Adrian Ashford Sky and Telescope
 Last
weekend, amateur astronomers from throughout the northeastern
United States flocked to the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF)
to buy new astro toys. Click on image for larger view. Sky &
Telescope image by Gary Seronik.
The annual
Northeast Astronomy Forum and Telescope Show in Suffern, New York,
celebrated its 10th anniversary this weekend in an event that
attracted an estimated 1,500 people. Held at Rockland Community
College, NEAF (put on by the Rockland Astronomy Club), featured
informal lectures, trade stands, telescope displays, and planetarium
shows.
Suffern-based
Tele Vue Optics held a press conference prior to the show's midday
opening on Saturday at which the company's president Al Nagler
introduced eight new products, including the multipurpose photo/visual
NP101 refractor and radical 3- to 6-millimeter zoom eyepiece for
planetary observers.
For anyone
looking to sharpen their skills, imaging expert Richard Berry
conducted two CCD workshops Saturday afternoon. For everyone else,
in excess of 30 dealers and manufacturers of optical equipment,
accessories, books, and miscellanea provided a seemingly endless
array of temptation, guaranteed to liberate all but the strongest
willed from their hard-earned dollars.
Sunday's program
included a series of lectures and many more shopping opportunities.
Tim Puckett provided delegates with insight into the design and
construction of the 60-centimeter Ritchey-Chrétien telescope
at his North Carolina observatory. Puckett described his automated
supernova search methods in which he scans 400 galaxies each night
and has made 34 discoveries to date. Bob Berman, contributor to
Discover and Astronomy magazines, concluded the morning session
with his thoughts about life on Europa, the nature of gravity,
and the bizarre world of the quantum universe.
In the early
afternoon, the lecture theater became packed again for Sky &
Telescope associate editor Gary Seronik's lecture on how to optimize
Newtonian telescopes for planetary and deep-sky viewing. Next
up was D. H. John Wood of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center whose
shared personal recollections of the engineering challenges associated
with restoring the Hubble Space Telescope's optics. To conclude
the show, cosmology fans were treated to Alex Filippenko (University
of California, Berkeley) who provided a descriptive wrap-up of
recent findings proving the expanding universe.
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