Go to Stellafane
website.
Read my report on the event.
My son, Dylan grinding a mirror |
 ATM demos showing how to make pitch. |
A father and son. |
 One of the AMT talks under the tent. |
Dylan spent at least 2 hours working on mirrors. |
Your mom's going to make me wash your jacket. |
Dylan walking in the mud. |
A beautiful dob was made from left-over hand-built canoe project. |
A 14 1/2 " suitcase dob.! |
This was the most fantastic telescope you can imagine. The builder took 1st place for Craftsmanship. |
Look at the lunar bearing. |
Frank Bov & son. This is their new 14 1/2" scope. |
This scope featured a remote focusing device. Just turn the wheel, and the focuser changes positions. |
A built-for-lightweight dob. |
Another dob that I think had a built-in tracking platform. |
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A nicely restored refactor with a "Brashear" (sp?) lens. |
A nice alt-az. |
Bino chair. |
A very nice set of what appeared to be 8" binos. |
Dick Parker's 12 1/2 Cassegrain on machined mount took a prize. |
This scope took 1st prize for mechanical design. Straigh-forward design. |
This scope took 1st prize for mechanical design. |
A small-aperture newt with a massive outrigger. |
Ron Newman's scope with RXDesign's goto applied won a prize. It features goto with slip-clutch for manual movement. |
Al Francis 12 1/2" scope w/ RXDesign's goto. |
Bino-mount for a simple post. |
A small, portable observatory. |
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. A bino-chair. |
A set of plates for simple device mounting. |
A wooden GEM. |
The Porter Turret |
Are you having fun on the hill? |
Refractor. |
Long FR dob. |
A very cool bino-holding backpack. |
Ultra-portable 6" dob. |
Me in the clubhouse. Nice shot, Dylan. Not bad for a 5 year old. |
Breezy Hill |
Breezy Hill |
Breezy Hill |
Uncle Al in front of the McGregor. |
Viewing South from the main observing hill near McGregor. |
Just in time for the best Mars apparition. |
A Nice Dob on the main observing field. |
McGregor Observatory. |
Stellafane 2003 was a memorable one. It featured at least 2 inches of rain on Friday, very little observing, and mud like I would never wish for. But there were some good points too.
My son, Dylan, was able to make his first trip. We had a blast in spite of the weather. We camped out in our new family-sized tent and made a good time. On Friday, he spent a solid 2 hours grinding a couple of mirrors that were present for the ATM demos. I will have to order him a kit soon to gauge his interest further, and see if he wants to make his own telescope, but suffice it to say I think he's interested more than a little. He also enjoyed the bus (which was only operation for part of Friday) and Breezy Hill. Climbing rocks seemed to be his cup of tea… and appropriately so for a 5 year old boy. We did make the Friday night talks, and were happy to hear that a new building will be constructed where the big tent currently resides. This should make for a nice, dry area for conventioneers. That night, we just simply hit the sack and slept like babies in the rain.
Saturday morning started early at the "Swamp", err, I mean "Swap" Tables. I picked up 12mm Nagler Type II from Phil Harrington, and saw a few other items, but didn't want to go broke. Afterwards we had a little breakfast (more watermelon for Dylan - he loves the stuff) under the tent, and then hiked to Breezy Hill. My first impression was the beautiful telescope designed & built by Normand Fullum. It was a beautifully built Newtonian of various woods with an equatorial platform. It was heads & shoulders above the other scopes as far as craftsmanship is concerned, but that is not to say the others are slackers… its just that it was so intricately built. I was also impressed with Tim Faner's 8" Newtonian on a machined GEM. I would have loved a view through the 8" binoculars that were present, but the weather would not allow. RXDesigns goto system was present on Ron Newman's & Al Francis' telescopes. This is the system for my 20" that I would love to get. Overall a very impressive group of telescopes were displayed. For me this is the best part of the trip to Stellafane.
Finally we joined the Saturday evening program for a good presentation of awards, raffle prizes, and addresses. I was not able to stay for the keynote address as Dylan was getting tired (so was I). We packed up the next morning and left for CT anticipating the next year. We will not forget the friends we met, or those who were so kind to Dylan. I cannot tell you how many stopped to congratulate him on his 1st trip to Stellafane and wish him a good time. I hope this is the 1st of many Father-Son visits.