2017 Convention Telescope Competition

All of the Telescopes Entered in the Competition

Winners of the Optical & Mechanical Competition

Convention attendees can enter their home-made telescopes in the Optical and/or Mechanical competition. Awards are given for best Optical Performance [Small Newtonian 12-inches or smaller; Large Newtonian over 12-inches; Compound Optical System] and for several Mechanical Categories [mechanical design, workmanship, innovative component, junior (under 16), special (for items that are not complete telescopes)].

In all categories, entrants who have previously won a first place in a category or are professionals in the field must be entered in the Master Class category. Entrants may also voluntarily enter in this category if they wish.

First homemade telescope recognition: If you brought your first homemade telescope and displayed it on Breezy Hill, you got a certificate and your name was shown on the screen at the Saturday Night Program. These scopes are identified as  First Scope  in the listings.

The optical competition was completed on Friday night; the mechanical judging was done on Saturday morning and awards were passed out at the Saturday evening program.

The Head Optical Judge for 2017 was Rick Hunter. Dave McGaw,  Francis O'Reilly, Junie Esslinger, Dick Parker, Michael Patterson and Chris Stewart were optical judges. Steven Forbes and Katie Shusdock were the optical runners.

The Head Mechanical Judge for 2017 was Chris Houghton. Allen Hall, Dick Parker, Jeff Lowe, Wayne Hilliard, and Tom Spirock  were mechanical judges.

The telescope competition registrars were Cecilia Detrich and Katie Shusdock. Scope photos by Jay Drew.

Below you will see up to four pictures of each telescope entered in the competition (fewer if we have less than four available, in some cases we received no photos of some entered telescopes, especially true of some optical only entries that were not available in daylight for photography) and basic information about the telescope and maker, including any awards won. Listed in order of entry.

Note: After you expand a photo, you can use the arrow keys to move forward and back, and the spacebar starts a slide show.

MC = Master Class; Newt = Newtonian Reflector; Dob = Dobsonian Mount;
GEM = German Equatorial Mount; Ball = Ball or Hemispherical Mount

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