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Re: (IAAC) international Deep Sky Magazine (fwd)




    The magazine to which Hartmut alludes, Interstellarum, is an absolutely
fabulous deep-sky observers' magazine.  It is beautifully put together and
packed with interesting and challenging material.  Although I am far from
fluent in German, I subscribe to the magazine and am able to work my way
through the articles without great difficulty.  It helps, however, to have
had a couple of years of German in my early schooling, which many potential
American readers lack.

    I think if someone were to prepare an English translation of
Interstellarum, it would sell very well in this country even without
changing any of the articles in any other way.  The quality of the material
is so high that I feel sure a translated version of Interstellarum would be
embraced by the same subscribers who used to subscribe to Deep Sky, as well
as others who have joined the ranks of serious deep sky observers within the
last decade.  I do not think it would be necessary to broaden the base of
contributors, etc., to obtain an enthusiastic English-speaking following,
although publishing an English-language version would probably have the
effect of drawing more contributors for Interstellarum from English-language
countries.  Perhaps a translated version could be prepared without adding
greatly to the production costs that go into the German language version.
I'm sure you could find people who would be happy to help with the
translating task (I volunteer!), and then the only problem would be to fit
the translated versions of the articles into the spaces between the gorgeous
pictures and drawings that grace the magazine.

    To any of you out there who believe I am exaggerating about the quality
of Interstellarum, get ahold of a copy and you will see.

                                    Bill Bryson

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Hartmut Frommert" <spider@seds.org>
To: "Astro Mailing List" <astro-l@uwwvax.uww.edu>;
<netastrocatalog-announce@atmob.org>
Cc: <hackers@seds.org>
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 8:27 AM
Subject: (IAAC) international Deep Sky Magazine (fwd)


- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 14:00:12 +0200
From: interstellarum <intmag@interstellarum.com>
Subject: international Deep Sky Magazine

Dear fellow deep sky observers,

it has now been eight years since Dave Eicher's Deep Sky
Magazine, the source of inspiration for so many of us, ceased
publication.

This loss can be still felt today, even after such a long time.
None of the successive projects had a similar success. The lack
of an international magazine for deep-sky observers is evident
all over the world.

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| We have been thinking about a new international English     |
| language magazine for deep sky observers for a long time.   |
| At this moment, we're just curious about what the observers |
| all around the world would think about it.                  |
|                                                             |
| We want to hear your opinion. And we want to know if there  |
| would be any support for this idea.                         |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

interstellarum was founded in 1994 as a German equivalent of
the mighty DSM. After 15 issues published in 4 years, we had
reached 1600 subscribers in eight nations. Of course,
interstellarum's spreading was blocked by its native German
language.

After a two years' pause, we have relaunched interstellarum and
put it on a steadier base. A publishing company was founded,
and professional techniques were employed on layout, print, and
editorial work. This is what makes the new interstellarum
series different from all other similar deep sky magazines in
the world: The attempt to combine the enthusiast's spirit and a
commercial perspective to a long running enterprise.

To say it clearly: This is not the kind of project that can be
done by just some people in Germany. We need your help. We can
put the base for it. But we need you, the deep sky observers around
the world, as authors and salesmen. Success will be heavily dependent
on international co-operation of observers all around the world.
Standing alone, we will reach observers in Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland, but not in your home country.

The idea is to publish observations from all around the globe.
You do have the connections to deep sky observers in your home
country. Without these connections, our attempt will fail. But
if we all put our strength together, maybe enough subscribers
could be reached for a possible first issue a start for making
a dream come true.

Please, discuss this item with your fellow observers. And let
us know about your thoughts. And please forward this paper to
anyone who might be interested our knowledge of addresses of
active deep sky observers elsewhere in the world is very
restricted unfortunately.

We have prepared a website for you. You can view parts from our
German edition as PDF documents and mail us your opinion directly.

  Please refer to:  http://www.interstellarum.com/intmag/
      or reply to:  intmag@interstellarum.com


Thank you very much for your efforts,

clear skies,

the interstellarum team: Matthias Graeter, Juergen Lamprecht,
                         Stephan Schurig, Ronald Stoyan

------- End of Forwarded Message


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