2004 Stellafane Convention

The 69th Convention of Amateur Telescope Makers on Breezy Hill in Springfield, Vermont, the 2004 Stellafane convention, was held Friday, August 13th and Saturday, August 14th, 2004. Hosted by the Springfield Telescope Makers, Inc. Here you find Reports, Photos and Videos of the 2004 Convention.

Thanks to All!

Stellafane East Amphitheater by Liebrecht Venter

The Springfield Telescope Makers would like to thank the people who braved the weather and attended the 2004 Stellafane convention. Despite a bit of rain on Friday, the weather cleared and dried enough for the telescope mechanical competition on Saturday. We would like to offer a special thanks to those who donated to the Flanders Pavilion Fund! As those who attended the convention noticed, work is progressing on the preparation of the grounds for the pavilion. The primary obstacle to the completion of this project is simply raising the necessary funds to purchase the building. Thanks to your generous donations we are continuing to approach that goal and hope to have the pavilion completed soon.

Sincerely, your friends, the Springfield Telescope Makers.

Program

The 2004 Stellafane convention program is available in PDF formatted files: 2004 Convention Bulletin and 2004 Site Map

Also available are Scott Milligan's Power Point Slides on his relay telescope design and this link to the Ursa Major Project from the Friday Night Talks..

Thanks to Raffle Donors

The Springfield Telescope Makers would like to thank the following people and/or companies for donating prizes to the raffle at the 2004 Stellafane convention. In no particular order:

Sky Publishing Corp., Chroma Technologies, Televue Optics, Roger W. Tuthill Inc., Skyscrapers, Inc., Howie Glatter, Zengineering, Gary Hand, Afocal, FAR Labs, Kris Larsen, Joel Huntzel, Astronomy Shoppe and Phil Harringtion.

The money raised from the raffle goes right back into preparing for the next year's convention and to make capital improvements to the convention site.

Awards

Astronomical League Award

John Martin, member of the Springfield Telescope Makers and Site Manager at Stellafane, was presented the Astronomical League Award at the 2004 Stellafane convention. The Astronomical League Award is the League’s highest award and is presented to an amateur or professional astronomer who has made worthwhile contributions to the science of astronomy on a national or international level.

John Martin	John Martin	John Martin	John Martin	John Martin
Photos of John Martin

Walter Scott Houston Award

Bob Crelin accepts the Walter Scott Houston Award from Maryann Arrien.

The Walter Scott Houston Award of the North East Region of the Astronomical League (NERAL) was presented to Bob Crelin, a member of the Astronomical Society of New Haven who currently resides in Branford, Connecticut. The light pollution ordinance he helped pass in that town has become the model for many towns across the nation because of its simplicity. Along with the help of Leo Smith of Suffield and many fine legislators in the State of Connecticut, two major pioneering Light Pollution Laws were passed in 2001 & 2003. Over the years Bob has travelled to many other towns to give his extremely effective light pollution presentations to other municipalities, businesses and astronomy groups. He has been an active member of the International Dark-Sky Association, promoting good lighting everywhere. Seeing a lack of full cutoff lighting available for the homeowner, he created a lighting fixture called 'The Glarebuster' and successfully distributed it though Ace Hardware Stores as well as many other lighting showrooms nationwide. He is an educator, co-founding "The Wandering Star Project", a mobile astronomy education program for schools, libraries and events. He is also an author of articles on light pollution and lighting design and recently wrote the children's book 'There Once Was A Sky Full of Stars' (Sky Publishing).

Photo Gallery

Here is the 2004 Convention Photo gallery, with candid images taken by the Springfield Telescope Makers and many attendees who send us photos they have taken, including three nice panoramas taken by attendees.

Videos

We have videos of several presentations at the 2004 convention available.

Reports

Convention reports from our attendees are posted here, giving you another view of the events and observations that various attendees had.

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.

Thanks to the
2004 Telescope Competition Judges

Mechanical judge chair Chris Houghton	Mechanical judge chair Chris Houghton	Dave Kelly	Dave Kelly	George East	George East
Mechanical judge chair Chris Houghton		Dave Kelly		George East
Jeff Lowe	Jeff Lowe	Matt Marulla	Matt Marulla	Brian Lula	Brian Lula
Jeff Lowe		Matt Marulla		Brian Lula

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!

Help Support the Flanders Pavilion!

Following the tradition set down by our founder, Russell W. Porter, the Springfield Telescope Makers continually work to improve the Stellafane convention to give amateur telescope makers an opportunity to gather, show off their creations and teach each other telescope making and mirror grinding techniques. The current project to continue that tradition is the construction of the “Flanders Pavilion”. This 6000 square foot meeting hall will provide a dry and comfortable environment for lectures and demonstrations on telescope and mirror making both during the Stellafane convention and for public classes at other times of the year. It is hoped that this facility will be completed by the 2005 Stellafane convention. To accomplish this goal the Springfield Telescope Makers need your help to raise the funds necessary for the completion of this ambitious project that will greatly improve the quality of the convention.

If you would like more information or are interested in donating to this project please click here. All contributions will be gratefully accepted and no donation is too small. The Springfield Telescope Makers is a tax exempt organization under section 501(c)3 of IRS regulations. All donations are tax deductible.