Memories of Conferences Past

The Thursday Afternoon Setup Crew (left - right), Allan Guthmiller, Bill Seavey, Barbara Bean, Rick Bean, Bob Stephens & somebody hiding in the shadows

The mile-long line of cars on Friday morning

What are these two men doing?
(Hint - That's Scott Roberts & Steve Edberg)

Starsplitter Telescopes

The Great JPL Payoff of Russell Sipes for authoring those 'Anti Hale-Bopp Spacecraft' WebPages

Solar Telescope

Venders and the Walker Observatory

Larry Myers of Mountain Instruments

Gary Wolanski received a Merit Award
for his 6" F/5 Handmade German
Equatorial

Mike Sponner received a Merit Award
for his 9" Folded refractor on a
Springfield Mount

Attendance: 1,633

Highlights:

Attendance was predictably down with the phase the Moon, but that didn't stop participants from having a great time. The telescope making group from the Pacific Northwest, represented by Randy Johnson started a mirror making class with one of the participants winning the completed mirror. Randy also started a tradition of field tours demonstrating various telescopes and telescope making techniques.

The Keynote Speaker was Richard Fienberg of Sky & Telescope Magazine who spoke on how the Internet is changing our hobby.

Speakers:

• Randy Johnson, "Optical Testing Demonstration"
• Jim Brunkella, "History of Astronomy"
• Tony Patta and Tony Salvatore, "Building an Observatory"
• George Keene, "6 Inch Camera Obscura"
• Peter Ceravolo and Douglas George, "Time Lapse Movie of Comet Hyakutake's Tail in Color"
• Chris Schur, "Digitized Astrophotography from Arizona"
• John Hoot, "CCD Time Lapse Photography"
• John Hoot, "A Simple CCD Spectrograph"
• Bob Stephens, "The Renaissance of Amateur Astronomy in Riverside"
• Richard Fienberg, "Amateur Astronomy in a Wired World: How the Internet is Changing Our Hobby"
• Mike Bennett, "Project Astro"
• Randy Johnson, "Internet Access - Telescope Making"
• Tim Robertson, "VCAS Astronomy Day Activities"
• Glenn Malcolm, "The RAS at the Orange Blossom Festival"
• Bob Bell, "NEAT Project - Near Earth Asteroid Tracking Project"
• Russell Sipe, Charles Morris, Ron Baalke, "Comet Hale-Bopp and the Internet" - panel discussion
• Gil Clark, "Robotic Telescopes for Education"
• Robert Staehle, "JPL Fire & Ice Project"
• ATM Group, Telescope Making Panel Discussion
• Burt Patterson, "Introduction to the Pegasus CCD Camera"

Clifford W. Holmes Award : Randall Wilcox

Given to an individual for a "Major Contribution to Popularizing Astronomy"

Clyde Tombaugh Award: George Keene

Given for "Creative Innovation in Telescope Design"

Merit Awards:

• Mike Spooner, "Folded Refractor on a Beavertail Springfield Mount"
• R.A.T.S. (Riverside Astronomical Telescope Makers), "Excellence in Telescope Making Outreach"
• Bruce Sayre, "Innovative Low Power Observing System"
• Allen Hall, "Excellence in Design and Construction of a Large Low Cost First Telescope"
• Gary Wolanski, "Excellence in Metal Craftsmanship and Design"

Honorable Mentions:

• Verryl Fosight, "Clever Solution to CCD Camera Positioning"
• George Cunning, "Well Made First Telescope"
• Jean Lilley/Fred Phillips, "Low Power, Easy to Use Portable Telescope"
• Jay Schwabe, "Detachable Rotating Upper Cage"
• Michael Schmidt, "Homemade Herschelian Reflex Finder"
• Debbie Dyke, "Well Done First Telescope"
• Gary Grue, "Advancing the Design of Large Lightweight Tubes"

Warren Estes Award: Paul Zwierzynski

Bill Seavey teaches the Beginners Corner

The R.A.T.S. (Riverside Astronomical Telescope Makers) with
their series of 6" F/5.5 Dobsonians

Members of the Chabot Telescope Makers (left to right) Bob Schalck,
Doug Berger, Denni Medlock, Kevin Medlock

Gary Grue received an Honorable Mention
for his 42 lbs. light-weight telescope tube