David Charles received an Honorable Mention for his camera tracking platform

David Patou with his Merit Award receiving Maksutov and Schmidt camera

Possibly the smallest telescope, a 1-1/2" was brought by Jack Eastman

Ray Coutchie with his Merit Award Receiving Sky Patrol Camera

Richard Berry with his bride Eleanor

Tom Osypowski with his Merit Award receiving 10" F/6

Cliff Holmes

Attendance: 1,433

The 18th RTMC was held on a Full Moon Weekend. This inhibited attendance a little as it was down from the previous year's high. We were also fresh off the encounter with Halley's Comet. Many stories were told of adventures in viewing this once in a life time comet.

Talks were given on several people's experiences on viewing Halley as well as building equipment suitable for observing comets. This was indeed the 'Halley's Comet' Conference.

Speakers (Partial):

• Ron Arbour, "An Amateur's Computerized Camera for the Automatic Tracking of Comets"
• Don Machholz, "The Discovery of Periodic Comet Machholz 1986e"
• Robert E. Cox, "Some All-Spherical Optical Systems for the Amateur"
• R. A. Buchroeder, Ph.D., "Design of an 8" Zoom Telescope"
• David Levy, "In the Shadow of Kitt Peak: the Special Joy of Amateur Astronomy"
• Fred Veio, "The Spectrohelioscope"
• Glenn Robertson, "Beginner's Luck with Halley"
• Mark J. Coco, "A Personal Recollection of Comet Halley"
• Bob Eklund and Laura Woodard, "Up From Down Under"
• Douglas S. Hall, "How Do I Choose a Photoelectric Observing Project?"

Merit Award Winners:

• Henry Grieb, Good Craftsmanship Using Simple Tools - 8" F/8 Newtonian
• Tom Osypowski, Craftsmanship - 10" F/6
• Ray Coutchie, Innovative Automatic Sky Patrol System
• David Pitou, Design and Use of Materials; Craftsmanship - 6" Maksutov, 6.2" Schmidt
• Leo Vanderbyl, Outstanding and Innovative Design - 18" Schmidt-Cassegrain
• James Heaton, Outstanding Refractor & Pier Design - 7.5" Refractor

Honorable Mentions:

• Angie Frey, Junior Division; Well Executed First Telescope - 6" Newtonian
• Andre Thibault, Junior Division; Well Executed First Telescope - 6" Newtonian
• David Charles, Innovative Improvement to Tangent Arm Drive
• Steve Collett, Wood Craftsmanship - 8" Newtonian

Warren Estes Award:

Dann McCreary, 12.5" Dobsonian

Clifford Holmes Award: Bob Schalck

I bet you couldn't pick these two out of a police line-up today

Late afternoon on the Telescope Field

The latest in telescope tube protection boxes
This sure is a weird bunch that comes up here every year!