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

Big telescope on simple mountings were starting to make more of an impact. 18- and 20-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 amateurs 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 Silva, "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 Awards

	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 wooden 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-mounted 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-arm fork mount
	Jude Solomon, Junior Award - 6" telescope

Honorable Mention

John West, Contribution in electronics for crystal controlled oscillator design

Clifford W. Holmes Award

Dennis di Cicco

Warren Estes Award

Don Machholz, 10" f/3.8 comet seeker

Star Party at Night The Coulter 29" monstrosity Byron Melland and David Chandler with the Pomona Valley Amateur Astronomers' 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 Another view of the Coulter 29" being unloaded Workshop at the Fire Ring Tom Scott and Terry Boone's 20" f/5.2 Sketch