2002 Stellafane Convention
The 67th Convention of Amateur Telescope Makers on Breezy Hill in Springfield, Vermont, the 2002 Stellafane convention, was held Friday, August 9th and Saturday, August 10th, 2002. Hosted by the Springfield Telescope Makers, Inc. Here you will find Reports, Photos and Videos of the 2002 Convention.
photo by Paul Hyndman
The 2002 Stellafane convention is history and was one of the best yet! The skies cleared long enough Friday night to allow the completion of the optical competition for the first time in four years and Saturday night yielded spectacular skies all night. Many home-made telescopes and lectures on various subjects provided ample opportunity for the conventioneers to learn about telescope making and, of course, there was the meeting of old friends and the making of new. Please check below for details as to the goings on at this past convention. Clear skies!
Program
The 2002 Stellafane convention program is available in PDF formatted files:
Photo Gallery
Here is the 2002 Convention Photo gallery, with candid images taken by the Springfield Telescope Makers and many attendees who send us photos they have taken.
Reports
Convention reports from our attendees are posted here, giving you another view of the events and observations that various attendees had.
- Convention Report by Robert Midiri
- Article by Bruce Berger
- Article about the Optical Judging by Rick Hunter
Telescope Competition
Often considered the heart of the Stellafane Convention, the Optical & Mechanical Competition gives Amateur Telescope Makers a chance to show and share with others what they have done, and our expert judges pick the best in several categories to for recognition with awards. This page shows all the telescopes entered in the competition, and the awards that many have won.
Convention Workers
It takes a lot of work to put on the convention, and we would like to thank all the volunteers and members who work so hard before, during and after convention to make it a success. Here's a photo gallery of many of the people who made it happen this year (and the majority who have made it happen for many years). Thank you all very much!
Post-Convention Announcements
Stellafane on "Lets Talk Stars"
[2002-Aug-22] David and Wendee Levy and Mike Terenzoni talk about this past Stellafane convention on David Levy's show "Let's Talk Stars".
Email Snafu
[2002-Aug-20] We have just found out that, due to end error on our end of things, we have not received many emails sent to the Stellafane site for the past several weeks. We offer apologies to anyone who has been waiting for an answer to a question. However, this problem has been fixed so please resend if you need to! Thanks.
Your Photos, Reports and Input Make a Difference!!
If you attended the Stellafane convention this year, please - please - please send us your photos, reports, suggestions and comments. After the 2001 convention, we received reports and photos from only four people. You may think that your photos and experiences are not important but this is NOT the case! Photos and reports from many people will enable the 2002 convention web pages to give a much more comprehensive view of the convention. And, we need to have your points of view as to what's good and what needs work to continue to improve the convention. Thanks!
Lost & Found
The Lost and Found box is quite full after this past convention. If you lost anything please let us know and we'll see if we have it.