The first day of the Northeast Astro Imaging Conference (NEAIC) started off with a bang as conference organizer Bob Moore greeted the first of some 270 amateur astronomers registered for the event. His daughter, Caroline Moore, who in 2008 at age 14 became the youngest person to discover a supernova, was on hand helping out, too. The event kicked off at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Suffern, New York, at 9 a.m. Thursday. Astronomy magazine is a sponsor of the event, and I was glad to attend this particular meeting for the first time. Our own Contributing Editor Tony Hallas delivered the opening salvo with a lengthy talk on tips and techniques for astronomical imaging processing. Hallas offered many insights for imagers switching to Adobe Photoshop CS5. Canadian astroimager Doug George followed with a discussion of tips and tricks to use along with the camera control software MaximDL.
Astronomy magazine Contributing Editor Tony Hallas opens NEAIC 2012 with his talk on image processing tips, April 26, 2012. Credit: David J. Eicher
I enjoyed a lengthy and very special lunch with an old friend, Al Nagler of Tele Vue Optics, who I first met at Stellafane back in the late 1970s. Al reminisced with many great stories of the old days and all sorts of interesting facts and tales of his long and amazing career, and we will have a surprise brewing for
Astronomy readers coming in the next few months.
Throughout the day, Ron Diiulio offered extremely helpful introductory imaging sessions for those wishing to get started with taking sky pictures. Afternoon talks included Daniel Mounsey from Celestron discussing imaging with Nightscape; Tim Puckett of Apogee Instruments; Neil Fleming on color adjustments for narrowband data; Frank Summers from the Space Telescope Science Institute describing how Hubble Space Telescope scientists and artists process their images and animations; and Robert Reeves on high-resolution lunar imaging.
Roland Christen of Astro-Physics poses with his latest monster mount and apo refractor, NEAIC, April 26, 2012. Credit: David J. Eicher
Dinner with Tony Hallas and
Astronomy magazine contributor Jon Talbot, another talented astroimager, recounted all sorts of great stories and looked ahead to new projects.
Afterward, Tony delivered an image processing workshop as Bob Reeves again gave tips on imaging the Moon.
What a tremendous and full first day of this meeting. I discussed new equipment with many manufacturers, and we have some interesting surprises in store for readers.
More to come tomorrow, and be sure to check out all the photos from my trip in the Reader Photo Gallery.
Related blog: On the road: NEAIC and NEAF 2012