1997
Table Mountain Star Party 1997
"As I rounded the corner at the crossroads about midnight approaching the telescope viewing field, I was awed by the hundreds of murmurs and numerous telescope silhouettes that greeted me! These sights and sounds were the spirit of the event - a huge field full of people from all walks of life peering through an enormous variety of telescopes, oohing and ahhing at the sights in the heavens. And I knew I wasn't the only one who experienced the feeling!"
The 1997 Table Mountain Star Party is now a memory of three days of hot sunny weather, clearly excellent skies, red lights, exceptional viewing, meteors!, interesting speakers, an array of wares and services shown by the vendors, demonstrations on mirror making, excited student astronomers doing the "Big Bang Run", standing in line for an espresso, sharing stories and experiences with other astronomers, first-time views for beginners, and overall camaraderie with fellow astronomers! The following is a summary of the highlights of the 1997 Table Mountain Star Party which had people from the east coast of the USA to Hawaii, from our neighbors to the north - Canada, and the south - Mexico, and as far away as England, The Netherlands, Russia, and Japan.
1997 Speakers:
Jack Newton gave a presentation about the latest equipment and techniques in CCD imaging.
John Dobson spoke about early astronomy within the monastery and expounded on the "changeless, the infinite, and the undivided." He encouraged us all to let people look through our telescopes and open the universe to them!
John Rudolph, an archeo-astronomer who travels to sites and looks for the astronomical relationships we have with our ancestors, spoke about a site near Susanville, California.
Bill Cook, from ATM magazine, showed us the different types of telescope out there and how they work. He also gave us a good history of the telescope.
Bill Borscheim gave an interesting talk about the gravitational connection between super-clusters and galaxies.
Steve Stout spoke about the future of the Goldendale Observatory, the facility and new programs.
Randy Johnson, from ATM, talked about the ATM network on the Internet and afterwards conducted a 'telescope walk-about' of the mountain discussing the different ideas about making telescopes.
Dan Bakken reviewed the design and construction of his 41" dobsonian named Hercules.
Tom Colwell - the discoverer of Table Mountain as an observing site- toured us through the constellations on midnight walks, pointing out the mythology behind the constellations and helping us to envision the figures that the ancients saw in the night sky.
Alice Newton gave a special presentation with a light-hearted look at the Table Mountain Star Party planning committee. We will get even Alice! But thanks for letting us laugh at ourselves (we think)!
The Optical excellence winner's telescopes were all built by students in Carl Zambuto's Nisqually Valley Telescope Makers Workshop out of Rainier, WA. All had superb optics in which the visual image was indistinguishable from one another's. A special thank you to our judges this year, Craig McBride, Bruce Swayze, Loren Busch, Dr. Chuck Jacobson, and Gene Dietzen.
The Lucky Winners of the student astronomer telescopes donated by Joseph and Karen Sunseri of Earth & Sky Adventure Products were Matt Rottman, a Celestron Novice 60 telescope, Alison Perrigo, a Celestron Novice 50 telescope, and Levi Swain, a Celestron Novice 50 telescope. The students enjoyed many games such as the Big Bang Run, a sort of celestial scavenger hunt, team astronomy jeopardy, and best of all, a narration of the mythology of the constellations complete with props.
The winner of the 8" Celestron Starhopper Dobsonian donated by Joseph and Karen Sunseri of Earth & Sky Adventure Products was Natalia Mendoza from Vera Cruz, Mexico, an exchange student. She was one of the many people from different parts of the world who all shared a unique experience together on top of the mountain! Many excellent other door prizes were given away, including TeleVue Nagler eyepieces (one winner was a visitor from Japan), numerous binoculars, several filters, a wide variety of books, espresso certificates, star charts, RealSky and Universe Explorer CD ROM software packages, Plossl's eyepieces, Student telescope kits, an original Hulan Fleming painting, an eyepiece case, mirror aluminizing, a solar screen, RealSky CD ROM software, gift certificates, transparencies for charts, and many others! The prizes were donated by our on-site vendors, sent by other companies not able to be with us, and purchased by the TMSPA.
The TMSPA would like to thank all the people who so graciously donated their time and talents to help make this year's event run smoothly. Thanks to Carl Schroeder and the Seattle Astronomical Society for volunteering to spend many hours on the dusty road directing parking. Thanks to Ken Slavens and the Tacoma Astronomical Society, for the excellent student programming they provided. Thank you to Al George and the Sky Shoppe for the help in procuring door prizes. Thank you to David Harris of HTS Audio for donating the use of their fine audio equipment. Thank you to the many volunteers who manned the registration booth with Marcie. And to those of you who helped pick up any debris on the mountain as you went about! Thank you to those we have forgotten to mention specifically for all your support!
We thank you for all the positive input received about this year's event. Many people work hard planning and producing the TMSP. It's rewarding to know it's worth the effort.
Page updated 04/28/2008