Group Photograph

Dennis di Cicco getting that Group Photograph - We wonder what S&T's Workers Compensation carrier would think if they saw this!

Pat Michaud with his new 14" F/5

Attendance: 595

The 10th Annual RTMC was held on Memorial Day Weekend and was dedicated to Warren Estes, the well known Riverside amateur astronomer who had passed away the January before. This was also the first time in many years that Cliff Holmes could come to his conference 'full time' as his Twinkie route usually kept him busy on Fridays and Saturday mornings.

The Tenth Annual Riverside Telescope Makers Conference

By: Ashley Thomas McDermott

(Reprint from the Griffith Observer - June 1979)

The tenth annual Riverside Telescope Makers Conference was held over the Memorial Day weekend at Camp Oakes near Big Bear, California. Co-sponsored by the Riverside Astronomical Society and the San Bernardino Valley Astronomers, this conference has become one of the most important events in the amateur astronomy calendar. For the first time since its inception ten years ago in Riverside, Clifford Holmes, the founder and principal organizer of the conference, was able to be present for the entire get-together. This conference was the biggest, and perhaps the most successful, event of its type ever held, with some 650 astronomers and their families attending. Several commercial exhibitors were present, including Edmund Scientific, Optical Techniques, Celestron, and Draco Industries, and a number of door prizes were given away on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Camp Oakes, at an altitude of 7,200 feet with clear weather, provided an excellent site for the conference, with more than 160 telescopes on display and evaluated for optical and mechanical design and excellence.

After initial welcomes and announcements by Clifford Holmes, director of the conference; Bob Stephens, president of the Riverside Astronomical Society; Roger Silva, president of the San Bernardino Valley Astronomers; and Ashley Thomas McDermott, Professor of Astronomy at the College of the Desert; the conference started off with a most interesting illustrated presentation by Professor Robert Chambers of Pomona College, on the construction and use of filar micrometers in amateur double star astronomical research. This presentation was followed by a very enjoyable and inspiring talk by Ben Mayer of the Polaris Observatory Association, on simple gadgets that can be constructed to make your observing easier and more effective. Ben also talked about the current status of his blinking program for amateurs.

After a short hospitality break, Frank Miller, president of the Western Amateur Astronomers, spoke to the conference about the value of optically stopping-down telescopes in order to enhance their performance when making planetary observations. Dr. Robert Suding of Colorado followed with a demonstration which proved to be one of the most dramatic of the conference. Dr. Suding is an expert on the use of digital computers, and one of his particular fields of interest lies in the digitization of the basic sounds of the human voice as it is used in the propagation of speech. Dr. Suding played some demonstration tapes in which he showed how a computer can take speech, digitize it, incorporate it, set the telescope, and then "talk" back to the astronomer, telling him how the telescope is set and at what object it is directed!

Another highly entertaining presentation was by Dennis di Cicco of Sky and Telescope magazine as he described his construction of a 16-inch "sidewalk" altazimuth telescope. Roger Silva concluded the Saturday afternoon session with a description of an ingenious technique for aligning the polar axis of a telescope, as well as another clever method for guiding an astronomical photograph, using the primary mirror itself as the sighting device.

Saturday evening, after dinner and the drawing of some of the door prizes were concluded, the conference continued with an automated slide presentation on the history of the telescope, produced by John Sanford. The evening session concluded with a presentation by Ashley Thomas McDermott on the use of computer-generated motion pictures in the teaching of astronomy at the college level.

Saturday evening saw one of the best star parties ever to take place out on the telescope field of Camp Oakes. Telescopes ranging up to John Dobson's 24-inch sidewalk telescope and Jeff Schroeder's 11-inch refractor were present for the clear night observing. Meanwhile, an astronomical film festival took place in the meeting hall with such films as "Violent Universe" being shown through the courtesy of College of the Desert.

The paper sessions reconvened on Sunday morning with a presentation by Roger Tuthill on the use of digital readouts for telescopes, with a demonstration of the adaptation of some of his hardware items to a Celestron 8- inch telescope. Gene Gross of Cross Optics followed with an illustrated and well-received paper on the effects of the atmosphere on astronomical imaging. Gene noted the effects of temperature, weather, climate, and altitude upon the transparency and turbulence of the atmosphere and compared a number of major observatory sites around the world in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Later in the morning, Lynn M. Wyatt of UCLA gave a very lively talk and an arresting demonstration on how to backpack a small, lightweight telescope into the wilderness. He also made available literature from the Wilderness Way International backpacking and survival training program.

John Van Gelder of the Riverside Astronomical Society gave a very informative talk on the use of microprocessors and computers in the driving, pointing, and setting of astronomical telescopes. He demonstrated the device that he had constructed for Robert Stephens's fork-mounted 14-inch reflector.

The Sunday afternoon session led off with a paper by Tom Mathis of Vacaville, who spoke on Maksutov telescopes. John La Borde followed with a description of the San Diego Astronomy Association's project to build a 22-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope out in the desert east of San Diego.

Clyde Tichenor of the Polaris Astronomical Society gave a beautiful demonstration on the use of teaching aids in the demonstration of basic optical principles and noted the advent of the laser in the production of new and dramatic ways of demonstrating classical optics.

After a short intermission, Maurice King of the Hawaiian Astronomical Society demonstrated an ingenious guiding telescope, and John Dobson gave a short talk on Einstein's theories of relativity.
The Sunday afternoon session concluded with another excellent talk by Gene Gross, this time on Cassegrain and Ritchey-Chretien optical systems. The afternoon was concluded with a group photograph out on the telescope field.

That evening another film festival took place in the auditorium along with another very successful star party out on the telescope field. Through the gracious courtesy of Mr. Bill Hornaday, the nearby Juniper Park Observatory, with its research 16-inch Cassegrain telescope was made available to the visiting participants. The proceedings of the conference and the telescope judging were the subjects of a television production crew filming on location for KNXT Channel 2 in Los Angeles.

Speakers:

• Dr. Robert Chambers, "Micrometers--Construction and Use For the Amateur"
• Ben Mayer, "Easy Things to Build"
• Frank Miller, "9 Inch Refractor--Construction and Use"
• Dennis di Cicco, "A Bit of 16 Inch"
• Roger Silva, "Polar Axis Telescopes" and "Primary Mirror Guiding"
• John Sanford, "A Brief Illustrated History of the Telescope"
• Roger Tuthill, "Digital Readout for Telescopes"
• Eugene W. Cross Jr., "Affects of Atmosphere Attenuation and Turbulence on Astronomical Imaging"
• Lynn Wyatt, "Wilderness Astronomy"
• Jon van Gelder, "A Computer Driven Telescope"
• Tom Mathis, "A Family of Maksutov Telescopes"
• John La Borde, "A 22 inch Telescope Project"
• Clyde Tichenor, "Optics and Things"
• Maury King, "A New Guiding Telescope"
• John Dobson
• Gene Cross, "Cassegrain Knots"
• Kevin Medlock & Bob Schlock, "A New Large Telescope"

Merit Award Winners:

• Douglas Eisentein - 6" Reflector
• Victor Lopez
• Pat Michaud - 14" F/5
• Steve Bosbach - 8" /F5.4
• John Adair - Photoelectric Equipment
• Weyman Reams - 6" F/4 with wooden tube
• Bill Hall - 6" F/5.5 with wooden tube

Cliff Holmes Award:

This was also the year that the Clifford W. Holmes Award was created by Richard Poremba of "Astronomy for America." Initially it was named the 'Astronomy for America Award'. The first one went to Paul Zurakowski of the Chabot Telescope Makers.

Bob Stephens (left) with Pat Michaud unloading Bob's 14" F/5
Telescope. Given that this thing weighed about 450 lbs. and is
balanced on two jacks, this is almost as much a dare devil act
as Dennis di Cicco's

The Telescope Field