Star Party at Night

The Coulter 29" Monstrosity

Byron Melland and David Chandler with the Pomona Valley Amateur Astronomer's Award Winning 24" Telescope

Cliff Holmes with Ashley McDermott

Porch Swing Mount by George Scotten and Chris Houghton

Steve Clark with his 10" Single Armed Fork

Dan Raether and Carl Blue with their 17.5" Dobsonian

Walt Schoendorf with his 17.5" Dobsonian

Attendance: 1,082

1982 was another typical year at the RTMC. The conference showed steady growth through the late 70's and early 80's reaching 1,075 by 1982.

Big telescope on simple mountings were starting to make more of an impact. Eighteen and twenty inch telescopes were becoming more common sights on the telescope field. One of the highlight talks was given by Richard Berry of Astronomy Magazine who challenged the conventional wisdom of the equatorial mount.

One of the most amazing sights was Coulter Optics debut of their 29" Dobsonian Telescope. Being basically a scaled up version of their 17", this telescope required a stake bed truck equipped with a lift gate and a gaggle of guys with thick necks to move.

This year, the keynote speaker was Eleanor Helin of Caltech who spoke on amateur's assisting in near-earth asteroid research. Dr. Helin has been one of the leaders in this field of research from the 70's all the way to the end of the 90's.

Speakers:

• Eleanor Helin, "How Amateurs Can Assist with Near-Earth Asteroid Research"
• Richard Berry, "Rethinking the German Equatorial"
• Steve Edberg, "The International Halley Watch and the Amateur's Role in It"
• Richard Hill, "Something Old and New - Four Astrographic Emulsions"
• C.J. Hoag, "The Use of Polyvinyl Alcohol Solutions to Clean Optical Surfaces"
• Norman Butler, "Calibration Procedure for a Ten Mirror Cassegrain Binocular System"
• David Levy, "Sliding Roofs for Fun and Profit"
• Dr. R.W. Russell, "Far Infrared Astronomy from Airborne Platforms"
• Dr. Jack Marling and Roger Sliva, "Selecting a Color Film"
• Leo Vanderbyl, "Construction and Use of a Null-test Screen for Aspherical Surfaces"
• David Kenyon, "Electronic Speech Synthesis for the Telescope"
• Arthur S. Leonard, "The Foucault-Platzeck-Gaviola Test"
• Eugene W. Cross, "Optical Alignment Tolerances for Cassegrain Telescopes"

Merit Award Winners:

• Gerry Logan, Excellence in Workmanship - 8" F/6 Bird-Jones Telescope
• David Pitou, Craftsmanship and Use of Materials - 8" F/15 Maksutov
• Steve Kysor, Best Observing System - A Computer Controlled Dobsonian and Observing Desk
• George Balazs, Innovative Craftsmanship - Wooden Veneer Tube and Wooded Fork of 10" F/5.5 Newtonian
• Dick Nelson, Excellence in Workmanship and Innovative Ideas - 10" Transportable Telescope "Alohalani I"
• Byron Melland and David Chandler, Best Use of Materials - 24" Fork Mounded Disk Driven Telescope made for under $500
• George Scotten and Chris Houghton, Daring Drive Concept - "Porch Swing" mounted scope with Wright- Schmidt Optics
• David Wile, Innovative Ideas - A Simple Transportable Newtonian
• Tom Scott and Terry Boone, Novel Use of Materials - 20" F/5.2 with tube welded together from 50-gallon oil drums
• Don Raether and Carl Blue, Best Use of Wood - 17-1/2" Dobsonian
• Rick Shaffer, Most Improved Telescope - 18" Dobsonian
• Steve Clark, Best Metal Craftsmanship - Single Fork Arm Mount
• Jude Solomon, Junior Award - 6" Telescope

Honorable Mention:

• John West, Contribution in electronics for crystal controlled oscillator design

Warren Estes Award:

• Don Macholz, 10" F/3.8 Comet Seeker

Cliff Holmes Award: Dennis di Cicco, Sky & Telescope

Another view of the Coulter 29" Being Unloaded

Workshop at the Fire Ring

Tom Scott and Terry Boone's  20" F/5.2