A new book; "Astronomy in Singapore"

[Lee]

Been thinking of this for a while. I believe there is a lack of practical
Astro books specifically written for Singapore by Singaporeans.
2 of the them I knew were the one by Science Center & the other by
Albert Lim. Malaysia has a Chinese mag. Many astro books we got were from US.

Anyone (preferably residence in Singapore) interested to co-comply & publish an astro book specially written for Singapore context.

Proposed Contents

'Astronomy in Singapore'
- historical facts, current status
- basic astro tech
- equipment
- what can you see & do
- astrophotography, CCD, etc.
- observation sites (includes Malaysia)
- gallery of photos
- special sections: satellites, meteors, etc
...... add more ..

Probably a soft-cover, color copy of 200-300 pages markets at about
< S$ 20. I guess from implementation to actual publication might
take about 12-18 months. Might not be financially viable but still worth
a try.

Anyone Interested ?

[Airconvent]

Been thinking of this for a while. I believe there is a lack of practical
Astro books specifically written for Singapore by Singaporeans.
2 of the them I knew were the one by Science Center & the other by
Albert Lim. Malaysia has a Chinese mag. Many astro books we got were from US.

Anyone (preferably residence in Singapore) interested to co-comply & publish an astro book specially written for Singapore context.

Probably a soft-cover, color copy of 200-300 pages markets at about
< S$ 20. I guess from implementation to actual publication might
take about 12-18 months. Might not be financially viable but still worth
a try.

Anyone Interested ?

oddly enough, after Remus talk on refractor optics at Singapore Poly tonight, I suggested that he publish a book , so that those who missed his lessons like Matthew can read it up instead! Remus has the necessary wide dimension of relevant knowledge to make this book worthwhile.
However, publishing a book is different from giving lectures. The book would have to be researched, cross-referenced for accuracy...a very time consuming process...

[chrisyeo]

Hi. Just my two cents worth. I think a practical astronomy book will be really great for Singapore. But if you think its too time consuming, maybe you can make it a more casual kind of book - doesn't have to be the perfect reference book.

If different people are willing to contribute different sections, and someone is willing to coordinate the whole thing, I would greatly support it! If you can write something for a website, why not let it be compiled into a book? That way, at least can get some money out of it.

It can be a labour of love, and one that will greatly benefit the astronomical community here.

chris

[ChaosKnight]

How about an e-zine? An online publication has more benefits. Production costs are reduced. Plus vendors can put ads, the money helping to pay for this site.

A few years down the road, if we have enough stuff from the e-zine, it can be compiled into a book.

If course, a major obstacle is the committment needed to sustain this kinda thing.....

[Guest]

Well, there are not many people interested in Astro in singapore if you print for example 2000 copies (you probably sold 193 copies to all of us and still have 1807 books to sell). the books will move slowly at the bookshops. Astro is a very unique market and unless you are interested or else, hi hi, no one going to flip the pages. No one going to stop you for trying. But if you do so, don't put your thinking just solely for Singapore as your target market is the whole Earth or Mars in not too long future, say 20 years from the year 2004.

My $1 suggestion: why not get all the necessary info and published in SingAstro in a section solely for learning Astro and Astro in Singapore based. I believe this already started but not organized in the way I mentioned. For the "old birds", give it a re-organization so that it is easy to read and reference in the future.

eric goh