wednesday night

You might let me know the deadlines for each particular months issue, if you have it to hand. Have we still time for december issue.

Trevor,

The december issue went to the printer today actually!

As a rule the mag gets printed a month in advance, but you don't wanna be leaving notices till the last minute either. My own deadline for submitting the sky diary is the 10th of the month. i.e. it was Oct 10th for the December issue. For notices etc I'd say no later than the 20th to allow for typesetting and proofreading etc.

I do think co-operation though would be a far better plan.

Appreciate your sentiment Dave, it would be nice if we could all work together. However, on my first scope purchase I contacted the Vampire who tried to rip me off, trust and interest almost lost on first contact. How can we, with these experiences, ever come to trust rip off DM.
I agree that Astronomy would be all the better without the back-biting but until I see some positive action on AIs behalf - ie. openess and cooperation (and the dropping of rip-offness), then the choice is clear to me.
I'll continue to promote Astronomy to the public as part of my club and individually, but I won't wait for AI. And until they stop excluding people from their "star parties" who haven't bought a scope from DM, I don't think I'll be changing my mind. All said - I'm all for inclusion of all interested parties, but not if it compromises astronomy at the expense of profit. There's nothing wrong with profit, I'm an out and out capitalist, but not at the expense of popularising astronomy, and educating the masses.
AI needs to show significant improvement to the treatment of budding astronomers if they want inclusion.
I support you in what you are trying to do, but don't be surprised by the stab in the back from rip-off DM.

Dave Grennan,
thank you for the post on the other page. I understand completely where you are coming from. And, as you have seen in the past, just how badly affected you were (remember? ) when other flame wars errupted!

I actually like the fact that there are such staunch AEye members active on these boards. And, as you know, it works in reverse too. That just goes to show the activity out there, and the co-operation among individuals that exists.

I know you say that we should continue to send David Moore e-mails, and as pointed out, we do. But I will give you a firm example about his character FROM MY PERSPECTIVE only. At Cosmos 2004, his own Dave McCann was invited to give a talk - which he did. From end of November '03 onwards, I, as TAS Secretary, sent him (Moore) e-mails about the event, quoting that little 2 X 1 box at the back of his magazine. The event was in March. 5 e-mails, no replies. The only thing he put into the magazine was a similar 2 X 1 box on the editorial page, the one least read, stating "Our own Dave McCann will be visiting and talking at this years Cosmos festival in Tullamore on the weekend of...", and that was it. No recognition of who was hosting it (TAS), no indication of when Dave McCann would speak, or where to find ANY information what-so-ever. It was like he was afraid people would find out a small club existed in this middle-sized midlands town, over 60 miles away from his domain (Dublin), and might interfere in some way!

THATS why I have such a sour taste in my mouth talking about 'his' organisation Dave. I have had even earlier experiences and relations with him going back to when AEye was founded, and those experiences left me wondering just how sincere a character he was. The 'truth', so to speak, came out in subsequent years.

And that is why, for a lot of the veterans among us here today, we have this 'battle' going on.

There are many many stories we could tell you and other 'staunch' AEye members just why it is we do not like the way Moore carries on (NOT that we do not like Moore personally, that is just not an issue, as chance personal encounters are few and far between). But we will not go into those stories here - this whole website will change into something else other than IFAS overnight!

Look, for the record, I do hate AEye's guts, but I am not an evil person for it! Still, as a preview, Dave, you know who from AEye has been invited to give a talk at Cosmos 2007!

So, perhaps that might be a chance for things to REALLY patch up. I mean, you are also in SDAS. Perhaps AEye will be able to exploit the wealth of knowledge and 'speaker power' that exists in alllllll the other clubs, and learn to use it co-operatively! Some of us IFAS clubs are already doing so in reverse!

And have no problems with it!

Seanie.

Hi Dave, Delighted to see somebody building bridges between the IFAC and AI.

I understand why people have been annoyed by the past actions of AI, I know I have been, however there are generally two sides to all conflicts and I'm sure DM has a few gripes of his own.

I don't see a downside to cooperation between the organisations. Worst case scenario is a few brused egos and more promotion of Astronomy in Ireland.

Damon