https://stellafane.org/
Entering Stellafane: I always feel like I am going home.
I have been attending Stellafane since 1967. This was my 46th (I missed 5 years due to medical school and internship, and 1999 when I went to an eclipse in Hungary), so…I have been attending for a 52 year span.
My Children have been gong with me since birth, and still attend nearly every year, and this year my 4 year old granddaughter joined as well!, In fact also had a niece and her three kids, and “extended family event”.
There are many star parties these days across the country, all done very nicely….but there is one and only one Stellafane, whose focus remains telescope making, and which has a rich history.
Stellafane was founded in 1926 by Russell Porter with the Springfield Telescope Makers and with help from the Boston ATMoB.
Its purpose was to teach how to make telescopes for the common man. And prior to that, if an American wanted a telescope, it had to be shipped from Europe at a huge expense. By teaching all how to make them, costs became less of a issue.
Scientific American took notice and published a string of articles about this back then, launching American Amateur Astronomy (and to some extent professional astronomy!) With this success, Russell Porter was noticed, and hired to work on the famed 200-inch Mount Palomar Telescope in California.
Stellafane is a registered historical landmark.
I learned how to make telescopes from this group, and was encouraged to excel at every turn, build them bigger and better. We still give out awards for homemade telescopes to this day. (I am in fact one of the mechanical judges, as well as the camp physician, which is my way of giving back)
I plan on attending for the rest of my life, and will never willingly miss a year. This year, there was over a thousand attendees, and 35 telescope entries for judging.
Photos:
1. Stellafane: Entry
2. Next generation being enticed, my Josephine (note her t-shirt says: “Forget princess, I want to be a rocket scientist”
3. Pink Clubhouse, historical registered landmark “The heavens declare the glory of God” on the roof trim.
4. Inside the Pink, oozes with history: Images from Mt Palomar construction, images from Mt Wilson, and much more…)
5. The porter Turret telescope, was built by Russell Porter for cold Vermont winters. The mirror sits on the boom and the focus is Inside the building
6. Bert Willard inside the porter scope (In 1979 I bought my first large mirror blank at Stellafane from him, a 16-inch blank, spent 4 years as a resident grinding and building a portable 16-inch scope. I had built an 8-inch as a teenager, but this one cemented my love of astronomy
7. Flanders Paviliion: Talks are held here.
8. McGreggor Observatory with roll-off roof.
9. Shupman Telescope: This is the largest Shupman in the world…a 13-inch marvel. Nothing on this planet, I have ever viewed through equals this scope. It was designed and built by Scott Milligan, the same lens designer who designed my 32-inch telescope. You need to see Jupiter Mars and Saturn through this one. Voyager like viewing!
10 Simoni Observatory: Newest at Stellafane, a solar heliostat, you sit in the building and observe in H-alpha.
11. Many scopes observing field.
12. McGreggor, the field, and the relatively new dome for handicapped individuals.
Mario Motta
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