One of RACs cornerstone missions is outreach to and education of the public regarding astronomy. As such, all copyrighted material contained herein is provided under US copyright fair use laws and regulations. According to the US Copyright Office, the key factors determining fair use are as follows:

• The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
• The nature of the copyrighted work [e.g. whether it is fiction or non-fiction, the latter usually being more suitable for fair use]
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

The web site of the Legal Information Institute of Cornell University Law School states that "fair use of a copyrighted work [in accord with the criteria defined above] is not an infringement of copyright." As a non-profit club with a mission that includes public education and outreach, RAC's reproduction of copyrighted material is done for educational purposes.

The following links provide additional information concerning fair use of copyrighted material.

• US Copyright Office
• Cornell University Law School
• Wikipedia Fair Use entry

Needless to say, all original materials on RAClub.org, with the exception of copyrighted member astrophotography images, are available to others for educational purposes under fair use so long as attribution is given. All member photographic images are automatically copyrighted at the moment of creation, and request should be made directly to the photographer concering use of his/her images.

Non-member images used on this web site (primarily in the title bars of individual pages) are linked or adapted from copyright-free sources, including the Wikipedia Commons area, NASA and the European Space Organization. Hover your mouse over the image for a description of the image and a source attribution. Click on the image to visit the source of the image; this allows visitors to view a large version of the image and a copyright-free statement.

Member images in the Image Gallery are, as mentioned above, the copyrighted property of individual club members and participants. All photographic images are automatically copyrighted at the moment of creation, and request should be made directly to the photographer concering use of images from the Gallery.

It has been announced that the the US Federal Trade Commission will require that web authors disclose "their connection, if any, with the advertisers; and also reveal the receipt of free products and/or payments from the advertisers."

Rappahannock Astronomy Club is a non-profit club which accepts no paid commercial advertising; thus this rule apparently does not apply. Nevertheless, a disclosure statement is included to fully state our relationship with manufactureres and merchants of astronomy gear and software mentioned on this site. Briefly, RAC is not affiliated with in any way and does not as an organization endorse products from any manufacturer, merchant or advertiser. Nor does RAC receive emolument from any manufacturer or merchant.

Examples of products are used to illustrate various levels of equipment capability, operability and cost. Various web sites that do perform reviews are linked from this web site. Such use does not in any way constitute endorsement, either of the review sites or products reviewed; these links are provided to visitors to the RAC web site strictly for information and product research purposes.

The RAC website also displays information provided from other sources by means of software artifacts, including so-called gadgets and widgets as well as other forms of inclusion by reference and/or syndication. Typically the terms of use of such artifacts require attribution in the form of an identifying statement or logo display, with link to the organization's web site. Such artifacts are included on the RAC web site only if they are free and publicly available to all users who comply with the relevant terms of use. RAC is in no way affiliated with any provider of such artifacts and receives nor provides compensation in any form with regard to such providers.

Although RAC has no formal relationship with any merchant or manufacturer this does not preclude individual RAC members from maintaining relationships with or employment by manufacturers or merchants of astronomy related products separate from their club membership.

RAC is affilated with The Astronomical League, a non-profit association of astronomy societies and clubs throughout the US. That relationship is spelled out in the next section.

RAC is affiliated with The Astronomical League, which is an association of astronomy societies and clubs throughout the US. As such RAC members receive the AL magazine, The Reflector, and are eligible for discount subscriptions to Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines.

RAC was a supporting club within the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

The following navigation aids are used throughout the RAC web site:

• Hover mouse over main menu buttons at top and bottom of each page for a short description of page content.
• Hover mouse over officer and POC email links for phone number.
• Click on the RAC logo at the top left of each page to return to the Home Page.
• Click on the page title at the top of each page to visit the Site Index Page.
• Click on the astronomy image at the top right of the page title bar to visit the source of the image, each of which includes an attribution and statement of copyright-free use permission.
• Up arrows embedded in each page return browser position to the top of that page.
• A site index link is included at the bottom of each page.