Sky & Telescope December 1987 [antikvár]

focal pointWho the Heck Are You, Anyway?Not so long ago, Sky Telescope's editors pounded out stories on manual typewriters, racks of metal slugs then pressed those words onto paper, and an occasional letter from some reader might have told us whether the stories were enjoyed.How things have changed!Today copy whisks into and around our office with computerized efficiency. Electronic breakthroughs have driven the publication industry through a whole series of sweeping technological revolutions. And even though we still get letters, our means of gauging readers' opinions have become highly sophisticated. Here's how:If you are a subscriber living in the United States, the odds are 1 in 6 that you've received an opinion survey of some kind from me. Detailed, four-page questionnaires went out in 1979, 1983, and 1987. These grilled you on everything from observing habits to how many others share your home. Then, in 1984, I started sending postcards to a random group of 150 readers soon after the arrival of each new issue. "Did you Uke the cover?" the cards ask. "The feature articles? The departments?"Because of logistical difficulties, it's really not practical to send surveys to those of you who buy the magazine on a newsstand or live outside the United States. But the pool of domestic subscribers is by far our largest. Ultimately, all the opinions you offer are taken into account during our editorial deliberations.Take book reviews, for example. The 1979 survey showed that you like them a great deal, but not nearly as much as the other departments and features in each issue. There was never any question that we would continue to publish reviews. But to improve the department's appeal we decided to move it forward, shorten the reviews somewhat, and use color illustrations whenever possible.We take a lot of care with the content and quality of writing in Sky Telescope. The most recent survey reveals that 9 percent of you think some of the writing is too elementary, 17 percent think some of it is too technical, and the remaining 74 percent think it's generally just right. The "just right" group is getting bigger all the time.I also ask a lot of questions about howAverage reader: 41-year-old man. Owns binoculars and computer.18% live in California.much equipment you own, what you plan to spend on astronomical products, and how frequently you examine our advertisements. This information helps us attract and maintain the wide variety of companies you see represented in the magazine.But beyond providing feedback about the magazine's content, the cards and questionnaires tell us about you, the individual. To begin with, readers of this magazine cover an almost unbelievable spectrum of ages, interests, and attitudes. But if I could conjure up a composite the result would be something like this:A 41-year-old man (only 6 percent of you are women) with a college education who . . .owns binoculars, at least one telescope (most likely 4 or 8 inches in aperture), and probably a computer . . .observes from home once or twice per month, but is willing to travel quite far occa-sionally to find better observing sites . . .has subscribed to Sky Telescope for at least 5 years, spends more than 3 hours reading each issue, and . . .is most eager to learn about upcoming celestial events, new developments in astronomical research, space exploration, and observing methods.Of course, there is no such thing as an "average" U. S. subscriber. For example, the youngest respondent to 1987's survey was a 12-year-old from New York who has just started reading the magazine; the oldest was an Illinois man of 88 who has followed it faithfully for "about 43 years." One in six of you observes whenever weather permits, yet one in seven doesn't own a telescope at all.The questions asked change very little from year to year, and this consistency is important. Like tides, your answers show the ebb and flow of astronomical interests, and the recognition of these trends always proves extremely valuable to the editors here. We know, for example, that the fraction of you that have ground mirrors or built telescopes from scratch is on the decline. Yet your enthusiasm for astronomy in general has been and remains remarkably high.Identifying such trends helps us understand and respond to your interests. Alan MacRobert's "Backyard Astronomy" is a direct response to your desire to learn more about basic observing skills. Similarly, our new series of "Images" revives, by popular demand, a pictorial feature offered during the 1950's and 1960's.It isn't always easy working for Sky Telescope. Each month we produce an issue geared to everyone from grammar-school students to professional astronomers. It's difficult at times to choose what to include, and even tougher to know whether we made the right choices. That's why these questionnaires are so important through them, you help shape the magazine's content. And the more of them that you send back, the more confidence I can have in the statistical validity of the results.Lots of organizations conduct polls and surveys these days. But consider this: when you send one of ours back, we do more than just tabulate the answers. We read every word.J. KELLY BEATTYFocal Point invites contributions from read-ers who wish 10 comment on contemporaryissues in astronomy and space science.