Bob Gent, former president of the Astronomical League and of the International Dark-Sky Association, and co-chair of the meeting, describes activities for local television covering the event. David J. Eicher photo
On the first full day of the ALCON Expo, Friday, June 25, Bob Gent and Keith Schlottman kicked off the meeting by welcoming some 300 amateur astronomers from many states and a few countries outside the United States. The meeting is being held at the Tucson Hotel East in sunny Tucson, Arizona, where temperatures have hit 110° Fahrenheit (43° Celsius) the past 2 days. I then opened the session with my talk “Astronomy’s new frontier,” which described how despite the quiet period now transpiring in amateur astronomy, advances in professional astronomy have been unbelievable over the past 10 to 15 years. We now have or are arriving at answers to some of astronomy’s biggest questions that have plagued civilization for eons. Topics ranged from the Sun’s fate, what will happen to life in the solar system, dark matter, dark energy, the shape and structure of the galaxy, the fate of the cosmos at large, life in the universe, extrasolar planets, and so on. I then fielded many questions about the talk and even more about
Astronomy magazine itself.
Sessions on Friday covered a wide range of subjects. Wally Pacholka showed us a large number of his spectacular wide-field images of star fields and beautiful foregrounds in American national parks. Katie Moore described astronomy education at the National Air and Space Museum.
Astronomy Contributing Editor David Levy described the relationship between astronomy and literature. Richard Green updated the audience on activities at the Large Binocular Telescope, the world’s largest scope. Eileen Friel described what is happening with the Discovery Channel Telescope project at Lowell Observatory. Dean Salman described his sensational astroimaging activities.
Dave Eicher and Geoff Notkin of Aerolite Meteorites (and one of TV’s Meteorite Men) are all smiles at the show as they share their affection for meteorites. David J. Eicher photo
A star party was planned for the evening. I had the good fortunate to be joined by Gene Turner,
Astronomy magazine partner and friend (and developer of the new Granite Gap astronomy site), and we shared a dinner and many ideas for the future with Joe Lupica, CEO of Celestron, and his staff. It was a wonderful evening and we came away with many new ideas to help promote astronomy to a new generation of those who have yet to look skyward.
To see all of my photos from ALCON Expo 2010, visit our Online Reader Gallery.
Related blogs:
On the Road: ALCON Expo, Day 1
On the Road: ALCON preview