The Clever Sun Scope II Sunspot Viewer which uses a binocular objective to project a solar image on to the white shadowed screen

Steve Lelhnowsky with his
12.5" Newtionian

Steve Leghnowsky's portable lighted map box

Larry McDavid with his eclipse mount which supports a Questar and Canon Video Camera

Pierre Schwarr sitting in his 8" binocular/chair mount

The binocular/chair mount in action

James Stevens with his ultra-portable 10"

Cliff Holmes

Attendance: 1,627

With the July 11, 1991 Great Solar Eclipse looming over us, this was truly the 'Year of the Sun.' Solar Telescopes were everywhere and talks and workshops of a solar theme were prominent on the program. The Full Moon kept the crowds down from previous years' highs. Also, many people had to make the economic and vacation day's choice between coming to the conference or going to the total solar eclipse.

Despite the Moon and fewer telescopes participants came away with a lot of valuable information. One of the technological highlights was Kevin Medlock and Vance Chin's prototype CCD camera running on a fully automated 8" F/3 Newtonian. The interference of the Moon did not prevent in from whipping from object to object picking off galaxies and clusters.

Speakers (Partial):

• Carter Roberts, "Solar Eclipse Photography"
• Richard Combs, "Baffling Newtonians for Improved Contrast"
• John Sanford, "A Little on Image Processing with the P.C."
• Joe Perry, Jr., "The 'Rail' Telescope Solution"
• Michael Stecker, "The Practice of Long Exposure astrophotography with SBIG's ST-4 Star Tracker"
• Phil Simpson, "Strapdown Inertial Navigator"
• Ben Mayer, The Polascope Test"
• Norm Sperling, "How Little Things Have Changed in the Telescope Business"
•  

Merit Award Winners:

• Donald E. Clark Jr., Elegantly Designed and Constructed Alt-Azimuth Telescope - 17.5" Dobsonian
• Wayne M. Schmidt, Interesting Concepts in Motorized Observer's Binocular Chair
• Moe Ashley, Excellent Realization of a Classical Newtonian Telescope - 12.5 Inch Newtonian
• James Stevens, Significant Advance in Ultraportable Design - 10" Dobsonian Backpack Telescope

Honorable Mention:

• Steven Overholt, Ultra-Portable 22" Telescope
• Barry B. Thompson, Creative Educational Tool - 1991 Eclipse Flip Book
• James Ed Grissom, Optical Performance Enhancing Components - Spider/Draft Fan for 6" F/8 Newtonian
• Larry Owings, Indexed and Dove-Tailed Sliding Weight - 14.5" F/5.5
• Jim Hannum, Metal Craftsmanship - 8" F/5 Newtonian

Warren Estes Award:

David Levy, Minerva

Cliff Holmes Award:

Rick Shaffer

 

A highlight of the conference was an eclipse photography workshop with Carter Roberts, Cliff Holmes, Steve Edberg, John Sanford, and Derald Nye fielding questions from the audience at the outdoor chapel

Donald Clark received a Merit Award for his 17.5" Dobsonian

Steven Overholt received a Merit Award for his 22" Dobsonian

Steve Collett with his variable height observing chair

People crowd around the CCD demonstration put on by Kevin Medlock, Ron Story and Vance Chin

The 8" F/3 telescope used by  Kevin Medlock, Ron Story and Vance Chin