Friday, April 15, the second and final day of the 2011 Northeast Astro Imaging Conference (NEAIC), proved to be even better than the first. NEAIC occurs at the Crowne Plaza Conference Center in Suffern, New York.
This is a new facility for NEAIC, which, until this year, was held at Rockland Community College, the site of the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF). One of the conference organizers told me that they had to limit the attendance of prior NEAICs to 120 attendees because of the limitations of the college's adjacent rooms. The new facility is larger and has more rooms, so attendance this year is all the way up to 175.
Many of these would-be astroimagers are new to the hobby, which really pleased all the speakers I talked to. Probably the most popular was retired software engineer Dave Snay. He conducted a four-part series yesterday and today for beginners. He outlined main points about telescopes and astroimaging, and attendees packed every talk. A NEAIC organizer told me that he'll put such talks in the big room next year. (One of the rooms holds approximately 25 percent more than the others.)
Like yesterday, I chatted with some old friends. Contributing Editor Mike D. Reynolds and I shared a nice supper and chatted about new products, possible upcoming reviews and stories, and what each of us was most looking forward to at NEAF.
Vic Maris of Stellarvue Telescopes promised to send Astronomy magazine one of his new 105mm refractors so we can conduct a review of it. Likewise, Tim Puckett of Apogee Instruments will be sending us one of the company's latest CCD cameras and filter wheels. And I'm sure more products will turn up.
Because NEAF starts tomorrow!
Related blog
On the Road: Northeast Astro Imaging Conference, April 15, 2011