Saturday of this year’s Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) in Suffern, New York, got off to a rousing start. At 8 a.m., before the doors officially opened, Tele Vue Optics announced their 3.7mm Ethos-SX eyepiece — the world’s first astronomical eyepiece with a 110° apparent field of view. I was impressed with my first views through it and look forward to testing under the night sky.
Soon after, conference attendees started to pour through the doors. More than 130 vendors vied for the attention of a crowd that seemed eager to not only look, but buy. The business of astronomy has been in the doldrums for the past couple of years, mimicking the rest of the economy. If early results from NEAF are any indication, better days may lie ahead.
NEAF offers more than equipment for amateur astronomers, however. The conference also features talks by leading scientists on a range of subjects. First up Saturday was Philip Goode, the Director of Big Bear Solar Observatory and the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research. He spoke about the decade-long construction of Big Bear’s pride: the largest-aperture solar telescope in the world. The scope is now in its commissioning phase, but it already is making observations of solar granulation.
Jennifer Heldmann of NASA’s Ames Research Center then talked about the LCROSS mission, which crashed into the Moon last October and discovered water ice in a permanently shadowed crater near the lunar south pole.
Although the first two talks went off without a hitch, the same couldn’t be said of the final two. Amy Mainzer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was supposed to speak, but had to stay at Palomar Mountain to complete an observing run. No worries: Pamela Gay of Southern Illinois University filled in more than admirably.
Pamela helped out with the final talk as well. It was supposed to be delivered in person by Chris Lintott, co-host of the BBC’s series, The Sky at Night. But Chris was stranded in Europe because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. So, Chris delivered the talk live via audio from Europe while Pamela worked the PowerPoint presentation. It may not have been as originally planned, but it worked marvelously — a fitting conclusion to a wonderful day.
Related blogs:
On the Road Day 2: Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference, by Senior Editor Richard Talcott
On the Road Day 1: Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference, by Senior Editor Richard Talcott
On the Road: NEAIC and NEAF first impressions, by Assistant Editor Bill Andrews