NEAF talks?

How were the talks at NEAF this year?

It'd be great to hear more reports of people's days/weekends there... a
vicarious astro-fix for those of us who couldn't make it!

Larry Stedman
Vestal

"Larry Stedman" wrote in message
...
How were the talks at NEAF this year?

It'd be great to hear more reports of people's days/weekends there... a
vicarious astro-fix for those of us who couldn't make it!

Larry Stedman
Vestal

Not much on talks, but Tom Trusock has started to post his reports on Cloudy
Nights:

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1047

Ed T.

Larry Stedman wrote:

How were the talks at NEAF this year?

I only went to Wil Tirion's talk. It was truly inspiring.
The first half summarized the history of star charting, and
despite fancying myself somewhat of an expert on the subject,
I learned quite a lot from it. The second described his own
history drawing star charts, starting with his childhood attempts
when he found that the charts he'd bought were full of errors.

Can you imagine plotting all 31,000 stars in Sky Atlas 2000.0
by hand, with rulers and a template? Or producing the entire
thing as a project of love before approaching any publisher?

- Tony Flanders

Larry Stedman wrote:
How were the talks at NEAF this year?

It'd be great to hear more reports of people's days/weekends there... a
vicarious astro-fix for those of us who couldn't make it!

Larry Stedman
Vestal

I went only on Sunday to avoid crowds and attended only one lecture on
the attempt to crash a comet. Interesting but no show stopper.

What was more interesting: the place is like a candy store, lots of
things to see (and purchase).

Also, the exhibit outside, lots of scopes aimed at Sol. Fantastic
views: will probably buy one of those Coronados.

Bob Naeye's talk on the search for extrasolar planets was very thorough and
quite good. Phil Plait's was also good, entertaining (though he covered
serious ground).

--Tony

"Larry Stedman" wrote in message
...
How were the talks at NEAF this year?

It'd be great to hear more reports of people's days/weekends there... a
vicarious astro-fix for those of us who couldn't make it!

Larry Stedman
Vestal

I happen to know Bob. He was a member of ASH at one time. I've heard
him talk a couple of times and he does a very good job.

I wish I could have attended the NEAF on both days since I was curious
to hear what the Bad Astronomer had to say.

I caught part of Richard Talcott's lecture on the HST on Saturday. It
was interesting but nothing out of the ordinary. (I've heard a lot of
talks on the HST over the years.) I really enjoyed Wil Tirion's talk.
I had planned on hearing Mel Bartels but I got caught up in the Solar
Star Party and lost track of the time.

Dave Mitsky

Dave,

Phil talked a lot about his jousting with Richard Hoagland, particularly
concerning the "face" and other features of Mars. He also discussed the Moon
landing hoax allegations, and people asking "Why don't the photos from the
Moon show the stars?" He didn't mention the obvious matter of glare from the
lunar surface, but said that there are no astrophotographs because "We
didn't go the the Moon to take pictures of the stars; we went there to take
pictures of the Moon.

I didn't get to hear Michael A'Hearn talk about the Deep Impact mission; I
had heard him discuss it at another conference last year, and wanted to give
myself some time to visit the booths. I ran into him later, and he did
mention that there are some focusing problems with the high-resolution
imager, and they're meeting with optical experts to see if they can at least
find a way to compensate for the problem.

Tony

"Dave Mitsky" wrote in message
ups.com...
I happen to know Bob. He was a member of ASH at one time. I've heard
him talk a couple of times and he does a very good job.

I wish I could have attended the NEAF on both days since I was curious
to hear what the Bad Astronomer had to say.

I caught part of Richard Talcott's lecture on the HST on Saturday. It
was interesting but nothing out of the ordinary. (I've heard a lot of
talks on the HST over the years.) I really enjoyed Wil Tirion's talk.
I had planned on hearing Mel Bartels but I got caught up in the Solar
Star Party and lost track of the time.

Dave Mitsky

I love to hear Hoagland and McCanney on Coast to Coast AM. Talk about
your junk science.

Dave Mitsky

Thanks all for the talk reports... definitely going to put NEAF on next
year's calendar... when will we know when it's going to be?

Larry Stedman
Vestal