TMSP 2003 Speakers
This year's Table
Mountain Star Party was a great success.
I felt very excited about the diversity of subjects that I was able
to obtain with the large variety of speakers that attended this year's
event. I would like to once
again thank all the individuals that were willing to take time out of
their schedules and come up to Table Mountain and share their knowledge
and experiences with us. It
is people like them that help make this Star Party the success that it is.
I need to give a
special "thank you" to all the attendees that came in out of the sun
in the middle of the afternoons and joined us in the speakers tent,
especially during the presentations that included video projections and
required the tent be closed up for darkness.
Next year I’ll see what we can do about some "cool"
presentations.
We began this year
with an individual that is always willing to give more time then we have
available for him. I'm sure
we could add an extra day to the event with just his presentations.
Joe Rottmann is with the Rose
City Astronomers and comes up to Table Mountain with the desire to
help the beginning astronomers. This
year Joe made four presentations for us.
During the two daytime programs he covered the basics of telescopes
and binoculars during his talk titled "Which End Of The Thing Do You
Look Through?" He
answered questions on magnification, field of view, telescope designs, and
the different mounts available.
Our second presenter
this year was Sandy Rae, who gave a narrated video presentation on
the Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory. This University of
Arizona facility has made mirrors up to 8.4 meters in diameter.
He followed the video with a question and answer session on his
tour through the laboratory this past spring.
Richard Thompson
(a.k.a. Solar Richard) returned
again this year and explained the benefits of solar power and how you can
install a system that will not only power your house, but also can provide
energy back to the power companies and earn you a refund.
Richard also provided a battery charging station all weekend for
anyone that needed to rejuvenate his or her drained batteries.
John Benham provided for us a video presentation of Nova's "Runaway Universe." This video followed the efforts of two rival teams of astronomers as they "grappled with the ultimate question: What is the fate of the universe?"
To begin our Thursday
evening program we had Linda Khandro of the University
of Washington’s Astronomy Department and Astrobiology
Program. Linda
presented information on the educational outreach program Project
AstroBio.
With the opposition
of Mars placing it near the top of the observable highlights this summer, John
DeVault thought it would be a great time to remind us of our
exploratory history of the planet. His
talk titled "Mars At Opposition: A History Of Our Exploration" reminded
us of some of the reasons the human race has found this planet so
intriguing.
We were fortunate to
have Bob Bower, who traveled all the way from Scotland, give a very
informative talk on "William Herschel's Light Buckets".
Not only did he discuss the telescopes that Herschel built and
used, but he also enlightened us on the man himself, and the locations
where the equipment was built and used.
He also included his current travels to these sites and the
interesting discoveries he made while visiting them.
Joe Rottmann returned
for some evening presentations where he covered star hopping with
binoculars in his presentation titled "Navigating The Universe With
Stars." He started out
in the tent with a short instructional program and then took the group
outside and gave them the tools to find the objects in the sky that you
can’t see by naked eye.
We continued our
program on Friday with Bob Grossfeld, the Observatory Manager from The
Sun River Nature Center. Bob
discussed the facilities and equipment that is available for public use at
their Oregon location.
One of the first
individuals to start using Table Mountain as an observing site was on
location this year. Tom
Colwell first came to this mountain site in the early 1980’s, and
this year he shared with us "Table Mountain: A Living History"
which included some of the many stories he has collected over the years.
Tom also invited attendees to contribute to the presentation by
sharing their experiences on the mountain as well.
Every year we seem to
have someone that is interested in the bat population. This year Curt Black returned to delight the crowd
with his "Bats: Our Night Time Companions" presentation.
Curt became interested in bats as a cave explorer and used to be
the Chairman of the Cascade Grotto of the National Speleological Society.
He has traveled to Fiji, Cambodia, Thailand, and recently to Belize
to study bats. His multimedia
presentation was a big hit with the attendees.
Linda Khandro returned
on a short notice to help keep the afternoon program schedule full.
She made her second presentation on "Astrobiology: Mars &
Europa?" She talked
about the similar locations on earth to these remote bodies and how we are
learning about astrobiology right here on Earth.
Friday evening
started of with the return of our visitor from Scotland, Bob Bower, and
his presentation on "The Lord Rosse Telescope." He developed this talk during several trips to Birr
Castle in Ireland and by working with the Shannon Astronomical
Society during the restoration of the 72" Lord Rosse Telescope that was
originally built in the 1840’s. Both
of Bob’s talks this year were very informative, and he made them very
entertaining to listen to.
We continued the
evening being joined by Al Misiuk of Sirius
Optics. He gave a
brief course titled "Optical Thin Film Coatings" which covered
the equipment used and processes in making various filters and coatings. Al talked about mirror coatings, AR coatings, and various
filters and materials, and also the care of such coatings. He also extended a welcome to anyone that finds them self in
the Kirkland Washington area to stop by Sirius Optics' facilities and he
will show them around.
With the Stellafane
Star Party occurring on a week other than when we were holding Table
Mountain, I was not going to let the opportunity pass to try and get Al
Nagler to join us. After
making a stop at one of Tele Vue
Optics' authorized dealers, Anacortes
Telescope and Wild Bird, Al joined us for two presentations this
year, with his first being titled "Choosing Eyepieces."
He talked about the different kinds of eyepieces available and how
the each performs in different styles of telescopes.
He also invited the Star Party attendees to stop by the Tele Vue
booth and check out eyepieces to try in their own scopes out in the
telescope field.
We finished Friday
evening with Joe Rottmann providing a second performance of his
Thursday evening talk "Navigating The Universe With Stars."
Saturday started with
the Swap Meet in the speaker’s tent, but once everyone had a chance to
sell his or her items we continued with the Adult Program.
First up Saturday was Gary Seronik with Sky
& Telescope.
He is an Associate Editor for the magazine and conducts the
telescope making section "Telescope Techniques" and regularly
evaluates commercial equipment for the “Test Report” department.
Gary presented "A Cool Scope Is The Best
Scope", which brought to light the importance of having a properly
cooled mirror.
Joe Rottmann
returned for a second presentation of his "Which End Of The Thing Do
You Look Through?" talk. It is just like Joe to want to make this information as
available as possible and accessible to as many as possible. Thank you Joe for being so giving of your time at the Star
Party this year.
Tom Colwell
and his participants gathered outside the tent at midnight for his "Universe
Under the Stars" sky tour. Tom
has a unique was of describing the constellations and the history behind
them. Tom probably could have
talked until sunrise, however around 1:30 a.m. he finial decided to break
the group up and let them get on to their telescopes.
Our next
presentation, "You Can Do THAT With a $30 Web Cam," was
provided by Tom Gwilym of the Squak
Mountain Telescope Gang. Tom
had modified a cheap $30 web camera and produced some very stunning images
that he shared with us. He
explained the processes he went through to make the changes to the camera
and covered the software manipulation of images.
His work will surly make you think about spending hundreds of
dollars on a CCD camera.
After the Stomp
Rocket finals and the Door Prize drawing held in the field behind the
speaker’s tent Saturday afternoon, we continued our Adult Program after
dinner with Gene Turner from – Arizona
Sky Village. Gene is
a partner with Jack Newton
on the development in the South East corner of Arizona that is under some
of the darkest skies in North America.
He explained what this community will be like and described some of
the equipment that will be available for members to use.
We then continued
with Ajai
Sehgal and his "Building & Running Remote Controlled
Observatories" presentation. This
was a perfect opportunity for people to discover how to build remotely
located observing facilities and utilize them from anywhere in the world.
Ajai also provided a follow up presentation on how not to
install an observatory based on all his experiences building his place in
Osoyoos, British Columbia.
Al Nagler
returned this evening for his second talk titled “"Giant Eyepieces
That Swallow Spacecraft." Al
went back to his days with the NASA programs, Gemini and Apollo/LEM.
He talked about his eyepieces with a one-foot exit pupil and
three-foot eye relief. Everyone
was lining up to get their hands on that piece of equipment for their own
telescopes.
We had a surprise
visit added to our schedule just a few days before the event.
It was very exciting to have Simon
Clemett from Lockheed Martin join us
for his presentation on "Astrobiology and the Search for Life On
Mars: The New Detectives." Simon
works at the Johnson Space Center in Huston, and when he and his wife Kate
were visiting the Northwest they found an opportunity to visit Table
Mountain, something they have been trying to do for years.
This was a great time for Simon to share the work he did at
Stanford for the 1996 research paper on the evidence of relic biogenic
activity of Mars. His
research on Martian meteorite ALH84001, along with other meteorite
research, offers a unique window on the past conditions on Mars.
His talk helped bring the planet that we will all be looking at
this summer a little closer to home. JSC
Astrobiology Institute has more information on the work Simon has done
along with other research on astrobiology and the origins and evolution of
life.
This
year’s presentations finished off with Tom
Colwell making an encore
performance of his "Universe Under the Stars" sky tour. Again, Tom had a large crowd and continued to entertain the
group for well over an hour.
Thank you Speakers
and Attendees for making this year a great success. I"m already looking forward to next year.
Speaker Program Chairman