2025 Stellafane News

NASA PUNCH mission will contain three TeleVue Optical Lens Assemblies

[2025-March-10] Long time member of the Springfield Telescope Makers and founder of TeleVue optics Al Nagler is excited, as the NASA SPHEREx payload will include the PUNCH mission that contains three TeleVue Optical Lens Assemblies. Early in his career Al worked for NASA on Lunar Excursion Module visual moon surface simulators, but that was all earth-bound - now these lens assemblies will be in orbit. See https://televue.com/televueopticstalk/2025/02/27/punch-launch-this-weekend/ for more detailed info on the mission and the lenses.

Introducing our 2025 Keynote Speaker

[2025-March-04] We are so very excited to be able to introduce to you our Keynote Speaker for the 2025 Convention.

Dr Stephen Sekula is an astrophysicists who works at the SNOLAB, 1.2 miles underground in a massive cleanroom research laboratory, located in an active mine in Canada. It was built in the 1990s and its first flagship experiment was SNO, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, whose discoveries in the early 2000s were recognized by the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. SNOLAB is now home to about a dozen current physics experiments, as well as other programs in fields like biology and chemistry.

He was also part of the team at CERN's Large-Hadron-Collider that confirmed the existence of the Higgs-Boson.

In “Astronomy Without Light: Revealing the Unseen Universe”, Dr Sekula will take us down to the SNOLAB, where he directs research into the basic nature of the Universe, including Neutrinos and Dark Matter. He will shed light into these fundamental matters in an enthusiastic, clear, engaging manner.

Convention this year will be on July 24-27, and registration will open on or around May 1st. We will let you know when it is open. Or if you'd prefer, you could always bookmark the preliminary 2025 Convention page. Also, stay tuned for news about the Hartness House Workshop.

STMs Experience Glass Blowing!

[2025-Feb-4] While the Springfield Telescope Makers are known for 'pushing glass' (i.e grinding telescope mirrors), on February first we changed that up a bit and participated in a glass blowing workshop led by renowned glass artist Robert DuGrenier , who taught us a different type of glass work in his hot shop.

Our learning project for the day was making ornaments of the solar system planets. We used colored glass chips laid out on a metal table, rolled them into a molten glass blob, reheated the glass in the glory hole until they melted into the blob, then blew the blob into a hollow sphere, broke it off the blow pipe, attached a small glass loop to hang it, it put it into an annealer to cool down slowly so it wound not crack. We enjoyed learning this process and had a lot of fun doing it. With outside temperatures in the single digits, it was a good day to to be in the hot shop with several multi-thousand degree furnaces roaring! A huge thank you to Robert for teaching us by doing.

Participating were 6 club members, one member's husband, and MK from Springfield Area Public Access TV who recorded the proceedings, to be broadcast at a future date.

Glass blowing Workshop led by Robert DuGrenier

Glenn Jackson at Glassblowing Workshop

Ken Slater at Glass blowing Workshop

STM President Cecilia Detrich at Glass blowing workshop

Dave McGaw at Glass Blowing Workshop

Glass Blowing Workshop

Jeff Lowe at Glass Blowing Workshop

Glass Blowing Workshop

Glass Blowing Workshop

Final Result of the Solar System Ornaments

2024 Convention Videos Ready for Viewing

[2025-Jan-20] Whether you've attended the 2024 Convention or want to see what you've missed, we have some great news for you! Thanks to STM Member Marc Polanski and his audio-visual mastery, we now have a collection of presentations available on our official Stellafane Youtube Channel.

Included are a variety of presentations, including the Saturday Evening program.

Head on over to our Official Stellafane Youtube Channel to see what we have to offer! We look forward to seeing you again this year!

STMs On The Air!

[2025-Jan-04] Greetings on this New Year! We've had many things to celebrate in the past year, and we still have yet many more to come.

Today we'd like to share something which we are proud to have been a part of. During the 2024 Convention, a number of STM members were interviewed as part of WKPN's Cosmic Perspective radio show, hosted by Andy Poniros.

You will hear the likes of Dr Thomas Spirock, Phil Rounseville, Katie Shusdock, Dave Groski, and Dave Kelly, all offering up their unique perspectives on what makes Stellafane truly special. Also interviewewed is Tara Zabriskie, who has been hard at work on her documentary about Stellafane, scheduled to premiere this year.

So please take a listen to this episode of Cosmic Perspective hosted by Andy Poniros. We think he did a great job capturing the spirit of Stellafane. Also available here.

HDR Moon Photo Imaged by 13-Inch Schupmann at f/10

HDR Moon Imaged by Thomas Spirock w/ 13-Inch Schupmann at f/10

[2024-Nov-28] It's been awhile since we've brought you something imaged by one of our own members. In this case, it's a beautiful High-Dynamic-Range Photo of the moon taken by Dr. Thomas Spirock with our 13-Inch Schupmann at the McGregor Observatory, at f/10.

Friends of Stellafane Store is Live!

[2024-Nov-22] In February we began by testing a new concept by selling to you some Stellafane Eclipse Banners. They were a big hit!

This November, we are excited and proud to announce the opening of the Friends of Stellafane Online Store! (Closed for the Season; Check Back in May) Natalie Dodson and her team of elves have been hard at work to bring you a variety of amazing products, just in time for the Holiday Shopping season! In this store, you will find both general and holiday Official Stellafane Merchandise, right now! These are items currently exclusive to the online store, not available anywhere else. More items will be added in constantly, so if you don't find what you want now, check back later.

Each purchase helps the Springfield Telescope Makers be able to hold Convention and maintain the site. Thank you for supporting Stellafane!

Enjoy Browsing the Friends of Stellafane Online Store! (Closed For the Season: Back in May)

Relive the 2024 Convention!

A number of Conventioneers take a rest in front of the clubhouse - Photo by Ken Slater

[2024-Nov-19] If you've been at this year's convention and want to relive it, or even if you weren't and want to feel like you've been there, wait no longer! The 2024 Convention Gallery is now complete, a process that takes many months to achieve. Thank you to everyone who contributed by sending in photos. And thank you to everyone who attended Convention. It wouldn't be possible without all of you, including the many volunteers. We hope to see you again next year!

This year again marked a very important year for the club, that being the 100th Anniversary of the Pink Clubhouse. The care and attention put into her every year is what keeps her in such good shape!

2024 Board Election Results

[2024-Nov-8] This past weekend, on November 2nd, was the day of our Annual General Meeting (at the BRIC). As with November meetings, elections were held. Say hello to your new board, same as the last.  Congratulations to all those involved! And thanks to the Wilders for a wonderful feast!