuals who share my passion
6

September 2015 sky & telescope

After reading Peter Tyson's Spectrum, I
had quite a smile on my face! I too have
saved all my issues of Sky & Tel. In fact,
the July 1975 issue that he noted is the very
ﬁrst one I received after subscribing. And
yes it is wonderful to go back and reread
some of the old articles, do searches, and
look at the telescopes and equipment of
years gone by.
A short while ago, after noting the size
of my issue collection, my wife suggested
that I donate it to the local library (since I
have the complete digital version anyway).
I thought about it but could never do it.
Those magazines had become part of me
- but I only realized it after she asked
about them!
Wayne Hodges
Arkell, Ontario

Just wanted you to know that I beat out
Dennis di Cicco and almost equaled
Roger Sinnott. I got my ﬁrst subscription
to S&T in 1958, at age 13, as a Christmas
gift from my father, a chemistry professor
who wanted to encourage my interest in
science. I can't be sure whether over the
course of my 1967-91 Air Force career,
which involved 13 moves, I received every
single issue or sent in every renewal on
time, but I'm now in my 57th year of reading and subscribing to S&T. I still have
every issue that I received - the only
magazine that I've accorded this honor.
Howard Ritter
Maumee, Ohio
I save mine for about a year. Then I take
them to one of our club's public outreach
events and set them out with a note: "Free
- Take One!" The pile is always gone
before the event ends. Perhaps one of
those issues will encourage someone else
to become interested in astronomy.
Greg Lewis
Clovis, California
One day in 9th grade, while we were
supposed to be working on math problems, I noticed the robin's-egg-blue cover
of S&T's February 1966 issue on the
magazine rack in my classroom. I picked
it up and was amazed at the all-sky star
chart in the back and the column entitled
"Rambling Through February Skies"
by Charles A. Federer. I had never seen
anything like it before! Seeing my interest, my math teacher let me take the issue

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Sky and Telescope - September 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - September 2015
