A long time ago, long before you had heard of the internet and
newsgroups, people agreed that binary postings (which tend to be large)
would be accepted only in the alt.binaries hierarchy of newsgroups.
This would give systems the option of accepting or rejecting such
postings, depending on their own individual circumstances (network
bandwidth, disk space, etc.), while receiving the newsgroups they
wanted.

News servers that conform to this gentleperson's agreement will discard
binary postings outside of alt.binaries. Similarly, news readers that
are correctly written will refuse to post binaries outside of
alt.binaries. However, some news readers are written (and used) by
buttheads who don't understand basic netiquette.

Post pictures in sci.astro.amateur all you like. I won't see them. Lots
of people won't. If you want your pictures seen, use other methods.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre
Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte