Cliff Holmes opens the conference

Robert Dixon, Planetarium Director at Riverside Community College

John Dobson (left) with the telescopes of the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers

The telescope display area

A close up of the Sidewalk Astonomers' 24" F/6.5 Telescope

Attendance: 201 plus local club members

Now in its third year, the RTMC again met at Riverside Community College. The conference was still being referred to as the 'Riverside Convention' or the 'West Coast Conference.' Instruments, celestial photographs, and commercial products were displayed.

This was the first appearance by the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers who brought a 24" F/6.5.

Speakers:

• Larry Burris, " Problems in Building Large Observatory Class Telescopes"
• James Dougherty, "Aluminizing and the Care of Optical Coatings"
• Robert P. Jensen, "Inexpensive Diamond-blade Generating of Tools, Mirrors and Lenses"
• Richard Buchroder, "16-1/2" F/15 'Argunov' Telescope"
• Arthur Leonard, "Wide-field Yolo Reflector"
• Harrison Sarrafian, "Aberrations of the Newtonian"
• Robert E. Cox, "How to Perform Optical Tests on Inexpensive Plane-parallel Glass"

Merit Awards (partial):

• Cliff Livermore, 2nd Place for Uniqueness of Design - 18" Unobstructed Reflector
• Orien Ernest, 12-1/2" F/5 Newtonian
• John Dobson and Brian Rhodes, 2nd Place for Optics - 24" F/6.5
• George McArthur, 3rd Place for Optics - 8" Newtonian
• John Dobson and Brian Rhodes, 2nd Place for Mechanics - 24" F/6.5

Richard Buchroeder and Arthur Leonard in front of an Orange County Astronomers display

The Meeting Hall