Astronomy in the Netherlands
For more than 35 years Zenit has been the leading Dutch astronomy magazine for The Netherlands and Belgium. Next to astronomy it also has an interest in meteorology and space research. It publishes articles written by professional and amateur astronomers and meteorologists.Astronomy is quite popular in the Netherlands and many towns and regions have their own astronomy club or public observatory. Most local clubs are affiliated with the national club: de Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Weer- en Sterrenkunde (KNVWS), which was founded in 1901. Many public observatories are united in the Landelijk Samenwerkende Publiekssterrenwachten. Amateur activities in the Netherlands are supported by Stichting 'De Koepel' (the Dome, in English). De Koepel in an information center on astronomy, publisher of Zenit, as well as several other publications like astronomical yearbooks. De Koepel also handles many administrative tasks for the KNVWS.
If you do not master the Dutch language, the information on this website is not very useful to you. But if you would like to have more information on astronomical activities in the Netherlands and Belgium, please contact de Koepel: tel. +31-30-2311360, fax. +31-30-2342852, e-mail: info@dekoepel.nl .
Zenit is also interested in the experiences of foreign astronomers and amateurs. If you would like to contribute to our magazine, please contact the Editor-in-Chief at zenit@dekoepel.nl. Please read further for more technical information.
Writing for 'Zenit', the Dutch astronomy magazine
The editors of 'Zenit' welcome written contributions from amateurs and professionals, as long as the article has some relation with astronomy, meteorology or space science. Possible subjects for amateurs are personal experiences with instruments and computer software, observations, or the more theoretical subjects (results of own calculations etc.).We must advise you though, before you start working on a longer article, to get in touch with the editorial board first. In that way we can prevent two authors from working on the same subject at the same time. In any case the editorial board has the right -- or must we say duty? -- to edit (and translate!) articles that are sent in for publication or to turn them down.
Authors are requested to adhere to the following guidelines:
Contents
Try to be concise and give your article an appetizing title and preface. If the article gets long (several pages) anyhow, please put sub-headers in relevant places. A thousand words of text fill about one printed page without figures in Zenit. Two thousands words is in general a good article length.
Try to avoid cross-referencing figure and table numbers; otherwise you run the risk that the numbering order will be lost in the final layout (yes, even if you use 'TeX'!). Instead use coded instructions that clearly stand out from the normal text such as '***figure X here***'.
Please put captions for figures, photos, tables and all other stuff that doesn't belong in the main text at the end of the article. Try not to make a layout yourself, this interferes with the processing of your article. Be sure that the caption tells the complete story of the figure of photo: don't put essential information about illustrations in the main text only! Keep illustrations simple and preferably put any text on a separate overlay or on a photocopy. Never send in photo negatives or other material that cannot be reproduced. Although we try to return anything you send us, there is always the chance that something gets lost. Naturally, sending us figures in digital formats is also possible (see below).
If you use figures created by others, please make sure that you are allowed to do so. Check copyright notices for any material you download from the web and contact the copyright owner in case of doubt. For publication in a magazine like Zenit, permission is usually granted. Please quote the source in the figure caption, stating the name of the maker and/or the institute that holds the copyright.
Digital
Almost all authors use word processors to write their articles. It is not necessary to send us printed copies of your article; an attachment to an e-mail will do. Do not send us diskettes as we can hardly process these anymore.
Most articles are written in Word. If you use a different word processor, then it will usually be able to save in Word format. If this is not the case, then please use RTF format or ASCII text format. If you use (La)TeX, please use as few self-defined macros as possible.
Of course you can send in your illustrations by e-mail as well. But please get in touch with us before sending several megabytes worth of photos to our mailbox. Larger amounts of data can better be delivered on CD-ROM or made available via a ftp or web server. You can use:
- for photos: JPEG (high quality) or TIFF with at least 200 dpi resolution;
- for line drawings: EPS (TIFF is also fine, but then you have to use a resolution of at least 1200 dpi).
Paper
If you cannot submit your article digitally, please read the following:
We prefer A4 sized paper, printed on one side only and with no more than 4 lines of text per inch. Keep free margins on all sides: on the left at least two inches, one inch on all other sides. This is for making notes and as a safety margin for making photo copies. If you type your article on a regular typewriter - yes these do still exist - please see to it that the letters you type are regular and clearly black. This gives us the opportunity to scan the text of your article, if necessary.
Our address
Zenit, Zonnenburg 2, 3512 NL Utrecht, The Netherlands
E-mail: zenit@dekoepel.nl
We thank you for your co-operation!