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A Visit to Palomar Observatory

For many astronomy enthusiasts growing up in the 1940s through the early 1990s, the 200" Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory, located just north of San Diego, California, represented the crème de la crème of astronomical telescopes. Since my early childhood, I would always see photos of this magnificent piece of optical and mechanical engineering marvel throughout my astronomy books. I always wished that someday I would get the chance to see this telescope in person. Little did I realize that the Hale Telescope was practically in my own backyard - only a 2.5 hour drive south from Los Angeles. Fast forward to 2008. Now as an adult, the chance of a lifetime to see the 200" Hale Telescope upclose and in person was about to come true thanks to Scott Kardel, Public Affairs Coordinator with Palomar Observatory.

My observing buddies - John McFee of the Doobie Brothers and Carlos Rios of Stevie Nicks' band, accompanied me on our journey to Palomar. Like me, they too, grew up in awe of "the telescope of all telescopes" and would be fulfilling their boyhood dreams as well. After a short visit to the Eagle Gold Mine and a quick stop for some apple pie in the historic town of Julian, we were on our way up the winding road to Palomar Mountain. Located at an elevation of 5,600 feet above sea level, the massive white observatory dome is high enough to be above most of the marine layer and light pollution, although skyglow is always a growing concern. The Palomar Observatory is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology, where astronomical research is conducted throughout most of the year by professional astronomers, reseachers, post-doctoral, graduate and nongraduate students. We met up with Scott Kardel and Palomar Docent, Jim Mettler, and after introductions and a storied history lesson of the observatory's background, we entered into the most sacred grounds of the Palomar Observatory.

To our surprise, we were greeted by massive steel foundations which anchored the telescope's support structures instead of the huge telescope itself. We quickly learned that the telescope was actually a couple of levels above us, as we had entered the dome from the ground level. A quick elevator ride up brought us to a dimly lit corridor which led us to the main floor of the observatory. As we entered the room, a darken silhouetted image of the telescope was barely visible. Inside the dome is kept dark and must always have a set temperature to alleviate any heat buildup. With one turn of a switch, a few lights came on, and there it was - the 200" Hale Telescope in all its glory! It looked exactly like the pictures showed from all my astronomy books, but of course, the telescope was much more impressive and massive looking in person. As Scott and Jim looked on, Carlos, John and I were just gasping in amazement while looking at the telescope's infamous arms and horseshoe. The experience was just surreal with shear amazement that words alone cannot bring out our uttermost feelings. Scott began to describe the delicate and painstaking task of re-aluminizing the 200" mirror, which is due up shortly. He also informed us how the telescope is fitted with Adaptive Optics to remove atmospheric distortion to render sharper images. Imagine the possibilities of having a similar system for a commercial telescopes someday! As dusk settled in, the observatory dome began to open. Professional Astronomers would soon be hard at work analyzing and compiling data for their research studies. It was quite fascinating to witness the dome turn, which made it seem as if the telescope itself was rotating on its azimuth axis. Scott then took us inside one of the supporting arms of the telescope, which housed a spectrograph instrument. As a child, I thought the "arm" was the telescope itself, as many people still believes to this day. After taking a lot of photos, we were then invited to walk the "cat walk" outside the dome, which gave us breathtaking views of the surrounding mountainsides. Palomar Observatory's "other" telescopes were visible nearby, which included the 48" Samuel Oschin Telescope and the Testbed Interferometer, to name a few. By then the Milky Way was plainly visible despite the light glow from neighboring cities below. We then visited the telescope control center, and how nostalgic it was to see some of the old equipment still there that were used by past astronomers long ago. Of course, today's astronomers uses modern day computers, but it was still great to see the old technology mixed in with the new. The Astronomers on duty were already busily at work, so we made sure not to disturb them while we were now in their "office," although everyone was very nice and friendly towards us.

The next stop was a visit to the Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope located just a short drive away. This telescope actually uses a 48" corrector plate and a 72" primary mirror to scan and survey the northern sky with its wide angled views and is operated robotically. Scott brought out a couple of old photographic plates taken through the telescope of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and a deep sky image of a galaxy grouping. One word to sum up the images - amazing! What's even more amazing was the small, thin lines (best seen under a magnifying glass) which represented hundreds upon hundreds of additional galaxies beyond our Milky Way! At the time we visited the Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope, the primary mirror was already removed for recoating, so just the empty telescope housing remained upright. It hard to imagine that we were standing right next to the same telescope that countless asteroids, comets, supernova and Kuiper Belt objects were discovered with. I could just picture Edwin Hubble himself, pipe and all, peering through the 10" refractor guide scope mounted onto the 48" Telescope, just like in the famous photograph of him.

With one more short drive down the road, Scott and Jim took us to their new up and coming Public Outreach Facility. Once a schoolground, this facility will be used for outreach projects and public star parties. The spacious playground will provide ample space for the general public to look through telescopes at the night sky. In fact, Scott informed us that the 10" refractor currently attached to the 48" Telescope, will no longer be needed for guiding, so it will be mounted for public use. Now guests will be able to peer into the heavens with the same telescope that Edwin Hubble used long ago. Very cool. As our tour began to wind down, Jim brought out a computerized telescope to give us a taste of the Palomar skies. Objects observed included the Ring Nebula (M57), the Dumbbell nebula (M27), a couple of nice globular clusters, including the Hercules Cluster (M13), (M92), (M15), Albireo (a double star) and the Double Cluster (NGC 864) and (NGC 884). On a side note, 2 original orange tube C8 telescopes were recently donated by a local community college and will be used for the observatory's Public Outreach Programs.

We would like to sincerely thank Scott Kardel and Jim Mettler for providing us with the great indepth history lesson of Palomar Observatory and an awesome behind the scenes tour of the magnificent 200" Hale Telescope, 48" Samuel Oschin Telescope and the new upcoming Public Outreach Facility. You certainly made our day and helped to fulfill our lifelong ambitions to make the pilgrimage up to the Palomar Observatory. For more information regarding the Palomar Observatory and to learn more about their upcoming Public Outreach Facility, please visit their website at: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/

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"The Journey to Palomar" Advanced Film Screening

After making my first trek to Palomar Observatory two weeks ago, I found myself heading back up the mountain once again, as an invited guest of Palomar Observatory's Public Affairs Coordinator, Scott Kardel. Scott invited me, along with four Celestron Representatives, to watch the advanced screening of Todd and Robin Mason's award winning documentary film "The Journey to Palomar." Accompanying me to watch this film included Celestron's Derek Wallentinsen, Tech Support Representative; Mark Vescera, Tech Support Representative; Corey Lee, Vice-President of Engineering and Jason Fournier, Product Development Manager.

We arrived at Palomar Observatory just after noon and were brought to the main telescope level where hors d'oeuvres were served to the guests. Our seats were almost directly beneath the "star" of the film - the 200" Hale Telescope. We literally gasped in amazement as we were dwarfed by the telescope's sheer size and solid, well engineered structure. A projection screen was mounted directly in front of us, which turned the observatory into a temporary movie theater. I couldn't help but draw comparisons with our seating arrangements with the famous black and white photograph showing guests seated beneath the 200" Hale Telescope during the opening ceremony many decades ago.

For more than five years, the filmmakers, Todd and Robin Mason, researched the history of Palomar Observatory, the life of George Ellery Hale, and the goals he fulfilled which created some of the world's best known observatories - The Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, Mount Wilson Observatory in California and the 200" Hale Telescope on Mount Palomar, California. "The Journey to Palomar" also covered the creation of the 200" mirror, from its beginnings in Corning, NY, to its cross country train ride out west, to finally reaching its destination at Mount Palomar and everything else inbetween. Without giving away too much information, this film is very thorough and very informative. Palomar fans will no doubt be in for special treat when this film is broadcast nationwide on PBS during the week of November 10, 2008. Please check local listing for airings in your respective area.

After the screening concluded, guests showed their approval of the film with a loud applause and watched as the dome opened on cue. It's as if George Ellery Hale's spirit was controlling the telescope and was voicing his own personal approval towards the film. A question and answer session with the filmmakers then took place immediately followed by a short presentation of the future 30 Meter Telescope project. I'm sure George Ellery Hale would've been proud to see how far telescope technology has evolved since his era.

Proceeds for "The Journey to Palomar" will benefit the observatory's up-and-coming Public Outreach Facility, which will provide a venue for outreach projects and telescope viewing for the general public. Before we departed, we presented a NexStar 130 SLT to Scott Kardel and Palomar Observatory, which we feel will help them get a good start towards educating and inspiring the public, especially children, with astronomy awareness. Celestron would like to thank Scott Kardel, the staff at Palomar Observatory and Todd and Robin Mason for allowing us to be a part of the advanced screening of "The Journey to Palomar." We give it a big thumbs up and highly recommend the film to anyone interested with the history of Palomar Observatory.

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Make-A-Wish Child, Abel Chen's Star Party

This weekend, I conducted a private star party for Make-A-Wish Child, Abel Chen, his family, classmates, teachers and neighbors in a quiet residential neighborhood here in Southern California. Abel (8 years old), his family and Celestron developed a good friendship during a Make-A-Wish event two years ago that honored Abel, with full news media and press coverage. Those in attendance that night were able to see Abel's dream of meeting and hugging a real life astronaut - C. Gordon Fullerton and viewing stars through a telescope fulfilled. Earlier, Abel and his family had traveled to Cape Canaveral, Florida to watch a Space Shuttle launch. From that time, we've kept in touch on a regular basis.

Although clouds began to roll in, there was just enough time to observe the Moon and the planet Jupiter through the threatening cloud cover. The kids, as well as the adults, were not disappointed. For some, it was their first time seeing the Moon and a planet through a telescope. No matter how many times I've attended star parties, the shear excitement of someone seeing the Moon's craters or Jupiter's moons and cloud bands for the first time, never gets old. I'm sure many star party veterans reading this blog can relate. As an added treat, I allowed several children to operate the CPC800 telescope and command the scope to slew over to Jupiter or the Moon. You can imagine how their faces just lit up with excitement! These youngsters were really curious about the objects they were viewing and started asking me questions such as "what type of lava is present on Jupiter's moon Io?" and "why is there a ring around the Moon tonight, and why can't we always see a ring around the Moon?" I was impressed with their curiosity, especially for 8 year olds. Crispy pizza and beverages were served that made it a great evening of observing, despite the oncoming cloud coverage. A lunar halo appeared around the Moon and was a fitting end to a somewhat compromised night of observing.

Before I packed up and headed home, I presented an autographed audio book CD of Paul Fig's "Frequenaut" story to Abel. Now he'll have a wonderful, new and exciting science fiction story to read in his spare time when he's not too busy practicing the piano, violin or playing in basketball games. I'm happy to report that Abel's father, Jimmy, informed me that Abel is off medication, and the leukemia is now in remission. Abel is looking great these days, and Celestron wishes this future space explorer continued good health and many clear nights of observing under the stars.

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Galileo's Legacy Conference Hawaii Part 1.

Aloha everyone on this last day of 2008 from warm and rainy/sunny Hawaii!! I'm here with Celestron's founder, Tom Johnson, and his wife, Marcia, to attend the Galileo's Legacy Conference at the picturesque Makaha Resort and Golf Club in Makaha, Oahu, Hawaii. Tom's son, Greg, will be joining us in a few days too. This 5 day conference pays tribute to Galileo's use of the telescope for astronomical use 400 years ago, as well as to the modern day users, builders and researchers who use small telescopes towards the advancement of astronomical sciences. Small telescopes includes small refractors and SCTs to research grade telescopes in the 1 and 2 meter class.

Tom will be giving two presentations on Celestron's history, from its humble beginnings as a small electronics shop (Valor Electronics) to how the company evolved into one of the largest and most popular telescope making companies in the world. For many months, Tom has been privately fine tuning and preparing his Power Point Presentation for the big day. He informed me he's ready to go! Celestron's chief Engineer, Dan Medley, will also be presenting at this conference, and his presentation will cover Small Telescope Developments at Celestron. Other presenters will focus on topics such as Telescope Optics, Telescope Structure, Telescope Controls, Observatories, CCDs & Imaging and Spectroscopy.

A traditional luau dinner and authentic Hawaiian enterntainment will be provided in the coming days, and participants will have the opportunity to win a Celestron NexStar 8 SE telescope and a SkyScout Personal Planetarium. It's going to be an exciting conference as we usher in a new year and the International Year of Astronomy. More to follow.

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Galileo's Legacy Conference Hawaii Part 2.

Aloha and Happy New Year from Makaha, Oahu, Hawaii. New Years celebrations were dampened somewhat by the rainy and windy conditions, but that didn't deter too many Hawaiian residents from welcoming in the new year as fireworks could be heard exploding along the Waianae coastline and just outside the boundary of the Makaha Resort. The Galileo's Legacy Conference is the brain child of Dr. Russ Genet, Author, Astronomer and Research Scholar, his wife Cheryl, Director of the Orion Institute and Jo Johnson, Director of Student Research and Science Advisor at Orion Observatory. Together, they invited some of the best astronomical professionals and research amateurs to attend the conference to discuss the progress of small telescopes four centuries after Galileo first turned his little refractor telescope towards the heavens. Tonight, it was Tom Johnson's turn to give a historic talk on how he founded Celestron and the technique he used to produce the Schmidt corrector plate. His son, Dr. Greg Johnson, introduced his father and gave his perspective on how he and his younger brothers grew up in the shadow of telescopes as his father, an avid amateur astronomer, came up with the idea to mass produce Schmidt-Cassegrain optics at economical prices. Dr. Johnson then turned the floor over to his father. Tom used a Power Point format and began by discussing how Celestron was literally started in his garage when he put together his first telescope kit for his sons. That in itself, stirred his interest which enabled him to tackle on something a bit larger. After getting "bit" by aperture fever (and we all know about that right?), he continued to buy larger and larger mirror blanks and built his own grinding and polishing machines to parabolize the mirrors. He went on to build an 18" cassegrain telescope and even built the mount to go with it. After submitting photographs of his telescope to Sky and Telescope magazine, to his surprise, his telescope was featured in the magazine (March 1963), and the rest you can say is history. Tom went on to discuss how he produced the blue and white, infamous C22 and some of the smaller SCTs inbetween - C6, C10 and C16. Various slides were shown depicting these "classic" telescopes from that early era, including those scopes owned by Robert Piekel, author of "Celestron The Early Years - The History of the SCT and a Guide to Vintage Celestron Telescopes." The audience was attentive as Tom described his method of coming up with a better way of duplicating the inverse curve from a master plate by way of a special vacuuming and cleaning process. This successful concept proved that it was an exact replica of the inverse curve from the master and was used from that point forward on Celestron SCT telescopes. Throughout the presentation, Tom explained drawings and formulas that he used for the Schmidt-Cassegrain optical system. Most impressively were the photographs that were shown of various deep sky objects taken through the Celestron SCT, including the C22. The audience members were amazed of the photograph of Mars taken by Sebastian Voltmer of France, which showed an almost identical image of Mars taken through his C14 and an image taken though the Hubble Space Telescope. After seeing those images, I couldn't help but think how far mankind has come with the advancement of the telescope since Galileo first put together his telescope 400 years ago. At the conclusion of Tom's presentation, the audience was allowed to ask additional questions such as his take on the competition and how many C22 telescopes were produced (the answer is 6). Knowing Tom, he was able to discuss only the key highlights of his career at Celestron this evening, as surely no single hour could fit all the wealth of information and knowledge this man possesses. Tom is a genius, and it's accurate to say that his telescope company took amateur astronomy to a higher level never before seen. Everyday people like you and I could now afford and own a quality telescope to help inspire us everytime we look up towards the night sky and gaze in wonderment. For some, his telescopes brought out a more serious interest and inspired those to choose a career path as professional astronomers, physicists and scientific researchers. As we celebrate Galileo's legacy and welcome in the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), this conference not only honors Galileo and his telescope, but also to the modern day amateurs, researches, students and professionals who are successfully designing, building and using their own small telescopes. Celestron's founder, Tom Johnson, is one of them.

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Winter Star Party, Florida Keys 2009 Part 1.

Hello from the Sunshine State once again. This month, for the first time ever, Celestron is attending the Florida Winter Star Party, here at Camp Wesumkee in the Florida Keys. Celestron is being represented by Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios; Principal Engineer, Danyal Medley; and Community Relations Coordinator, Kevin Kawai. So far, the weather has been clear to partly cloudy, breezy and slightly humid, but the views of the ocean where the sea meets the sky is truly something to see. Cars, trucks, RVs and trailers are now streaming into the campgrounds staking out claims of prime viewing locations along the beach. For us, the Celestron tent is now set up, and we're ready to showcase some of our latest products, including the all new CGE Pro 1400 and CGEM 1100, as well as a NexStar 8 SE, SkyScouts, Speakers, Axiom and Ultima eyepieces, 1.25" and 2" Eyepiece kits. And oh yes, we brought hundreds of our famous orange frisbees to give away too. Frisbees are always a big hit for us at Star Parties wherever we go. Being here on a tropical beach seems quite fitting, wouldn't you think? Tonight, Danyal and I will be firing up both the CGE Pro and CGEM mounts to demonstrate the new All-Star Polar Alignment routine, while Yasmine will be handling the SkyScout. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast, but hopefully, it'll clear out by dusk. Look for an observing report to follow soon.

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Winter Star Party, Florida Keys 2009 Part 2.

Greetings CelestronLife! It's now Day 3 of the Florida Winter Star Party and judging by the endless line of parked vehicles and tents, it's certainly a wall to wall, or better yet, a sand to sand event. The latest attendance numbers is estimated to be about 750, from what a staff member informed me. Lately, we've been experiencing a mixture of clear and partly cloudy skies, with warm, humid like conditions. It already feels like Summer's in the air, even though we're still in the month of February. I can see why the Florida Keys are so popular this time of year - it's a tropical Winter getaway and packed! Ever since we (Celestron) arrived, the staff and attendees have been just great and made us all feel right at home, especially since it's our first time participating at WSP. It's also nice to see some of our old vendor friends here that we've known for many years, while attending astronomy related events in the Southern California area. Many people have walked up to us and said "welcome to the WSP, but what took you guys so long to finally make it here?" Well, it may have taken a while, but here we are and we're unveiling some of our latest and best new products. Our new CGE Pro and CGEM mounts are proudly on display, and it's no surprise these new computerized mounts are drawing many curious visitors to the Celestron tent. Many of whom are imagers that are curious to hear what these new mounts are capable of. Leading the CGE Pro demonstration is Celestron's Principal Engineer, Danyal Medley, who worked extensively on the CGE Pro project. Reactions and feedbacks from our guests have been very favorable and many people are asking if they can pull up their trucks or RVs at the conclusion of WSP, so we can load up the CGE Pro and CGEM mounts to bring home. Nice try! During the nightly observing sessions, both Danyal and I have been demonstrating the new All-Star Polar Alignment routine, which users could choose a different star (away from the meridian), other than Polaris to polar align the mount. It's all in the software and no polar alignment scope is needed! Very cool! Some of the most interesting objects we've been observing through our CGE Pro 1400 and CGEM 1100 thus far includes - Comet Lulin (naked eye visibility), Thor's Helmet NGC 2359, NGC 415, NGC 418, M79 (nice Winter time globular cluster), M46 along with its planetary nebula NGC 2438, M35 along with NGC 2158, the Flame Nebula, and up to 7 stars in M42's Trapezium in moments of good seeing. We've also seen a couple of other interesting sights the past couple of nights - the Winter Milky Way streaming past Orion, the Zodiacal Light at dusk, and the star, Canopus, leaving its reflection on the Atlantic Ocean. Last night, a gentleman with an 18" Dob, equipped with an H-Beta filter, took my request and did a Go-To slew to IC 434 (Horsehead Nebula). I've always wanted to observe the Horsehead visually, but growing up in the LA basin made that impossible. At first, my eyes had to adjust to the darkness, but then all of a sudden, nebulosity started to form and a black "thumb" appeared horizontally - the Horsehead!! A confirmed sighting! I also saw the Horsehead and Flame nebulas in the same field of view through another gentleman's 5" Apochromatic refractor equipped with a Collins I3 Intensifier eyepiece. The view appeared greenish, but they were there! It was very cool! I'll never forget that night. You know, it's really something being here on the beach with rows upon rows of telescopes, many of which are Celestrons, scanning the skies at night. I don't want the night to end, but at least we'll have 2 more nights of observing more of the Southern stars from the WSP. More to follow soon.

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Winter Star Party, Florida Keys 2009 Part 3.

It's our last day here at the Winter Star Party. Due to prior commitments back home, we are unable to stay for the entire duration of the event. Reflecting back at the days and nights that we've been here, it's really been a wonderful experience for us, as we were able to bring our latest products to display for the WSP guests, observe many celestial objects and make some new friends and contacts. The WSP staff is, without a doubt, first rate, as everyone made a tremendous effort to show us "Northern folks" a chance of a lifetime to observe many wonders of the southern skies from a warm, tropical location out here in the Atlantic Ocean. We just can't honestly say how many new friends we've made here because there's been too many. It's as if we've all known each other for years and not just a matter of days. Now that says a lot of the type of folks you'll encounter out here at the Winter Star Party. People are already coming up and telling us to stay longer and not to go home just yet, because the best is yet to come. If only we could. However, there will be a next year, and Celestron will be coming back for sure. At this time, we'd like to thank our gracious hosts, members of the Southern Cross Astronomical Society (SCAS) and all the volunteers for putting on a successful 25th anniversay Winter Star Party. We couldn't have made our debut at a more fitting time! So to Tippy D'Auria, Tim Khan, Charlie Perillo, Nick Stingone, Fred and lucille Heinrich, Art Mullis, David Liles and many others, thank you very much!! Our first ever views of the clear southern skies, especially the Winter Milky Way and visually seeing the Horsehead nebula for the first time, will forever be embedded in memory of our first trip to the WSP. Next year, we'll make sure to tell others who'll be visiting the WSP for their first time, to be on the lookout for the waving Snowman alongside the Monroe County Sheriff's patrol car.

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100 Hours of Astronomy at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA, Part 1.

The 100 Hours of Astronomy is one of the cornerstone projects for the International Year of Astronomy. Imagine a round-the-clock, worldwide star party for 100 continuous hours which includes live webcasts, public outreach and of course, telescope viewing!! The 100 Hours of Astronomy event has finally arrived and Celestron Representatives are spread out at various locations from coast to coast to help out with the "world's largest star party" to have as many people view through a telescope like Galileo had done 400 years ago. While some Celestron Representatives are participating at the Irvine Spectrum and Griffith Park Observatory events in Southern California, a few of us are also attending the grand opening of "Galileo, The Medici and the Age of Astronomy" exhibit, along with the "100 Hours of Astronomy" kick-off at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA. For the first and probably the last time ever on U.S. soil, one of Galileo's two remaining telescopes is now on display, along with various other instruments such as dials, spheres, hourglass, pendulum clock and more, as well as paintings and writings from the archives of the Medici family of Italy. This exhibit runs from April 4 through September 7, 2009.

Celestron Representatives attending the Franklin Institute's events includes Celestron President & CEO, Joseph Lupica Jr; Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill; Purchasing Manager, Lance Lucero; East Coast Sales Manager, Ed McDonough; and Community Relations Coordinator, Kevin Kawai. This morning, before the Press Event began, we were given a VIP, behind the scenes tour of the museum and some of the exhibits by Franklin Institute's Assistant Director of Development Corporate Relations, Gina Focareta and Manager of Corporate Sponsorship, Natasha Prime. After taking a tour through the museum, which included an amazing walk through of a giant human heart, we were brought up to the museum's observatory, where a 10" Zeiss refractor stood housed under a roll-off style roof. The sky was a bit hazy, but the telescope operator present was kind enough to open the roof and let us peer through the big telescope to view the Sun. What an impressive telescope and observatory! We'd like to come back for an observing session at night someday. The Franklin Institute will now be using all Celestron CPC 800 telescopes, which were donated by Celestron, in addition to the big Zeiss refractor for their public outreach programs. When we arrived, all 4 CPC 800 telescopes were already assembled and ready for first light.

The opening and welcoming remarks, which were broadcasted live over the internet, began the "100 Hours of Astronomy" and "Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy" events. Speakers included the President & CEO of the Franklin Institute, Dr. Dennis M. Wint; Chief Astronomer, Director and U.S. Spokesperson for the International Year of Astronomy, Derrick H. Pitts; CEO of Office Panerai, Angelo Bonati; and the Director of the Istituto e Museo Nazionale di Storia della Scienza of Florence Italy, Paolo Galluzzi, to name a few honored speakers. The exhibit was perfectly timed to take place during the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first usage of the telescope for scientific purposes, and the "100 Hours" cornerstone project for IYA. A question and answer session followed for the audience to ask questions regarding Galileo, his telescopes, what he viewed, and the significance of celebrating the impact Galileo had on the world. At the conclusion of the ceremony, we were escorted to the rooftop of the Franklin Institute, where a live, streaming webcast was being conducted with students who explained how they built their own telescopes. Shortly thereafter, I was chosen to give a telescope demonstration with a different group of students, so I happily obliged and covered telescope basics and showed them what our computerized telescopes were capable of. The students were very attentive and so amazed to hear about today's telescope technology, but it's too bad it was overcast and in daylight because as you know, night observing is when our computerized telescopes really puts on a grand show. After my demonstration concluded, the hosts took back the microphone and gave a talk about our two "Official Products of the International Year of Astronomy" - our award winning "SkyScout Personal Planetarium," which identifies and locates celestial objects, and the new "FirstScope," which pays tribute to the astronomers who made such a significant impact in astronomy and science. The FirstScope is a 76 mm Dobsonian style, tabletop reflecting telescope, which is elegantly designed with great optics. Both the SkyScout and FirstScope drew many inquiries from people everywhere.

The VIP Opening Event Gala took place in the evening with over 500 contributors, dignitaries, the Governor of Pennsylvania, celebrities and local media. It was quite an experience to walk the "blue carpet" at this formal event. The lecture began after the buffet, so we made our way back to the rooftop for the VIP star party. The weather was "iffy" most of the day, but there were enough pockets of clearing, so we decided to carry on with the star party. We aligned 4 CPC 800 telescopes and strategically positioned the scopes at various objects such as the Moon, Saturn and a couple of local landmarks. As soon as the lectures concluded, the Franklin staff members escorted the VIPs to the rooftop for the star party event. The Moon and Saturn played peek-a-boo throughout the night, but when the objects did make a brief appearance, guests were very delighted to view some of the same objects that Galileo once observed many centuries earlier. Despite the weather, the view of the city was breathtaking at night, and everyone happily posed for pictures. Photos from this event are already uploaded to the Flickr Photos on CelestronLife, or just follow this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/celestron-blog/sets/

Tomorrow evening, the Membership event will take place. Stay tuned for Part 2.

100 Hours of Astronomy at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA, Part 2.

The next morning (April 3, 2009), everyone was still in a happy mood from the great stargazing event the night before. Although it wasn't the clearest sky, we were able to salvage the star party for the VIP guests to observe through the telescopes. After all, isn't that what the "100 Hours of Astronomy" is all about? After a hearty breakfast at our hotel, we had the rest of the morning to relax, or do a little sightseeing around town. Philadelphia, as you know, is such as historical city with many museums and national attractions to choose from and visit. We couldn't help but notice the famous Philadelphia Museum of Art building just down the street, whose steps were made famous in the Rocky movies. Celestron Representative, Lance Lucero and I took a walk down Benjamin Franklin Parkway in the morning mist, which was actually reminiscent of the original setting in the movie, and yes, we did take a trot up the steps and did the whole Rocky reenactment like all the other tourists who were present there as well. How could we resist? We still had a couple of hours to spare, and we continued on our sightseeing tour to see the most iconic symbols of America - The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. By then, a low pressure system was moving into the city and rain began to fall from the sky. It was light at first, but then it began to pour like no tomorrow with lightning and thunder! Tourists didn't seem to mind much though, as lines were still long to enter into both sites. "This isn't looking good" I said to Lance, as we flagged a taxi to take us back to the hotel. The Membership Event's star party was planned for the evening, and it would be awful if it was cancelled, but we still kept our hopes up high.

By late afternoon, it was time to get ready to head back to the Franklin Institute to attend the Membership Event. I had taken an afternoon nap, but by the time I woke up and opened the curtains, miraculously, Sunlight began to shine through the windows! It appeared that the low pressure system had moved on out over the Atlantic, leaving clearing skies and windy conditions in its wake. "Yes!" I said, as any kind of clearing is better than no clearing at all. Suddenly, a rogue cloud appeared out of nowhere and dropped a heavy downpour. Within minutes, the cloud had passed through, but a decision was already made with the Franklin Institute's staff to cancel the star party. It was truly disappointing to hear, but somehow, I had a gut feeling that most of unstable weather would out of the way by later that evening. You could call it the power of positive thinking.

From 6 P.M. to 7 P.M., the Membership Event took place in the Franklin Institute's planetarium with hoer' dervs served to the 250 plus guests who were in attendance. Celestron had a table setup inside the planetarium where guests signed up for the raffle drawing that was scheduled to take place immediately following the lecture in the auditorium. The prizes included a Travel Scope 70, SkyScout Personal Planetarium bundle and the grand prize - a NexStar 130 SLT computerized telescope. At the same time, Celestron Representatives passed out IYA posters, pens and orange Frisbees. Once again, these items proved to be very popular giveaways. A staff member came by and whispered that the skies were clearing even more. Soon, word began to circulate that the star party could be reinstated. Sure enough, we stepped outside and saw not a single rain cloud near our location. Our prayers were answered! The star party was back on again, so while our Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill, was busily conducting the raffle drawing in the auditorium, East Coast Sales Manager, Ed McDonough and I made our way back to the rooftop to prepare the CPC 800 telescopes. For added peace of mind, we took along plastic bags to cover the scopes in a moment's notice, just in case if any signs of moisture appeared, but luckily, none were felt. Of course, it was quite windy on the rooftop, but as the stars began to emerge from the evening twilight, we were thrilled just to have clear skies. Ed and I conducted the telescope's Sky-Align procedure and gave Franklin Institute staff member, Natasha Prime, an early peek into the heavens. Her excitement to see the waxing Moon's craters and the nearly edge on appearance of Saturn rings pretty much summed up how the rest of the evening would unfold. Franklin Institute members began streaming onto the rooftop for a night of star gazing, while other members checked out the Galileo Exhibit first before heading up to the rooftop. Long lines soon formed as everyone were eager to see the views. Occasionally, a few clouds would pass through, but for the next 2.5 hours, the sky was mostly clear for great city and celestial viewing. In the end, low clouds began to form and blanketed the sky, and we decided to call it a night, but the star party was a huge success, as nearly everyone present had the opportunity to look through telescopes, which was the goal for our "100 Hours of Astronomy" event at the Franklin Institute.

Nearly all of the Celestron Representatives departed for home the following morning, but Michelle and I stayed an additional day to attend the Public Grand Opening of the Galileo Exhibit. We met up again with Gina Focareta, of the Franklin Institute, who helped make sure our company table was set up in the atrium entrance near the IMAX theater. As the crowds arrived, guests signed up for the raffle drawing, and we passed out catalogs, Frisbees, pens, IYA posters, and proudly displayed and talked about the Official Products of the International Year of Astronomy - The SkyScout Personal Planetarium (IYA Limited Edition) and the new FirstScope. It was just great seeing all the happy people, especially the children who enjoyed wearing our orange Frisbees on their heads. Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute and U.S. IYA Spokesperson, conducted the raffle drawing, along with Gina and a little help from "Galileo" himself. Like the previous evening, the raffle prizes consisted of our new Travel Scope 70, a SkyScout Personal Planetarium Bundle and the grand prize - a NexStar 130 SLT computerized telescope! A gentleman, who I spoke to just moments before, won the Travel Scope 70. I seem to have a habit of talking to guests prior to a raffle drawing, and they end up getting their tickets drawn! So far, it's happened 3 times in the last 2 years! I kid you not! The SkyScout bundle was won by a young lady, who's new to astronomy, and she got very excited once she learned what the SkyScout can do, and how she could learn about astronomy just by using the SkyScout. She'll have a lot of fun for sure! The NexStar 130 SLT was won by a young girl who just happened to come to the Franklin Institute after attending an Irish dance competition in the area. You can imagine how surprised both she and her parents were when her raffle ticket number was called! Congratulations to all the winners, and you certainly are all getting into the astronomy hobby at the most appropriate time - The International Year of Astronomy!

On behalf of Celestron, we would like to send out our most sincere gratitudes to everyone at the Franklin Institute for having us join you all for the unveiling of the "Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy" exhibit and to partner together to showcase our products to all your distinguished guests during your "100 Hours of Astronomy" event. It was such a pleasure working with all of you and establishing a great working relationship, while making new friendships too. It's simply priceless. We look forward to a long partnership with your organization for many, many years to come. Special thank you to Dr. Dennis Wint, President and CEO of the Franklin Institute; Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer, Planetarium Programs Director and Official U.S. IYA Spokesperson; Gina Focareta, Assistant Director of Development Corporate Relations; and Natasha Prime, Manager of Corporate Sponsorship. We look forward to seeing you all again someday. The International Year of Astronomy continues on.

Texas Star Party, Prude Ranch, Fort Davis, Texas

The 31st annual Texas Star Party took place on April 19 - 26, 2009 at the historic Prude Ranch near Fort Davis, Texas. Recognized as one of the top ten star parties in the world, we decided that this would be a great opportunity to attend such a highly regarded event, especially since Celestron has never made an appearance at TSP in recent memory. Although the start of the star party conflicted with the NEAF event in New York, Celestron had enough resources to send representatives out to both events, so we were covered in Texas and New York. Accompanying me to TSP was Celestron Product Manager, Jason Fournier, who is also an avid amateur astronomer and experienced astroimager. After flying into El Paso, TX, on what was the most turbulent flights in recent memory, we rented a car and embarked on our 3.5 hour road trip to the small town of Fort Davis. Along the way, we encountered many forms of wildlife on the desolate patch of highway, which included deers, javelinas, roadrunners, cattle and horses. Although they were cool to look at, I had to keep an eye ahead of me at all times as I drove, just in case a deer decided to make a made dash across the road. Remarkably, none did. Once we merged onto Highway 118 at the town of Kent, not a single car was seen in front or behind us during the rest of our road trip. The McDonald Observatory, Prude Ranch and the town of Fort Davis is stretched out along Highway 118, which made things really convenient to find and make stops along the way.

With an extra day to spare before the start of TSP, Jason and I paid a visit to the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center at the McDonald Observatory. We spent the day checking out the exhibits and signed up for several tours of the McDonald Observatory's telescopes including the 11-meter Hobby-Eberly and the 2.7-meter Harlan J. Smith Telescopes. Later at dusk, we attended the Twilight program which took place in an outdoor amphitheater. A guide discussed how our Solar System functioned and allowed volunteers from the audience to make a human model of planets on its journey around the Sun. It was very informative and all the guests really gained a lot of knowledge by the demonstration. As the sky darkened, the star party portion of the tour began. Once again, guests sat around the circular amphitheater as a knowledgeable astronomer used a green laser pointer to point out the constellations and planets that were visible. That evening, the planet Mercury was prominently seen in the West, while Saturn stood amongst the stars of Leo. Portable telescopes, including a few Celestrons, were setup along the walkway for guests to view through. The night sky was absolutely stunning to see as the Zodiacal light pointed straight upwards from the horizon all the way to the top of Gemini. We could see why McDonald Observatory sits in a prime location far from any city light pollution.

With a taste of how clear the sky can be, the Texas Star Party officially began the following day. Jason and I arrived early to the Prude Ranch and made our way to the North end of the observing field where the Vendor Building was located. This would be our home for the next couple of days, as we had a table waiting for us to display our latest products, alongside other familiar vendors we've known for many years. It was good seeing old friends again while making new ones. Our products were shipped beforehand, so the boxes were already waiting for us when we arrived. We really have to thank TSP Vendor Coordinator, Jayne Lambert, her husband Dana, and their crew for helping with the setup and making us feel so welcomed! Products we brought along included - the new CGE Pro 1400, the new CGEM 1100, eyepiece accessory kits, Axiom and Ultima eyepiece lineups, and IYA Official Products such as the FirstScope and SkyScout. We also gave away telescope, spotting scope and accessory catalogs, IYA posters, beanies, pens and of course, our famous orange Frisbees. Raffle prizes we donated included a NexStar 8 SE for the adults and a SkyScout bundle package for the kiddies. Our new mounts received quite the attention, as guests gathered around to inspect and ask a lot of questions. Jason, who has spent a lot of time imaging and observing with both mounts, was able to relate his experiences and answer any questions. With a load capacity rated at 90 lbs for the CGE Pro and 40 lbs for the CGEM mount respectively, caught the attention of many advanced astroimagers interested in a more high-end robust mount. Our new IYA FirstScope, also "stole" the show as many guests, including many Dob owners gave their approval after observing with this little Dob that pays tribute to 35 men and women who made a significant impact in the world of astronomy. Their names are written on the outside of the optical tube. Guests were just as impressed with the new IYA table top FirstScope, as we were.

At night, Jason and I set up the CGE Pro 1400 and CGEM 1100 for the star party on the lawn just outside the Vendor Building. After conducting the new "All-Star Polar Alignment" routine and aligning the mount, we began observing countless celestial objects in the dark, Texas sky. One of the most riveting views of Saturn I've seen lately was through the C14 after ample cool down and precise collimation. The C14 is such a time tested instrument and popular as ever, as many C14s could be seen in use throughout the observing fields. Additional objects we observed included - 6 to 7 stars in M42's Trapezium, M46 (along with NGC 2438), Leo Galaxy Triplet, M81, M82, M51, M35, M44, M101, M104, M97, NGC 2392, NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri) and many more. Later that night, Jason and I took a walk to "Dob row" and had the opportunity to view through giant light gathering buckets of 30 and 36 inches of apertures. The views of white dwarf stars in planetary nebulas and details in galaxies were beyond amazing! We were also fortunate to spend time observing through Jim Lowery's 48" Dob at his private observatory nearby. Written words simply cannot do justice to the views we observed through the monster telescope that night. The amount of detail and color seen were beyond description, especially at objects such as NGC 3242 (Ghost of Jupiter), NGC 2392 (Eskimo Nebula), M104 and some of the compact clusters of galaxies in the Abell and Hickson catalogs. Our last departing view was M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy). Viewing straight on and without averted vision, the galaxy actually appeared as a bright "whirlpool" or "hurricane" depending on your interpretation, with a swirling arm that connected to its smaller companion galaxy. What a memorable departing view, as we had to leave Texas the next morning.

The night sky in West Texas is one of the best we've ever seen. It's no wonder why the Texas Star Party ranks as one of the top ten star parties in the world. Many folks we've met said they've been coming here for many years and now we know why it's such a popular event. Hopefully, next year we'll return back to the Prude Ranch to once again join in with the festivities. And remember, you must be present to win the raffle prizes. Right Dr. John? Until next year, adios to TSP 2009 and the Prude Ranch. Clear skies to all.

AstroDay Hawaii 2009

Imagine for a moment of being on a tropical island chain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where the sea meets the sky in an annual celebration of astronomy and native culture. It must be AstroDay Hawaii!! The 8th annual AstroDay Hawaii took place on May 2, 2009 at the Prince Kuhio Plaza in Hilo, Hawaii. AstroDay is the brainchild of former Subaru Telescope Operator and current Public Outreach Officer for the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii , Gary Fujihara. As the story goes, one day Gary had learned about Astronomy Day from the Astronomical League's website and decided to use Astronomy Day as a way to help educate the public and bring an understanding for all the scientific research being conducted atop the summit of Mauna Kea. One of his major goals for the event was to inspire youngsters to become interested in science and math at an early age. At the same time, blend in a mix of Hawaiian culture and thus, the creation of AstroDay Hawaii began. Today, with the tireless efforts of many people, AstroDay brings together astronomers, engineers, scientists, astronomy clubs, Hawaiian groups, celebrities, musicians, telescope manufacturers, schools, media and more with one goal in mind - to bring astronomy to the people, especially the children.

Because both of my parents were born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, it was only natural for me to take notice of this special event, especially since I had a long time fascination with astronomy and science since my early childhood. A few years ago, I journeyed back to the islands to not only see my relatives again, but to also see what AstroDay Hawaii was all about. One of the first things I noticed was how organized the event was since it took place inside a big shopping mall. With every center of the walkways filled with exhibits and thousands upon thousands of people in attendance, I realized that this was a well coordinated event that took a lot of effort from everyone involved to make it happen. No doubt, astronomy is big here in Hawaii. What also impressed me was seeing professional astronomers from some of the biggest astronomical observatories in the world taking the time to speak with youngsters and explained what they did for a living in a way the kids could understand. Some observatories had interactive children's activities that helped make learning about science fun, while another observatory brought their own portable planetarium to help teach about the nightsky. I knew right away this would be a great event for Celestron to help sponsor and participate in when resources became available.

As a sponsor of AstroDay with Astronomy Magazine, Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill and I flew into my family's hometown to participate in this year's AstroDay Hawaii event. With time to spare before the big event, we visited my relatives, as I showed Michelle what the local lifestyle was really all about. We then had lunch at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory and toured the Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii, which we highly recommend to anyone visiting the Big Island who's interested in astronomy. The next day, the sky was as clear as could be. It's as if the Hawaiian Gods purposely cleared the sky just in time for AstroDay! Hilo is notoriously known for its rain. The view of Mauna Kea, with its observatories overlooking Hilo Bay, was definitely a Kodak moment. This would be the first time Celestron officially participated at AstroDay. Our table was placed near center stage in a prime location. Assistant AstroDay Organizer, Kenyan Beals, helped Michelle and I get situated as we prepared our table. Gary and his staff of volunteers put up Celestron posters throughout the mall, which to our delight, gave our company much recognition. Setup was fast an efficient, as we displayed our IYA FirstScope, Handheld Digital Microscope, SkyScout, FirstScope sell sheets and catalogs. Michelle also brought along 500 orange Celestron Frisbees, pens, beanies, caps, pop rocks and IYA posters to hand out to our visitors. We displayed our raffle prize telescopes including the IYA FirstScope, AstroMaster 70 AZ and a NexStar 4 SE and brought along a NexStar 130 SLT to display as well. At 10 AM, the opening ceremonies began with local radio disc jockey, "DC in the Morning" giving the welcoming speech, which was followed by performances from local school children, including my cousin's son's class. The crowds began to fill the mall as everyone began to check out the nearly 50 exhibitors and watch the performances. The Mayor of Hilo, Billy Kenoi, showed up a bit late, but all was forgiven as he delivered his opening message and gave a proclamation for AstroDay. At the same time, the Celestron table was swamped by people who were filling out raffle prize tickets for a chance to win one of many prizes we had donated. As the hours passed, scheduled performers took to the stage and entertained the audience with music, song and dance. Hawaiian performers included Keoki Kahumoku, Sonny Lim, Brittni Paiua, John Keawe and Russel Mauga and friends. Man, what a talented group of musicians. It's so awesome to be in Hawaii! As the crowds gathered around our table, Michelle and I gave a demo on the products we had on display. It was great to hear all of the interesting questions about telescopes from all the people, especially from the children. Our IYA FirstScope was an exceptional crowd favorite with its compact size, outstanding optics and unique tribute display on the outside of the optical tube of the men and women who made a significant impact in the world of astronomy and science. Children got a big kick out of looking out across the mall and watching people walk by through the telescope. Our Handheld Digital Microscope was also a crowd favorite which everyone found fascinating to explore up-close the items which were laid out on the table. "Cool!" was definitely the theme of the day.

Just after 2 PM, the Raffle Drawing commenced, and I joined "DC in the Morning" on stage to announce the winners. The crowd was really pumped up, and I did my best to keep them on the edge of their seats. We began by raffling off a couple of "Eyes on the Skies" DVDs, followed by a couple of "Eyes of the Skies" books which also included the DVDs. Finally it was time to raffle off the telescopes and the crowd began to cheer loudly. The winners had to be present in order to win. "DC" drew the winning tickets as I announced the names. To our surprise, a lot of the names we called did not respond, so we kept on drawing tickets until one by one, the winners stepped forward. The grand prize, a NexStar 4 SE, was also not initially claimed, so the upbeat crowd urged me to draw again, which I happily obliged. Finally, a shy, young lady stepped forward as the crowd moaned in disappointment that they didn't have the winning ticket. Better luck next year. Who knows what cool giveaways and raffle prizes will be in store for next year? As the event began to draw to a close, nearly all of our giveaways were gone. No matter where you looked, someone was either carrying or wearing our Orange Frisbees. 500 in all were given away and people were still asking for them up to the end. To see photos from AstroDay, check this link: http://astroday.net/Hilites.html

At the conclusion of AstroDay, Michelle decided to donate our display NexStar 130 SLT to teacher, Alicia Hui, who was recognized earlier in the day as the winner of the 2009 Big Island Toyota Excellence in Teaching Award. Alicia received the award for her selfless dedication and commitment towards her student's education. Although she had already left the mall, Gary promised to surprise her yet again and present the telescope to her on Celestron's behalf. As an added gesture, Michelle also presented Gary with an extra IYA FirstScope we had brought along. It was a small token of our appreciation for all of his tireless efforts to promote astronomy and science to the people of Hawaii at AstroDay and all the years of his commitment towards Public Outreach. AstroDay would not be complete without a star party, so later that night, my cousin Scott, took us to the Visitor Information Station at the 9300 foot level on Mauna Kea to do some stargazing. A Celestron C14 and CPC 800 were set up, along with a 24" Dob and various other scopes around the parking lot. We marveled at seeing Polaris and the Southern Cross together at the same time. Views of Omega Centauri, Jewel Box cluster, Eta Carina nebula, Eskimo nebula and Saturn were simply amazing, even though a bright Moon was visible that night. What a great way to end our Hawaiian AstroDay adventure. Special mahalos to AstroDay Founder, Gary Fujihara, Assistant AstroDay Organizer, Kenyan Beals and all the staff and volunteers for welcoming and taking good care of us. To all the raffle prize winners, enjoy and keep looking up! Until next AstroDay! Aloha.

A Visit to Goodyear Airship Operations, Carson, California

For anyone living in the Los Angeles basin from the 1960s to the present day, the Goodyear Blimp has been a staple of our skies and a very visible "Aerial Ambassador" symbol of the famous tire and rubber company. Recently, Celestron's Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill and Community Relations Coordinator, Kevin Kawai, visited the California Goodyear Airship Operations base, home of the "Spirit of America," to loan binoculars, spotting scopes and tripods for the staff to evaluate and use. Meeting with us included Airship Public Relations Manager, Bob Urhausen and Airship Base Administrator, Kenny Rogers. Bob and Kenny provided us with a very informative in-depth talk about their California base operation (there are 3 Goodyear Airship operations in the US) and interesting blimp facts. Surprisingly, we found out there has been a total of 3 blimps stationed at the California base since 1968 - Columbia, Eagle and now The Spirit of America. Michelle and I set up a pair of Ultima Series spotting scopes, so everyone could "zoom in" on the blimp and get an up-close look. The Ultima Series spotters are well known for great outdoor observing -including astronomy, bird watching, target shooting, wildlife and now - Blimp viewing! Bob and Kenny presented Michelle and I with our very own "Spirit of America" Goodyear caps and the very informative "The Legend of Goodyear, The First 100 Years" hard cover books. Thank you very much for the keepsakes, and we'll be sure to read the books and wear the caps with pride. Happy Blimping!

RTMC 2009

The 41st annual Riverside Telescope Makers Conference and Astronomy Expo took place on May 22 through May 25, 2009 (Memorial Day weekend) at Camp Oakes near Big Bear City. Located above the 7000 foot level, this well known Southern California astronomy event is held yearly at a YMCA campground nestled in the lush San Bernardino Mountains. Unlike last year, which an unexpected late season snow storm quickly brought RTMC 2008 to a standstill, we were blessed with clear skies, warmer days, cold nights and no Moon - just the right combinations for making a great star party. For 2009, Celestron did something different - we brought along our entire Engineering staff, in addition with representatives from Marketing and Product Management teams. We not only wanted to provide answers to technical questions that arose, but we also wanted to show our commitment towards listening to our customers. Yes, we do want to hear our customer's feedback and suggestions for future product improvements. After all, we're continually striving on taking our products to the next level as technology keeps evolving in the fast paced information age we currently live in.

Making its unofficial debut at RTMC 2009, Celestron unveiled a new optical system that corrects for off-axis coma and also delivers a flat field - qualities which are sought after by advanced astroimagers. Additional details will be announced in a future, upcoming web newsletter. To be on the mailing list, please refer to the Celestron homepage at www.celestron.com and sign up. Judging by the positive responses we received from guests who visited the Celestron booth, the future is looking very bright indeed. Also highlighting our booth this year included our two new Computerized German Equatorial Mounts - the new flagship CGE Pro and mid range CGEM series. Both mounts feature outstanding payload capacity, All-Star Polar alignment routines, Permanent Programmable Periodic Error Correction and so much more! What a perfect matchup that will go hand in hand.

During the nightly star parties, the Celestron tent was as busy as ever. With an abundant number of Celestron telescope operators on hand, nearly all the mounts, including those with the new optical tube systems, were lined up and scanning the night sky. Like each year at RTMC, the spring night sky turned into the summer night sky, as new constellations rose from the east as the hours wore on. Our targets included M13, M44, M51, M57, M65, M66, M81, M82, M92, M97, M100, M104 and more. The Veil nebula and NGC 4565 also did not disappoint. The skies were definitely better for viewing this year due to better transparency and seeing conditions. Several of our Engineers and Product Manager also conducted an imaging demonstration for several guests using a DSLR camera. The Whirlpool galaxy (M51) came out very impressively to everyone's delight.

On Saturday afternoon, Celestron founder, Tom Johnson, made his yearly trek to RTMC. This year was extra special for Tom because he was a featured speaker. It was a standing room only crowd of amateur and professional astronomers present, as Tom delivered his PowerPoint Presentation - "The Founding of Celestron." Accompanying Tom was his son, Dr. Greg Johnson, who helped run the laptop. Tom covered his humble beginnings of putting together an 8" telescope from a kit, to how his increased curiosity of telescopes led him to devise a way to mass produce the Schmidt corrector plate while making his telescopes affordable. At the conclusion of his presentation, some of the audience members came up to Tom and personally greeted and thanked him. It was really heartwarming to see how Tom's company has influenced so many people in the astronomical community, myself included. Today, his quest continues on, as one of Celestron's goals is to keep reaching out to a new generation of astronomical enthusiast from all across the globe!

That evening after dinner, the annual Merit Awards were given out, along with the raffle prizes that were donated from various organizations and vendors. I estimated well over 1000 people were gathered in front, inside and to the rear of the dining hall. The crowds were already pumped up, as I could hear the people in front and back of the hall making a lot of noise. Each location had their own cheering section, so as the raffle prizes got larger, so did their enthusiasm. Because Celestron was a gold sponsor this year, we drew last, as our NexStar 8 SE was up for grabs as the Grand Prize. After a brief motivational speech to see who was the loudest group (definitely in front), I called out the winning number. At first, the audience was silent, as I thought to myself "ok, we'll just draw again if nobody steps forward." Suddenly, someone called out "we have a winner out front," to the groans of disappointment from everyone inside. Sure enough, winner, Debbie Searle, from Encinitas, CA, came up to the stage and claimed her prize. She informed me that she's very active in Public Outreach, so the NexStar 8 SE will fit her needs quite nicely. We couldn't have been much happier to hear that. Way to go Debbie, and best wishes using your new scope to reach further out into the community.

For Celestron, this year's RTMC was quite a success. With booth traffic high, listening to positive feedback from customers and offering guests a "sneak peek" of what lays ahead, exciting times are definitely in store for Celestron. On an added note, RTMC Vendor Chairman, Allan Guthmiller, informed us that next year's RTMC will be taking place earlier next May, during New Moon instead of the traditional Memorial Day weekend. We're certain because of the date change to allow observing under darker sky conditions, will entice more people to come out to RTMC 2010. Just wait until you see what's in store for Celestron next year! I'll just leave it at that. Clear skies to all.

Celestron Day at Orion Telescopes

On Saturday, June 6, 2009, Orion Telescopes held its first ever "Celestron Day" in the parking lot of its retail store. Being an Orion customer myself for many years, I was excited upon hearing the news of a Celestron Day and jumped at the opportunity to travel to Northern California (Cupertino) to be a part of a collaborated event between Celestron and a fellow respected name in the telescope industry - Orion Telescopes. Celestron firmware Engineer, Derik DeVecchio, and I headed out the day before and yours truly had the privilege of driving the cargo van up Interstate 5 for the 7 hour drive from Los Angeles to Cupertino. With several stops along the way for food and gas, we also encountered several large downpours, which was rather strange since California has been bone dry all year long. However, the storms were rather fast moving, and we quickly drove into clearer skies as we headed on our northward journey. Vice President of Sales, Victor Aniceto and Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill, took a late afternoon flight and would later rendezvous with us at the hotel. That evening, the President of Orion Telescopes, Peter Moreo; Merchandising Manager, Anne Friscia; Purchasing Supervisor, Lisa Cudal; and Retail Store Manager, Ken Sablinsky joined us for a delicious pre-event dinner. It was a relaxing way for all of us to talk about the event and even catch up on other things in life such as sport scores, our families, and even earthquakes!

Saturday morning greeted us with clear skies, but the excitement was short lived as clouds began to buildup as the morning progressed. Luckily for us, it wasn't completely overcast. Derik and I arrived early, and we set up our Celestron tent in the parking lot just to the right of the Orion store. Soon after, Michelle and Victor joined us and busily prepared the table with all the goodies and giveaways, as we set up the CGE Pro 1400 and CGEM 1100 that we had brought along. Ken and his staff also provided us with additional Celestron scopes and binoculars to put on display, as well as providing solar filters for daytime observing. By 10:30 AM, the show began and slowly, guests started to arrive to check out our latest wares and take advantage of the big sale, and the additional special discount Orion offered on all Celestron products throughout the day. Having an Engineer along really complemented and solidified our staff, as we were well represented from a Sales, Marketing and Engineering standpoint. I have to say, it's really great to interact with customers and demo our gear at an event like this. Any suggestions and feedbacks are duly noted because every idea is of great value and are taken into consideration. With this in mind, Celestron can continue to come out with new or improve upon existing products that the consumer desires. The Sun played "peek-a-boo" throughout the afternoon, but at times, came out long enough from behind the clouds to allow guests to check out the solar disc. There's still no sunspot activity, but it's still cool to check out the Sun nonetheless.

Each hour, Michelle, conducted raffle prize drawings and gave away some really cool items, including several "International Year of Astronomy" official products such as the FirstScope, several "Eyes on the Skies" DVDs and books. Raffle prize drawings are always fun whether you win something or not. That FirstScope sure looked good. Even I wished I could have won that scope, although I wasn't eligible, because it sure would like nice on my desk as a conversation piece when I'm not using it to scan the skies at night. With lots prizes to raffle off, many people won something nice to take back home. By late afternoon, it was time to raffle off the Grand Prize, which consisted of a NexStar 60 SLT. People crowded around Michelle as she drew the winning ticket. A gentleman quickly shouted out that he had the winning number and came forward to claim his new telescope and pose for pictures. What an exciting way to end the day on a high note at the first "Celestron Day" at Orion Telescopes.

We would like to thank the staff at Orion Telescopes for sponsoring this successful event. We'll definitely be back again for the next one. Judging from the turnout and the positive responses, there will be more events like this in the future. If anyone finds themselves in Cupertino, CA, check out Orion Telescope's Retail Store, which is located in a convenient, modern mini-mall and say "hello" to Ken and his friendly knowledgeable staff. You'll find plenty of Orion and Celestron products to browse through. Next up, our road trip adventures continues on to the desert southwest, as we head out to the All Celestron Star Party titled "C-Row Star-B-Que" in Palominas, AZ. Hope to see you all there. Comments and feedback about this blog and others are greatly appreciated!

C-Row Star-B-Q 2009

The Huachuca Astronomy Club of Sierra Vista, AZ, in cooperation with Celestron and Starizona, presented an all Celestron star party this past weekend - June 19 and 20, 2009, named "C-Row Star-B-Q" which was held at the RepoGazer Observatory (RGO) in Palominas, AZ. Keith Mullen, Vice President of the Huachuca Astronomy Club and brainchild of this event, originally put together his first "C-Row" back in 2003 during his term as Treasurer and Observatory Director for the Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society. During that time, he organized a group of 50 or so members, all owning Celestron scopes, in what was called the "C-Row gang." Celestron scopes were all lined up in an unbroken line, in which no other brand of scopes was allowed. His motto - "If you're not on C-Row, you're on Z-Row!" Keith, along with his wife, Teresa, has since retired and moved on to darker skies of Southern Arizona, which they now call home. While they both have enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere in their new setting, along with magnitude 7 skies and 640 acres of backyard space, they realized there was something missing - C-Row. Last June, Keith had invited a couple of Celestron Representatives to his residence to have a mini C-Row star party, along with another 50 or so members from the Huachuca Astronomy Club, for a trial run which turned out to be highly successful and a platform for this year's grand C-Row Star-B-Q event. For the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009, Keith and Teresa worked triple time to seek the cooperation from many people and organizations to help make C-Row into a National Astronomy Event with the grand kickoff in 2009. With more than abundant space to accommodate RVs, tents and scopes, the Mullens presented their vision to Celestron, which an agreement was made to have a Celestron presence, complete with Door Prizes, Raffle Prizes and even an appearance and speech by Celestron's President and CEO, Joe Lupica Jr. Starizona and other vendors followed suit, and world renowned speakers such as David Levy, Steve Coe, Bob Gent and Kim Rogalski agreed to participate and signed on. With local officials notified to make sure that everything was in compliant with local laws for fire abatement and sanitary requirements, C-Row Star-B-Q 2009 began to take shape.

Celestron flew out a contingent of representatives to Arizona - including President and CEO, Joe Lupica Jr, his wife Carole; Vice President of Engineering, Corey Lee; Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill and Repair Supervisor, Daniel Fuentes. Lead Repair Technician, Hector Antuna and I, Kevin Kawai, Community Relations Coordinator, drove out on the long 9 hour road trip from Los Angeles to southeastern AZ transporting our products and equipment. Weather was nice and sunny along the way and listening to Hector's corny jokes sure made the time go by quickly. Before we knew it, we had arrived at our destination by late afternoon and was greeted by overcast skies. Several of Keith's friends including Steven and Jeanne Herbert of the Huachuca Astronomy Club, noted avid astronomers Steve Coe and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Jim "Jimbo" Van Buskirk of the 60's band "Free and Easy," had already arrived and staked out their viewing spots. Michelle arrived to C-Row soon after, and we were treated to one of the most spectacular desert sunset imaginable. The sky and clouds quickly turned to a purplish/pinkish hue, as we enjoyed a chicken and corn on the cob meal compliments of the Mullens. Any plans to set up our tent and scopes early were quickly extinguished as rain drops began to fall and lightning lit up the sky. All we could do was sit back and enjoy nature's spectacle and hope the sky would clear out the next couple of days. To pass the time, Jimbo brought out a mechanical toy called the YOT. The YOT is a shiny, metal disc that holds a US silver dollar sized coin. To retrieve the coin you have to open it by somehow pulling up on the center knob. Jimbo's new toy had everyone puzzled until he revealed the "magic" behind the toy (YOT spelled backwards). Once Hector learned the secret, he was out on a mission for the duration of C-Row to challenge people and make new friends. He's quite a character and the life of the star party, but is an expert when it comes to repairing or tuning up telescopes.

On Friday, June 19, the gates opened at 11:00 AM but no vehicles were seen. The rain continued to fall and the observing field was just a muddy mess. Setup was put on hold as everyone had a dampened look on their faces. We checked the Clear Sky Chart and partial clearing was forecasted for the afternoon. We sat and patiently waited. Sure enough, within hours, the rain stopped, and the Sun began to break free of the clouds. Cars and RVs finally began to make their way into C-Row and both Daniel and Corey arrived on scene. You could just feel the big sigh of relief, as we waited for the Sun to dry things up, so the event could get underway. It's amazing how fast the hot desert Sun can dry the dirt and grass so quickly. Vendors such as Dirk, from Infini-Tees and Bob Kepple and Glenn Sanner, authors of The Night Sky Observer's Guide, began to open up their booths. We erected the Celestron tent within a short amount of time, and the dynamic Repair Department duo of Daniel and Hector set up a telescope maintenance shop inside the RGO and had guests already waiting for a telescope tune-up or firmware upgrades. The sky was still at bit "iffy" throughout the day, but more and more guests continued to pour their way into C-Row. Joe arrived on scene and was greeted by many Celestron fans and well wishers. It was such a thrilling moment for everyone, including top-ranking Astronomy Club Officers to meet and talk to the President and CEO of Celestron in person. We're certainly moving forward and showing our commitment with our customers and becoming more involved in the astronomical community by bringing Celestron and Celestron products to the people. We conducted a walk through C-Row and met our loyal Celestron supporters. We saw many "classic" orange tube telescopes ranging from C14s to C5s throughout the observing field that were well in care of. Many black tube OTAs and modern day Celestron scopes and binoculars were also visibly present as well. There was a lot of pride on that field and it showed. Hot dogs and hamburgers adorned the menu that evening, and there's nothing like a good old fashion hearty BBQ to satisfy one's appetite. We all definitely ate well for sure, as we enjoyed yet another spectacular sunset. (MJ) Dark ominous clouds began to make their way into the area and once again, a lightning show commenced across the Mexican border. My gut feeling told me to shelter our equipment, and I was right. Rain began to fall within minutes, and it appeared the event's first night of star gazing would be another wash out. However, the storm quickly moved through and stars began to appear in the southern sky. Soon, stars such as Vega and Arcturus became visible and miraculously the clouds dissipated in almost a blink of an eye. Low and behold, a majestic canopy of stars filled the night sky, as the Milky Way flowed from horizon to horizon. Despite the wet grass, Daniel and I quickly took out our scopes to take a few HyperStar imaging shots. Dean Koenig, of Starizona, was also present and helped out a beginner with HyperStar on his new CPC 1100. All three telescopes were set up in an Alt/Azm configuration but the super fast nature of HyperStar had us gasping in amazement with the images being taken in a matter of seconds. There is no substitute for clear, dark skies!

The next morning, clear skies prevailed as more and more late arrivals began making their way into C-Row. Keith could be seen making the rounds in the "Water Wagon" for all the guests to stay hydrated, while Teresa and the ladies busily prepared breakfast and snacks. The registration booth opened and raffle tickets were sold for a chance to win many great prizes, including a brand new CPC 800 as the grand prize. With many cool raffle and door prizes to be given away, which also included CDs, DVDs, books, shirts, mirror cleanings, HyperStar accessories, etc, nearly everyone had a good chance to leave with something nice to take home. As an added bonus, we brought along a couple of new optical tubes to give guests a "sneak peek" of a new optical system that will be officially announced in the near future. In addition, our new flagship mount - the CGE Pro; a mid-range mount, the CGEM and a NexStar 6 SE were set up to demo. The Celestron tent was busy all day long as guests came to see the latest products and interact with Staff, Representatives and the President. We had a great time meeting our loyal supporters and having them meet us - the people behind the Celestron name. We were also fortunate to meet with high-ranking astronomy club officials from throughout the west who were interested in conducting their own future C-Row events. Dean Koenig, from Starizona, kept busy too installing HyperStar lens systems on customer's scopes throughout the day. You could say this was a very proactive HyperStar imaging crowd at C-Row. After lunch, Kim Rogalski led off the presentations with his fascinating talk of our home planet - "Earth" while everyone attentively gathered around. Speakers David Levy, Steve Coe and Bob Gent would deliver their informative PowerPoint presentations in front of a large audience later that evening and most fittingly -under the stars. As a special treat, professional musicians - guitarist Carlos Rios, who performs with Stevie Nicks, and singer/songwriter/guitarist Gigi MacKenzie, who has performed with Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross and most recently on an upcoming Whitney Houston CD, conducted a musical performance of 1970's classic rock and modern day songs during the dinner hour. Their appearance seemed to have caught most people off guard, as they were purposely left off the Program of Events to make it a surprise! Yes, even celebrity rock stars enjoy astronomy and telescopes too. At the same time, a small aircraft circled overhead and took aerial photos of the event. We have yet to see the photos. Meanwhile, a local newspaper reporter also made an appearance and was seen interviewing guests regarding their experiences at C-Row Star-B-Q. A link to the article is here:

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2009/06/24/news/doc4a41d170cfd1e175368799.txt.

Dinner consisted of a delicious southwestern style BBQ with steaks, chicken and baby back ribs that guests had to grill for themselves. Looking back now, makes me hungry just reminiscing over that juicy steak I had with all the trimmings. Next to telescope observing and meeting up with new and old friends, isn't that what a Star-B-Q is all about? By the ways, for the record, Joe volunteered and BBQ'd all of his staff's steaks. How cool having our President do that?

By now, it was time to conduct the big door and raffle prize drawing, but first, everyone gathered in C-Row for an official group photo, followed by a talk by Celestron President and CEO, Joe Lupica Jr. Joe presented a motivational speech to everyone in attendance regarding the state of affairs with Celestron and the positive direction the company is going. He also singled out his staff and explained our roles within the company. Joe is quite a charismatic speaker and when he speaks, people listen to what he has to say. We were all so proud that our President took the time from his busy schedule to attend this event, along with his wife, Carole. Joe thanked all the guests for believing in and supporting Celestron throughout the years, and pulled no punches that the best is yet to come, as Celestron will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2010. With that said, Joe switched gears and hosted the door/raffle prize drawing. With Michelle and Hector joining him on stage, Joe called out winning prize numbers and one by one, excited guests came forward to claim their prizes. The prize drawings was a lot of fun, and it was just great to see all the happy faces. The CPC 800 Grand Prize was won by a member of the Huachuca Astronomy Club, and we learned that the telescope will be put to good use at public outreach events. As a token of Celestron's appreciation, Joe called the C-Row Star-B-Q Organizers Keith and Teresa Mullen to the stage and presented them with a plaque for their tireless efforts and dedication on making the C-Row event a reality. It was really a special moment, and everyone broke out in a thunderous applause.

With darkness fast approaching, the lingering clouds with us for most of the day, miraculously disappeared and left us with a clear view of the Arizona twilight sky. It's quite ironic to be a major telescope manufacturer, yet we rarely encounter such pristine skies since our headquarters is located in the suburbs of a major light polluted city we all know as Los Angeles. Armed with our HyperStar setups, Corey and I went after imaging big game objects as soon as darkness fell. My targets for the evening included - M8, M11, M16, M17, Veil Nebula, M22, M27, M65, M66, M101 and few other deep space gems. Daniel brought out his one-of-a-kind NexStar 8i/SE GPS hybrid which he used to navigate his way through the night sky. It was his first views of a dark sky from the desert, so he was just amazed at what he saw. We saw many satellites passing overhead, including a bright Iridium flare that disappeared between the stars. Two of the most memorable objects viewed included Omega Centauri through the 20" Dob housed in the RGO and the Veil Nebula, as seen through Jimbo's scope. Everyone had a great time observing the night sky and checking the views through other people's scopes. There was definitely a lot of camaraderie amongst fellow Celestron scope users.

C-Row Star-B-Q could not have been possible without the vision, drive, determination, commitment and Celestron brand loyalty that Keith and Teresa Mullen possessed to bring together and unite other fans of Celestron telescopes for one special weekend in the southern Arizona desert. Their intentions was to record the infrastructure required to organize such an event, so other astronomy clubs could utilize the "know how" to bring about their own future C-Row Star Party events to life - they succeeded. The amount of work, coordination, expense, planning and team work involved was certainly challenging, but fortunately, we have people like the Mullens who have done all the hard work and learned what works and what doesn't. With that alone, we are certainly most grateful for their achievements. Keith and Teresa have earned the distinct honor of being called the founders of C-Row, and we certainly feel it's a title unquestionably earned. On behalf of the entire Celestron family, we congratulate you both for organizing and executing a well planned C-Row Star-B-Q 2009 event. We'll see where the 2010 C-Row Star Party will be held. For additional photos and information regarding this event, please visit the Huachuca Astronomy Club's website at:

http://www.hacastronomy.com/starbq/2009/gallery/index.php

Yo Keith and Teresa! You did it!!

OPT's Southern California Astronomy Exposition 2009

Here we are again in the middle of summer and for us Californians, July means warm, sunny blue skies, sandy beaches, summer Milky Way and Oceanside Photo and Telescope's Southern California Astronomy Expo (SCAE)! How quickly an entire year has rolled around since the last SCAE 2008! This past Saturday, July 18, 2009, OPT Boss, Craig Weatherwax, hosted the 5th Annual SCAE event and invited down nearly 40 vendors of astronomical related gear to showcase their latest wares to the public. Just a week earlier, OPT held a very successful parking lot swap meet, followed by a film presentation and vendor star party at nearby Palomar College. Like always, the events were free and open to anyone interested in astronomy and telescopes. Part 2 of SCAE included a BBQ, mini presentation seminars by vendor reps, and the ever so popular "Raffle Prize Extravaganza" which this year, included an online giveaway for those who couldn't be at OPT in person. The best part - raffle tickets were free!

Celestron sent out a variety of representatives from different departments within the company. Vice President of Engineering, Corey Lee, came down to SCAE this year and presented a talk on the new EdgeHD optical system to a curious audience. With the official announcement made just 3 days earlier, the EdgeHD was no doubt, one of the most talked about new products at the event, and we were proud to have to have someone who worked extensively on the EdgeHD project conduct the presentation. The Marketing Department was represented by Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios, who's already become an event veteran, and I, Community Relations Coordinator, Kevin Kawai. Representing the Repair Department included Repair and Returns Warehouse Supervisor, Daniel Fuentes and Lead Repair Technician, Hector Antuna. The "dynamic duo" can adjust, clean and repair nearly every Celestron telescope and mount! And finally, newly hired Special Sales Manager, Ben Hauck, joined in with the festivities and made his first public event debut with Celestron. Welcome aboard Ben!

The Celestron booth was located right in the middle of the upper level parking lot with two large tables to display our LCD Digital Microscopes, Axiom and Ultima eyepieces, Eyepiece kits, FirstScope and a SkyScout. In addition, there was ample table room for giveaways such as catalogs, sell sheets, IYA posters, beanies, caps, pens and Frisbees. With the Sun shining brightly throughout the day, we displayed our popular CPC 1100 and NexStar 8 SE telescopes for solar viewing even though there really hasn't been much activity on the Sun in recent memory. Still, the Sun is always a popular target to view through telescopes, and our guests agreed. We also set up a SkyMaster 25x100 binocular and a Regal 100F-ED spotting scope for terrestrial viewing. The CGE Pro 1100 HD and CGEM 800 HD were set up right in front of the booth and always had a steady stream of people that gathered around for a firsthand look at the new optical tube/mount setups. Some guests who came for a closer inspection included advanced imagers and visual astronomers. Those who missed out on Corey's presentation were still able to get an up close look at the new EdgeHD's mechanical features and learn how the optical system alleviates off-axis coma while producing a flat field. There was even a beginner who wanted to get into the hobby but wanted to start off with only the top-of-the-line equipment! Sure! Why not start with the latest and greatest?

By 6 PM, the vendor event officially came to an end, but not before the giant SCAE Giveaway commenced in its place with Craig serving as Master of Ceremonies. Thousand upon thousands of dollars worth of raffle prizes were up for grabs in the children, adult and online categories. This was the biggest raffle prize drawing ever and Celestron contributed with the prize pool too by donating an "Eyes on the Skies" DVD/Book and a FirstScope for the children's drawing and a CPC 800 for the adult gold prize. The children's raffle drawing took place first, and a very happy young girl won the FirstScope. Her big smile said it all as she claimed her prize! In keeping with tradition, for the past 2 years, our gold prize winners would always spend time talking to me earlier in the day before having their winning ticket drawn during the raffle. Would the same good fortune take place again this year? I did speak with quite a number of guests. When it came time for Celestron's gold prize to be drawn, Craig summoned Yasmine and I to the stage area and announced the winning number. Would there be a "three-peat" once again? Well, yes and no. The man with the winning ticket turned out to be Bob Buckner, an OPT SCAE regular who indeed spent some time at the Celestron booth talking to Yasmine earlier in the day. I have the photo to prove it - (see photo on bottom left). Although while Bob didn't actually speak with me, he did speak to Yasmine, so I guess that's good enough to keep the streak alive. Congratulations to Bob and hope you enjoy your new CPC 800.

Immediately at the conclusion of SCAE, we loaded up our belongings and joined the other vendors and OPT staff for a reception in the downstairs Art Gallery for cheese, wine, grapes and crackers. It was a relaxing way to recap the day's events with old friends and even with a few competitors, while making new acquaintances as well. Dinner immediately followed just walking distance away at Vigilucci's Italian Restaurant. Craig had rented out the entire restaurant, and the food was excellent like always after working a long, hard day. It was really amazing to see most of the major astronomical equipment manufacturers get together and dine together under one roof. Leave it to Craig to make it all happen. As always, Celestron would like to give a very big "thank you" shoutout to Craig and Leigh Weatherwax, Penny Distasio, Rayna Roberts, Eric Blackhurst and the entire staff at OPT for all your hard efforts in putting together another great SCAE event. There's no doubt a lot of planning, cooperation and coordination were involved, but for all your hard efforts, it brings together the best annual summertime astronomy event period. We'll see if there will be a "four-peat" during next year's raffle prize drawing. Until next time, enjoy the hobby and keep looking up! Click on the first picture in this blog recap to be automatically sent to the OPT SCAE 2009 photo album on Flickr Photos.

Starfest Canada 2009

Starfest, the 28th annual celebration of astronomy, took place on August 20-23, 2009 at the River Place Park family campground site. Starfest is recognized as one of the top seven star parties in North America by Sky & Telescope magazine and is visibly Canada's largest annual observing convention and star party. Nearly 600 astronomy enthusiasts from Canada and the USA joined in with the festivities.

This past February, I was contacted by Starfest President and Team Leader, Malcolm Park, who came across and enjoyed reading my Starfest 2008 blog. After speaking with our Canadian Senior Sales Representative, Gary Stephey and I, Malcolm asked if we were interested in giving a talk at this year's event. We agreed and throughout the spring, Gary and I tossed around several presentation ideas and discussed how we would strategize our presentation. As the months flew by, summer came upon us rather quickly and with the announcement of new products such as the new EdgeHD optical system, we thought how great it would be if we also included an Engineer who was actively involved in its development. I spoke with Celestron's Vice President of Engineering, Corey Lee to see if he would be available, and he was. Our presentation team was set.

Corey and I flew out to Canada on August 19, 2009 and met up with Gary in Toronto. During the drive up to the site, we heard stories how clear the weather had been the previous few nights, and as we made our way into River Place Park (home of Starfest), we were greeted by green, lush hills dotted with RVs and campers - a familiar sight seen each year. The weather forecast wasn't too optimistic with 30% to 40% showers predicted throughout the weekend with a possibility of some clearing on Saturday night. Looking up, things didn't look too promising. We staked out our usual location near the Red Light Cafe and set up our tent. With dark, ominous clouds moving into the area, we decided not to chance it in case it started to rain, so we left our products in the truck, as did most other vendors on site. It was a good thing because someone ran out and yelled that a Tornado Warning has been issued within our vicinity! It was kind of shocking to hear because we didn't think tornadoes formed this high up in Canada - we were wrong! Before we knew it, black and light clouds began circulating, greenish clouds began to appear, rain began to fall, lightning lit up the sky and thunder boomed throughout the campground. Within 15 minutes, looking out towards the west, we spotted the first tornado funnel cloud, perhaps an F1, that developed and touched down a mile or so away. It wasn't your typical well defined tornado, and it was slightly broken up as it hung from the sky and eventually made landfall. We lost sight of it as trees nearby hid it from view, but towards the north, more clouds were beginning to circulate. People were just in awe as we saw twin lightly colored vortices making landfall about 2 miles away. Luckily, they were moving towards the east and away from Starfest but we feared for the people in neighboring towns that were directly in the path of the twisters. The severe storms, ripped through the Durham-Markdale and Craigleith area (Grey County) leaving a wake of destruction, including down trees and damaged homes. Starfest fared much better; however, a few tents were damaged or destroyed by high winds. For us, the Celestron tent remained intact, but our fellow neighbor's tent didn't fare too well.

The next day, we were greeted by the Sun and partly cloudy conditions. Vendors began setting up their equipment for display, as we had a window of opportunity before the next storm was scheduled to blow through. We displayed several telescopes including a new CGEM 800 HD, which brought out the curious, as well as our popular star party staples - the CPC 800 and NexStar 6 SE. The CGE Pro 1100 HD would not make its debut until the following morning. We outfitted our NexStar 6 SE with a solar filter and used the CPC 800 for terrestrial viewing, but sadly, that was about all the observing we did at Starfest this year. By late afternoon, the clouds began rolling in again and any attempts to observe the sky remained fruitless.

Saturday morning (presentation day) was as gray as could be. No Sun and no blue sky to be seen. We were still quite upbeat and excited because not only would we be presenting our "What's new with Celestron" talk after lunch, but also because our CGE Pro mount finally arrived for us to display for our guests. Corey, Gary and I spent most of the day fielding questions about the mount and new optical system. New products always seem to get the most attention. After the lunch hour, we made our way to the smaller tent and prepared for our presentation. We were up against some stiff competition as another talk was scheduled for the main tent, and the swap meet took place concurrently. Nonetheless, we had a good sized audience present as Gary led off our "What's new with Celestron" presentation. Gary discussed some of the major highlights in Celestron's 49 year history including our founder; Tom Johnson's first built and sold SCT to the latest EdgeHD Optical System and every major milestone in-between. I was up next and discussed my history with the company to the various roles and positions I held throughout my nearly 10 years with the company. I also discussed the company's role as global sponsors of IYA 2009, various events and star parties we've participated in so far in 2009, as well as our new social networking sites - CelestronLife.com and CelestronImages.com. I then passed the baton over to Corey, who presented the new EdgeHD Optics and discussed its design and features. He explained how the new optical system produces a focal plane more than three-times flatter than a standard Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and corrects for off-axis coma. Corey then showed images of celestial objects focused on axis, which depicted sharp, uniform stars across the entire FOV. New mechanical features of the EdgeHD were also explained in detail. We had fun conducting the presentation and felt confident we were able to bring something of value to the audience members.

With absolutely no hope at all for any kind of observing due to the persistent cloud cover, many vendors began to break down their tents and packed up their belongings. The big banquet took place inside the main tent as people lined up across the vendor's field for the delicious dinner and dessert. Soon after, the announcements and door prize festivities began and similar to last year, baseball caps were tossed into the audience that really got the crowd going. The Canadians absolutely knows how to have a good time. Celestron donated several "Eyes on the Skies" DVDs, a FirstScope and the grand prize, a NexStar 8 SE. Our Canadian Senior Sales Representative, Gary Stephey, was called up to the stage to do the honors of selecting the winning tickets. One by one, the lucky winners came forth to collect their prizes. When the time came to draw the grand prize, all were eerily silent throughout the tent. Suddenly, a surprised and shocked Pat McLaren of Elora, Ontario, stepped forward to claim her telescope to the cheers of the crowd. Pat mentioned that she and her husband have been coming to Starfest since 2001 and never expected to win anything other than just a cap. Surprise Pat! We're sure you'll be enjoying and sharing the views with everyone around you, including your husband, who just so happens to always been a hardcore DOB kind of guy. Maybe he'll see what CATS can do too?

Starfest 2009 is going down in the history book as the year tornadoes paid an unexpected visit. However, no amounts of rain, lightning or even a few tornadoes will ever blow away the enthusiasm of the people who regularly attends this great event each year. It just so happens luck hasn't been on our side lately, but even though, we must all remain positive and hope next year brings clear skies for all. Our luck is surely bound to change. Corey and I departed Toronto safely the next day, and upon our return back to the office, we had many interesting nature stories to share with our fellow co-workers. Californians are used to earthquakes but tornadoes are a different story. We'll return back to Starfest next year, and we'll make sure to let Malcolm know to save us our usual spot by the Red Light Cafe. Until the next event, clear skies to you all.

Astronomy At The Beach, Kensington Metro Park, Milford, MI, 2009

With sand, water, stars and sky, the 13th Annual Astronomy at the Beach took place September 25 and 26, 2009 at Maple Beach, Kensington Metro Park, Milford, MI. Astronomy at the Beach, more commonly known as AATB, is a yearly event hosted by the Kensington Metro Park and the Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs (GLAAC) - the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club, Warren Astronomical Society, The Astronomy Club at Eastern Michigan University, University Lowbrow Astronomers, Oakland Astronomy Club, Seven Ponds Astronomy Club, Sunset Astronomical Society and the Amateur Astronomers of Jackson. Major sponsors for AATB 2009 included Cranbrook Institute of Science, Co-op Services Credit Union, Camera Mart, Rider's Hobby Shops, Detroit Science Center and Celestron. AATB is unquestionably Michigan's largest public outreach astronomy event drawing thousands upon thousands of guests each year that are eager to learn about astronomy, space and science. Many Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, elementary, middle school, high school and college aged students attends the event in droves to learn and enjoy anything and everything about astronomy! Guests also have the opportunity to observe through telescopes, listen in on exciting astronomy talks or just being around anyone else sharing the same interest in astronomy.

Celestron's Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios, and I flew out to Michigan and represented Celestron at this year's AATB event. While back home in Los Angeles, our colleagues attended the big Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show (PATS), which also took place the same weekend. We teamed up with Rider's Hobby Shop's John Kirchhoff and Bob Justin, to display and demo our telescopes and astronomy related products for the guests. Rider's Hobby Shops also helped to organize a children's treasure hunt, where kids were encouraged to view at least 6 different celestial objects through telescopes and learn more about what they saw from telescope operators. Children also had to answer astronomy related questions and once completed (with or without help), were submitted in to receive prizes. What a fun way to learn about astronomy!

Cloudy conditions graced Friday night's sky compromising telescope viewing somewhat, but that didn't seem to put too much of a damper on people's spirits. Guests were still gathering at the beach while excellent talks were taking place inside the main tent, many of which were aimed at families and children. It wasn't uncommon to hear laughter coming from the tent throughout the evening. Sky and Telescope's Editor-in-Chief, Robert Naeye and Rider Hobby Shop's John Kirchhoff were among many excellent speakers that presented that evening. The Detroit Science Center brought along an inflatable, portable planetarium with a star projector which provided tours of the night sky. It proved to be a big hit with all the kids and parents alike. Yasmine and I wanted to go inside and see the planetarium show too, but the line was too long. Maybe next year! Next door at the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club's table, members sold cool, colorful, bendable glow sticks. It was quite a sight of seeing these colorful "bracelets" worn on people's head, neck and wrists while "floating" about in the darkness. AATB definitely wasn't a dark sky party, but it didn't have to be to learn all about the cosmic wonders of our universe, and having a great time too!

On Saturday afternoon, I presented a talk to GLAAC members at the Kensington Metro Park's Nature Center. The topic - Celestron's Community Relations and an overview of Celestron's new optical system - the EdgeHD. Highlights from "Celestron On-The-Go" included - IYA events, dealer shows and major star parties that we had participated in during the year. Other topics included an overview of Celestron's social networking sites - CelestronLife.com and CelestronImages.com. In addition, I really wanted to emphasize who we are as a company, and who we are as employees. With Celestron on the verge of celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2010, we are moving forward and will be sharing in the celebration with our loyal customers and fans.

Before the start of Saturday's AATB event, Yasmine and I took a tour of parts of Kensington Metro Park's 4,481 acre grounds and marveled at all the great things to see and do here. Although time was extremely limited, we did see many key features of the park including - hiking trails, picnic areas, wooded forests, wetlands, beach areas, wildlife viewing and so much more! Autumn foliage was beginning to take shape, as leaves began dressing in their finest reds and orange colors. We stopped at the Farm Center for a few minutes to visit some of the local farm animals including sheep, pigs, chickens, goats, cows and turkeys. Coming from a big city, we really do not have many opportunities to see farm animals, so it was a wonderful experience. What a thrill it was for Yasmine to see her favorite horses and sheeps up close.

While clouds were once again predicted for Saturday night's viewing, by late afternoon, the clouds miraculously parted just enough that left enough visible sky to commence the evening star party to the delight of everyone in attendance. By dusk, the viewing area began to fill up with people, as telescopes of every make and model adorned the beach. The Quarter Moon gracefully lit up the sky, and people pointed out the bright "star" like object in the sky - Jupiter! As expected, the vendor and astronomy club's area remained busy, but the majority of the crowds were out observing on the beach. It was truly delightful to see so many people from every age group interested in astronomy and excited to observe through many telescopes set up that evening. One example which stands out in my mind took place at Eastern Michigan University's C14 setup - after viewing through the telescope, a young girl excitedly ran back to her parents and yelled out "I think I saw M13!"

AATB 2009 officially came to an end at the stroke of midnight that Saturday night. A raffle drawing took place in the outdoor pavilion immediately after for those who worked or helped plan the event. Several great raffle prizes were donated by many of the event's sponsors including gift certificates, DVDs, eyepieces and telescopes. The grand prize was a Celestron NexStar 4 SE that Celestron had donated

Yasmine and I left Detroit the following day and flew home with an abundance of great memories of AATB and of all the friendly and enthusiastic people we had met throughout the 2 day event. We would like to personally say "Thank You" to Greg Ozimek, official photographer of AATB, for initially contacting and inviting Celestron to participate; George Korody, of the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club, for providing us with information regarding AATB at the Florida WSP; John Kirchhoff, Manager, Rider's Hobby Shops, for supporting, supplying and transporting our products; the entire Greater Lakes Association of Astronomy Club's officers and club members for their dedication towards public outreach and for banding together to host this wonderful family oriented event for the community; and Kensington Metro Park for providing an outstanding nature venue to hold AATB. We hope to see you all again at next year's AATB.

NexStar 102 SLT Telescope Donation to Toberman Neighborhood Center

Just a few miles south down Interstate 110 from Celestron headquarters in the port city of San Pedro, California, resides the Toberman Neighborhood Center. This multi-purpose, non-profit community center provides various social services to nearly 14,000 inner-city individuals and families in need of assistance. The center's mission is to help those to "get back on their feet" and reclaim their lives by providing tools and resources through counseling, teaching and training. This includes working with children, teens, families, adults and senior citizens within the community.

On Monday, October 26, 2009, the Toberman Neighborhood Center hosted the "Toberman Meets the Man on the Moon" event which Celestron Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios; Technical Support Representative, Derek "DarkMatters" Wallentinsen and I attended. The evening began with an official presentation by Celesron of a NexStar 102 SLT to the Toberman Neighborhood Center. Robert Brandin, who helped organize the event, served as the Master of Ceremonies. Speeches were given by the President and CEO of the Toberman Neighborhood Center, Gloria Lockhart and Consultant, Fund Developer, Kristy Day. Robert introduced Yasmine to the audience, and she thanked the Toberman Neighborhood Center for their years of services to the community. Yasmine then spoke words of inspiration to all the children in the audience as they sat and listened attentively. I spoke next and told my personal story of how I was once given the opportunity to look through someone's telescope when I was their young age, and how it inspired me to have a lifelong interest in astronomy and telescopes. I made sure to let the children know that their generation will be our future scientists, astronomers, teachers or even astronauts as long as they follow their dreams and keep studying hard. They could become anything they want to be. The children were given a few minutes to pick my brain and ask me various astronomy related questions. I was quite amazed at the types of space related questions these 5 to 7 year olds were coming up with. The interest level about space was definitely there! With time being limited, the hosts wrapped up the question and answer session and moved everyone outside. The much anticipated telescope viewing was ready to begin.

The hosts laid out the ground rules such as no running, no touching the scopes, etc. Yasmine passed out lighted glow rings that really got the children excited, including some of the adults. Our Technical Support Representative, Derek "DarkMatters" Wallentinsen was already outside waiting with a vast array of telescopes, including his NexStar 5, Onyx 80, as well as my NexStar 6 SE. Joe Hellum, the Toberman's resident astronomer and math tutor, set up the new NexStar 102 SLT. With all the telescopes already aligned and aimed at the Moon or Jupiter, the children formed lines and began taking in the views. How exciting it was to hear the kids counting how many moons they could see around Jupiter and scanning in amazement over the lunar terrain. You know what? That's something we just never get tired of hearing. The excitement of people, both young and old alike, enjoying and taking in the views of the night sky never gets old. If we inspired and sparked just one child's interest that evening to think astronomy and science is cool, then it was all worth it. We're confident many people discovered and experienced something new. When a mother and her young son took their first glimpses of Jupiter, I heard the little boy say "when I grow up, I want to be an astronaut." I said to myself "you know something, he may just become one." We wish the Toberman Neighborhood Center many clear nights using their new telescope to explore and open up new worlds to all the members of your center. When you're ready to host another star party, we'll be back.

Sea and Sky Spectacular 2009, Jacksonville, Florida

On November 7th and 8th, the 2009 Sea and Sky Spectacular took place in Jacksonville, Florida off the waters of the picturesque Atlantic Ocean. This much anticipated air show featured the prowess of the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels Squadron, as well as numerous military and civilian daredevils of the sky. The Sea and Sky Spectacular represented just one of the many featured events of the "Week of Valor," which paid tribute to the brave men and women in uniform of the entire armed forces. With the city of Jacksonville having a strong military community, it allowed for a wonderful opportunity for everyone to come out to support and thank our veterans and active duty military personnel for keeping our nation safe. Additional highlights from the week included a Veterans Day Parade, guided ship tours aboard U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels, Search and Rescue demonstrations, street festivals, Jacksonville Jaguars football game and much, much more. Best of all, admission was free.

Celestron teamed up with Popular Science magazine as a featured vendor during this weekend event. Representatives from Popular Science magazine included Account Manager, Alex DeSanctis and Group Director of Creative Services/Events, Michael Iadanza. Representing Celestron included Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill; Repair Department Supervisor, Daniel Fuentes; Technical Support Representative, Tyler Michaelis and I. Together, we combined forces to promote astronomy awareness and to demonstrate our computerized and noncomputerized telescopes, spotting scopes, binoculars and SkyScout to a brand new audience. We also hosted a two night "Take a Tour of the Stars" star party, which allowed thousands of guests to view celestial objects such as the Moon, Jupiter, double stars, galaxies and nebulas through telescopes. Many of whom, observed for the very first time! In addition to the general public who joined us at the star party, so did the performers! How cool it was having the Blue Angels Squadron, their flight support teams and the UK's Parachute Regiment Freefall Team "The Red Devils," stop by for a look, and were all utterly amazed while observing our nearest neighbors in the Solar System. Most importantly though, we sold hundreds and hundreds of raffle tickets for prize drawings of several Celestron products, including a NexStar 6 SE, NexStar 60 SLT, SkyScout, FirstScopes, AstroMaster 70 AZ and several binoculars. Winners did not have to be present to claim their prizes, and all proceeds from the raffle drawing were donated to a very worthwhile and honorable cause - The United Services Organization (USO).

Having been to several military air shows back home in California with my fellow Celestron coworkers throughout the years (MCAS Miramar), we knew how popular and exciting these air shows could be. Sea and Sky Spectacular would be no different. Several officials who spoke to us during the event, indicated attendance numbers for the two day event would exceed over 400,000 people! In addition to the Blue Angels, the event also featured performances by the B-2 Spirit, F-15 Eagle, Short Range Recovery aircraft, F-16 Fighting Falcon, SH-60B Seahawk, A-10 Thunderbolt, Heritage Flight, The Black Daggers, The Red Devils, Czech Six, The Red Bull Helicopter, Daredevil Sean D. Tucker, Red Eagles and more. It was the most sophisticated display of skill, advanced avionics technology and military might to be seen and definitely heard. Jacksonville Beach was definitely the place to be, and there was nothing more stimulating to the ear than hearing the deafening roar of twin afterburners being ignited from an F/A-18 Super Hornet as it zips by, shaking the ground and cleansing your soul. It's simply - the sound of freedom.

Popular Science magazine and Celestron are simply honored to be a part of this year's Sea and Sky Spectacular. It's by far, the largest event we've attended this year. With many US Military Veterans employed at Celestron and family members currently on active duty, we proudly support the US Armed Forces, and we proudly support the United Services Organization. For more information on how you too, can become more involved to support the USO, please visit: http://www.uso.org/. We are very grateful towards our US military forces and would like to sincerely thank them for defending and protecting our great nation and keeping us all safe. We would also like to give a special "shout-out" and say "thank you" to David Liles of the Alachua Astronomy Club of North Central Florida for driving all the way down to Jacksonville to assist us and lend his astronomy expertise at last Saturday night's star party. It was great seeing you again. God bless our troops, and we pray you will all come home safely.

Griffith Observatory presents "Holiday Telescope-Buyers Guide"

On a clear and cold Wednesday evening, December 16, 2009, a group of well know telescope manufacturers (Celestron, Explore Scientific and Meade Instruments) came together, not as competitors, but as educators to participate in a one hour public seminar aimed at the beginning astronomy crowd looking to purchase their first telescope, spotting scope, binocular or other astronomically related product this holiday season for themselves or for gift giving. The venue was the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater, inside the famed Griffith Park Observatory, which overlooks the city of Angels. A star party would immediately follow the presentation outside on the observatory's front lawn with additional representatives on hand to demonstrate products highlighted during the seminar. The presentation began promptly at 7:30 p.m. with Griffith Observatory's Astronomical Observer, Anthony Cook, taking on dual roles as host and presenter.

Tony started off the evening by introducing basic telescope concepts and useful telescope terminology including different types of optical configurations, the importance of aperture (light gathering ability), mountings and magnification. He also spoke about the usefulness of binoculars, and its ability to scan a wide swath of the night sky for unprecedented views of the Milky Way. I was up next (by alphabetical order of the manufacturers) and spoke first on why Griffith Observatory played a major role in my life - as the place where I first looked through a telescope and saw Saturn's rings as a young boy, which inspired me to have a lifelong interest in astronomy and telescopes. I then proceeded to discuss some of Celestron's most popular products which were specifically designed towards the beginning amateur astronomer - The SkyScout, FirstScope and the NexStar SE telescope lineup. Time was limited to only 10 minutes per presenter, so I only had enough time to discuss some of the major highlights of each product. Next up was Scott Roberts, President of Explore Scientific, and well known for his prominent role in promoting astronomical outreach. Scott discussed the importance of public outreach awareness and introduced some his company's telescopes to the audience. Chris Morrison, Vice-President, Support Services, Meade Instruments, followed suit and rounded out the talks by speaking of his company's recommended products designed for the beginning astronomer as well. With just a few minutes to spare, a question and answer session took place, which was then immediately followed by the star party.

After a week long period of rain, the sky was clear and all of our favorite objects to view - Jupiter, M42, Double Cluster, M45, M35, Castor, Albireo and more, were plainly visible above the beautiful Los Angeles city skyline. Celestron's Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill and Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios, accompanied me to the event and were on hand demonstrating and allowing visitors to "test drive" our products, so they could get a feel on how user friendly and fun our products are to use. Chris and Scott also had their fellow representatives on hand doing the same. The star party provided a wonderful avenue for prospective telescope buyers to meet with the representatives, try out a variety of different telescopes and ask questions and receive helpful advices. And yes, the "oohs" and "aahs" could be heard throughout the lawn. By 9:45 p.m. the park ranger came by and made an announcement signaling the end of the star party, and like all successful star party events, time always goes by quickly, especially when everyone is having a good time.

Celestron would like to thank Griffith Observatory and especially Anthony Cook, for inviting all the local, major telescope manufacturers to participate in this first ever Pre-holiday Telescope Buyer's Guide seminar workshop. It was great teaming up (for a change) with Chris and Scott and their respective organizations. Hopefully, everyone who attended the event will now have a better understanding of telescopes or binoculars and will make a good choice of bringing the night sky a little closer this gift giving holiday season and beyond. Happy Holidays everyone!

Celestron presents a FirstScope to the Mayor of El Segundo

The city of El Segundo (Recreation and Parks) and the South Bay Astronomical Society, co-sponsored and hosted their final local star party of 2009 at Hilltop Park on Saturday, December 19, 2009. El Segundo, located just south of Los Angeles International Airport, is well known for its aerospace companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon - all of which have their facilities in the city.

I first became aware of the El Segundo Star Parties when Celestron's Q.A. Inspector, Deverlin Osborne, informed me that his wife, Liana, had came across a newspaper article which featured El Segundo's Mayor, Kelly McDowell, who just so happens to be an avid amateur astronomer, praising our FirstScope. We sent a thank you message to Mayor McDowell and soon thereafter, he responded back and invited Celestron to join in at city's next star party. Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill, felt it would be most fitting to present the Mayor with his very own FirstScope.

Michelle, Deverlin, Tech Support Supervisor, Mark Teitelman and I represented Celestron and brought along several telescopes ranging from the CPC, SE and SLT lines, as well as the FirstScope, SkyScout and SkyMaster binoculars. The South Bay Astronomical Society was also well represented with their members volunteering at the event, including my long time friend, Joe Fierstein. The club, with the help of the park personnel, erected a makeshift outdoor theater where they showed an astronomy related video to the guests. Club members also brought along various telescopes from all different makes and models, for the public to look through, including a beautifully handmade wooden reflector and an earlier generation NexStar 8i.

Although it was a rather small star party since most folks were probably out shopping on that last Saturday before Christmas, a few families still came by and enjoyed the views of the Moon and Jupiter through all the telescopes. Michelle brought along her ever popular orange glow sticks that the children and adults seemed to enjoy a lot. Mayor McDowell stopped by about midway through the star party and thanked all the participants for coming. He then jokingly mentioned that we (Celestron) should pack up all our belongings and move our headquarters next to all the big aerospace companies in El Segundo. In reality we're only just a few miles away. Michelle presented Mayor McDowell with his very own FirstScope, which was the reason what brought us all together. Michelle and the Mayor posed for a few photos, and excitedly chatted about working together again on future projects. Everyone then called it a night and that closed the final star party chapter for 2009.

It's been such a productive year for us, especially with IYA activities, which brought astronomy awareness and telescope observing to millions upon millions of people around the globe. We will be continuing our outreach efforts right where we left off at the close of 2009. In addition, as I had mentioned in my previous blogs, Celestron will be celebrating its 50th Golden Anniversary in 2010, so the celebration will be taking place throughout the year! Thank you all for reading my blog recaps and sharing your comments. Until next year, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

Wiseburn School District Star Party, Hawthorne, CA

On March 24, 2010, Celestron Representatives, from various departments within the company, went out on the road and conducted a star party at a local middle school within the community. This allowed for a wonderful opportunity to help educate and provide students, parents and teachers with a chance to view and learn about the night sky and our nearest neighbors in the Solar System.

The First Annual Wiseburn School District Star Party took place at Dana Middle School in Hawthorne, CA. The Wiseburn School District is comprised of 3 elementary schools and 1 middle school, which serves over 2,400 students within the district. Celestron brought along a variety of "kid friendly" telescopes and astronomical products such as the 80LCM, NexStar 127SLT, NexStar 6 SE, FirstScope and SkyScout, in addition to bigger telescopes like the CPC 1100 and CGE Pro 1400 HD. Representatives from Boeing and Cal State Long Beach were on hand to demonstrate and talk about various science related toys and minerals, which really stirred the children's interests. The PTA also had their tables set up and conducted a fundraiser by selling snacks and drinks to the hungry crowds.

The weather proved to be uncooperative at times, as the marine layer moved in from the ocean, but with a sheer stroke of good fortune, the clouds parted just enough, so guests could view the Moon, Mars and a few terrestrial objects early on. It was fun watching the kids marvel while observing the Moon's craters, and in some instances, we allowed the kids to use the telescope's handcontrol to "drive" the telescopes themselves to their delight. As the evening wore on, Saturn appeared in the east, and we slewed our telescopes to the ringed planet. Although the rings still appeared slightly "edge on" to our line of sight, everyone became jubilant just to see the rings. As one child stated "it looks like a dull orange with a line going through it." I cannot accurately say how many times we heard "wow" and "cool" coming from both the children and parents throughout the evening, but it was plentiful. The handball court wall served as a temporary screen as we showed Episode 1 of "The Path of Light" to the guests, including many children.

Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill, who helped coordinate this event, gave a brief speech and thanked the school district and everyone involved for allowing Celestron to host this first annual star party event. A raffle prize drawing immediately followed suit with great prizes such as a FirstScope, a SkyMaster 15x70 binocular and an 80LCM telescope. A few student representatives had the honors of calling out the winning tickets. What a fun and exciting evening it turned out to be.

As we were about to pack up, the marine layer came in like an eerily, ghostly wall, but it really didn't matter because the First Annual Wiseburn Star Party was in the books. Judging by the positive comments we heard throughout the evening, everyone went home with a new sense of understanding the universe in which we live in. Celestron would like to say "thank you" to the Wiseburn School District for allowing us to conduct this very educational and successful star party event. We will be looking forward to joining with you again at the next star party in 2011.

Horace Mann Elementary School Star Party, Anaheim, CA

Riding high on the heels of another successful elementary school star party two nights earlier, Celestron was once again on the school star party trail. Next stop, Horace Mann Elementary School, located in the city of Anaheim. Horace Mann is a year round, public, K-6 school with an enrollment of approximately 1370 students. Teacher Jana Lupica, also known as "Miss Lupica" to her students and daughter of Celestron president and CEO, Joe Lupica, had earlier requested if Celestron would be able to conduct a star party at her school. At first, we encountered several conflicts with other events already scheduled in our Community Relations calendar. However, when Friday, March 26, 2010 became available, we quickly set the date and the star party was on! On this evening, a waxing gibbous Moon would be visible, along with several bright planets. Because this school is located more inland from the coast, chances for clear weather remained very high.

Celestron sent out a team of personnel representing different departments within the organization. Representatives included: Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill; Graphic Artist, Christy Ziemer; Firmware Engineer, Derik DeVecchio; Repair Department Supervisor, Danny Fuentes; Technical Support Representative, Tyler Michaelis; and myself, Kevin Kawai, Community Relations Coordinator. President Lupica and his wife, Carole, were also present and ready to take part in the festivities. We arrived on campus in the late afternoon and were greeted by Principal Hallman and Miss Lupica. The weather forecast called for clear skies, and as we glanced upwards, saw only bright blue skies with not a single cloud in sight. We knew it was looking to be a very special star party night. Our telescopes and tables were set up in the playing field to avoid as much stray lights as possible. Meanwhile, the school staff hooked up a PA system, and the fundraising committee prepared pizzas, snacks and drinks for sale.

It wasn't before long when excited students and parents began converging upon us. For many people, this would be their first ever star party, and the crowds just couldn't wait to view the Moon, even before we could assemble the telescopes onto the tripods! In an instant, the lines stretched out as far as the eye could see - beyond the playing field and onto the playground. The kids were just so enthusiastic and well behaved. They asked us a lot of interesting questions. Some of the more interesting questions and comments we heard included: "How does this thing (telescope) see so far away?" and "I think I can see Jesus!" Yes, leave it to the kids for coming up with some truly enlightening remarks.

As the clock ticked away, it was time for me to conduct my presentation on the Solar System objects that would be visible that evening. My talk also focused on what exactly is a telescope, and what are the different types of telescope optical systems. I purposely made my presentation very interactive, and I encouraged the kids to ask questions to their heart's content. As I wrapped up my presentation, I noticed the planet Venus becoming visible against the western twilight sky and immediately pointed out the planet. One by one, the kids and their parents excitedly echoed in unison "There it is!" "I can see it!" How exciting it was.

With 7 telescopes in operation and 2 SkyScouts in use, this star party was the biggest I could remember in recent memory. We estimated 500 to 600 people (families) were in attendance. Michelle and Christy busily worked the Celestron table and passed out astronomy pamphlets and glow rings, while keeping the FirstScopes aimed at the Moon. Before long, the field quickly became illuminated with "floating orange rings" moving about. Each telescope focused in on a variety of different celestial objects including the Moon, Mars, Saturn and the Orion Nebula. The views literally blew away the crowds, including Principal Hallman, as he gazed at the planet Saturn and saw its rings.

Just before the conclusion of the star party, a raffle prize drawing took place with President Lupica doing the honors of choosing the winning tickets, while daughter, Jana (Miss Lupica), took on the role as MC. Raffle prizes included an Anniversary FirstScope and a 60LCM telescope. Congratulations to all the winners, and we hope you'll spend many nights under the stars while sharing the views with others with your new telescopes.

As the star party drew to an end, it was time to pack up and return home. Many people still couldn't get enough of the views and remained in line just to take one last look of the Moon and Saturn. Who could blame them? Celestron would like to say a big "Thank You" to Miss Lupica, Principal Hallman and faculty for inviting us to conduct this special star party for your school. We sure hope all the students discovered new and exciting worlds above them and will really take a liking towards astronomy and science. Who says science can't be fun? And thank you for saving some left over pizza slices for us. They sure were good, especially at the end of a very successful event. Until the next star party. Clear skies to us all!

The Quadricentennial Year of Astronomy Celebration at Irvine Spectrum

400 years ago, the great Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei published a short treatise called the Starry Messenger. This treatise contained Galileo's telescopic observation notes of the Moon, stars and the moons of Jupiter. On Saturday, April 17, 2010, in celebration of the Quadricentennial Year of Astronomy, the Irvine Valley College Astronomy Department and Celestron, teamed up to bring astronomy awareness to the general public. Highlights included daytime and nighttime telescope observing of some of the same celestial objects Galileo viewed a long time ago. The venue - the beautiful outdoor shopping mall "The Irvine Spectrum" located in Irvine, CA.

Celestron arrived at the venue bright and early, bringing along telescopes from all the popular models in the current lineup. Staging took place at 2 separate locations - in front of the huge movie theater and in front of the giant Ferris wheel (it's about a 7 minute walk between the sites). The crew broke up into 2 teams to help train the 20 or so observational Honor students on how to operate and properly use our computerized telescopes. A few of the Honor students also brought along digital video cameras to interview fellow students, personnel and guests to document the entire spectacle. Under the guidance of Irvine Valley College Professors Roy McCord and Dr. Jennifer Tan, over 120 general astronomy students were on hand to work the booths and manage the crowds. The students also distributed their own astronomy brochures and would receive class credit for obtaining at least 10 signatures from people they brought along or passers-by willing to look through the telescopes.

With spring in the air, the weather felt warm and the sky appeared somewhat hazy - nothing unusual - just a typical day in Sunny Southern California. What better place to be on a Saturday afternoon. Each computerized telescopes were fitted with solar filters, so guests could view our nearest star. Although the Sun appeared misty through all the haze and high level clouds, guests by the hundreds came by and remarked how impressive the Sun looked - even with no sunspots visible. As the afternoon wore on, a highly recognizable bearded figure wearing a 16th century outfit suddenly appeared on scene. Why it was Galileo himself (aka Paul Wicker, widely known as the GalileoGuy). How nice of Galileo to visit the Irvine Spectrum to join in on the celebration honoring him! Paul, I mean Galileo, mingled with all the astronomy students and entertained guests with his refracting telescope and stories of his amazing discoveries. Parents and their children were very excited to meet and speak with Galileo and some parents even snapped photos of their children posing with the great astronomer.

By late afternoon, the clouds thickened up considerably and a noticeable halo (Sun Dog) surrounded the Sun. Was it a bad omen of more clouds to come? In time, small pockets of sky began to materialize through the clouds, as everyone kept their fingers crossed and hoped for the best. Finding the waxing crescent Moon proved to be quite a challenge with the stubborn clouds surrounding the Moon. However, we were finally able to spot the Moon through small breaks and quickly had all the telescopes locked in and tracking. Then, what could only be described as a small miracle, the clouds suddenly dissipated in a blink of an eye, as if someone took a giant fan and blew all the clouds away! What an amazing example of what the power of positive thinking could conjure up in a time of crisis - just in time for the big public star party. The Moon became very pronounced against a deep blue twilight sky with a bit of Earthshine visible. A big sigh of relief could be heard for sure! With the dinner hour now upon us, many new guests entered the scene on their way to the many fine restaurants or the huge Edwards 21 movie complex. With many curious people taking notice of our telescope viewing opportunity, lines once again formed quickly, as everyone wanted to get a peek at the Moon. Children, teens, parents, grandparents and everyone else in-between began to converge upon us - exactly what we wanted to see happen.

With the nighttime star party scheduled set to conclude at 9:00 pm, the student telescope operators tried to get as many celestial objects in to view before time ran out. Everyone waited patiently for the planet Saturn to emerge from behind the giant Edwards Theater sign, and when Saturn did emerge, nearly all the telescopes were slewed towards the ringed planet. Word quickly spread that Saturn had become the featured target and guests began pelting the astronomy students with questions about Saturn and for a chance to view. For many guests, this was their first time ever to view Saturn, and as you can imagine, shouts of joy and amazement projected throughout the grounds. The mood back near the Ferris wheel observing site mimicked exactly what was felt here. Shouts of "oh my God, Saturn does exist!" and "looks like a beige ball with a line going through it" to "are you sure you guys aren't holding a picture of Saturn in front of the lens?" could be heard for the evening.

As 9 o'clock finally approached, we knew we had to start shutting down the telescopes and turn away some people, but lines were still very long and guests were pleading to have one last look through the telescopes. How can you say "no?" That's one of the hardships of conducting a public outreach event on a set time limit. Naturally, we don't want to turn anyone away. The entire event was such a success that we informed the guests that there will be more opportunities for star parties in the future. The main objective was to have more than a 1000 people look through the telescopes to become more aware of astronomy and learn about the contributions made by Galileo, who first used a telescope to look out into the night sky. Mission accomplished.

Thank you Irvine Spectrum, Irvine Valley College, Professors McCord and Dr. Tan, as well as all the astronomy students, the Galileo Guy, Sprouts of Irvine, Dean Kathy Schrader, the IVC Foundation, the entire Celestron crew - Christy, Derek, Derik, Tyler and everyone else who contributed to make the Quadricentennial Year of Astronomy Celebration quite a success. Please click on the first photo in this blog recap to be directed to the entire photo album on Celestron's Flickr Photos site.

Weemes Elementary School Astronomy Club's awards ceremony and star party at USC

In September of 2009, Celestron joined the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Physics and Astronomy as co-sponsors of a local elementary school's new astronomy club. Mr. Ray Wong, who teaches at Weemes Elementary School near downtown Los Angeles, came up with the idea of forming a new type of club for his students that would be uniquely different from more traditional school club activities. It had occurred to him "why not form a club that would be fun and interesting for his students to learn more about astronomy, science and space?" The astronomy club gained acceptance with students, parents, faculty and administrators right away and became a great opportunity for the students to learn more about astronomy from visits by USC physics and astronomy graduate students and Celestron personnel. These volunteers would not only share their astronomical knowledge but also serve as mentors and role models for the children.

On Friday, May 7, 2010, the Weemes Elementary School's astronomy club held its first ever awards ceremony at the Seeley G. Mudd building on the USC campus. The evening started off with dinner donated by many popular local eateries including - Panda Express, Domino's Pizza, Pasta Roma, Popeye's, Taco Bell and TOGOs, not to mention more snacks, drinks and goodies brought by the parents! There was so much food, and so much to choose from! Nearly 40 astronomy club students, parents, siblings, friends, VIP Dignitaries, and USC astronomy professors and students gathered inside one of the larger lecture halls for the awards ceremony. Mr. Wong gave the opening speech and spoke of why the astronomy club came about and thanked all the volunteers and supporters for encouraging the student's interest in astronomy. Following his remarks, several student officers from the club recognized and presented awards to special individuals who had supported the club from day one. The kids even quizzed the award recipients with astronomy questions. Some answered correctly, while others were corrected. Naturally, it was all in good fun! Finally, each astronomy club member was recognized and called to the front of the lecture hall and presented with award certificates for successfully completing the program, as faculty and their proud parents looked on. Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, was scheduled to appear and say a few words at the ceremony, but could not attend at the last moment and was represented instead, by Juliet Flores, from the Office of the Mayor.

Additional speeches from USC's astronomy department followed suit; however, some of the graduate students, as well as Chris and I, had to leave early to prepare for the climax of the evening - the star party! Observing would take place on top of the parking structure which featured a clear, unobstructed view of the night sky. Grad students brought up two of their computerized telescopes - Celestron NexStar 8 and 11 GPS telescopes. Chris brought a CPC 800, while I took my personal NexStar 6SE. In addition, I also brought along an Anniversary FirstScope and telescope catalogs. Telescopes were aimed at various objects in the night sky, but of course, Saturn would be king at this star party. As soon as the awards ceremony concluded, about 80 people converged on top the nearby parking structure for the star party. Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mizar were showcased, but unfortunately, no Moon was visible that evening. Many youngsters seemed to gravitate towards the Anniversary FirstScope for a look at Venus, and a few students could be heard asking their parents to buy them the telescope. The Anniversary FirstScope seemed to be the perfect size for the kids and not intimidating to use at all. Lines became long and many people in attendance, including a Los Angeles School District Police Officer, were in awe to watch the computerized telescopes slew and find objects to view. For many, it was their first time to witness such technology in action. By 9 pm, the star party came to a conclusion and everyone went home happy after such a rewarding and fulfilling evening.

We're certain everyone will still be talking about the star party for quite some time, and we hope the students will keep embracing the astronomy hobby for many years to come. Until the new school year, we'll be looking forward to working with Teacher, Ray Wong again and help sponsor the next group of students for the Weemes Elementary School's astronomy club. Astronomy and science is fun, and Ray's students will surely attest to that.

AstroDay Hawaii 2010

It's hard to believe, but a year has gone by since we last visited our nation's 50th state to attend AstroDay - an annual celebration of astronomy, science and Hawaiian culture on the Big Island of Hawaii. When Astronomy Week came upon us again this Spring, Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios, and I journeyed back to the Aloha State, where its beautiful tropical beaches, palm trees, warm climate, active volcanoes, starry skies and friendly people, always makes traveling back to the islands so enticing and memorable.

AstroDay, now in its 9th year, took place on Saturday, May 1, 2010 at the Prince Kuhio Plaza, Hilo, Hawaii. AstroDay Founder and Science Education Outreach Officer (University of Hawaii (Hilo) Institute for Astronomy), Gary Fujihara, informed me that the goal has remained the same as it has since day one - to bring a better awareness for astronomy and science to the people of Hawaii and to all the visitors from around the world. With approximately 30 exhibitors ranging from professional observatories to science and geology clubs, an abundance of interactive displays and children's activities were strewn throughout the mall which helped make learning about astronomy and science fun and exciting for entire families! Like last year's event, Celestron's held its display tables next to center stage, and we brought along a wealth of products to demonstrate. These items included our Limited Edition Anniversary FirstScope, 60LCM telescope, HandHeld Digital and Optical microscope, as well as our long time favorite - The SkyScout. During the 6 hour event, we passed out sky almanacs, catalogs, Frisbees and product sell sheets, but the best part was conversing with and allowing guests to try our products. Local favorite Disc Jockey, "DC in the Morning" once again served as Master of Ceremonies and kept the crowds entertained and informed of the day's festivities. Children and adult hula and musical performances took place which kept the crowds entertained which really bestowed the Aloha Spirit upon everyone. What a great ensemble of talent!

At 2 pm, the Raffle Prize drawings took place, and I joined "DC" on stage to conduct the drawing. Throughout the day, guests had the opportunity to sign up for a chance to win a few cool raffle prizes. We donated several "Eyes on the Skies" books, an Anniversary FirstScope and this year's top prize, a NexStar 4SE. Astronomy Magazine donated a Celestron IYA FirstScope for the event too, and entries were collected, along with entries from other institutions throughout the nation holding Astronomy Day events for a chance to win a NexStar 6SE Grand Prize! Astronomy Magazine will draw the winner's name at a later date. Last year, someone from Hawaii's AstroDay won the grand prize, so we'll see who the lucky winner will be this time. "DC" and I had a blast on stage drawing winning names, but surprisingly, the majority of the winners were "no shows" and winners had to be present to win. Rules are rules! With the crowds urging us to keep on drawing, we did just that until one by one, winners stepped forward and claimed their prizes. The winner of the Anniversary FirstScope, took the microphone and thanked everyone because she was thrilled beyond belief and wanted to win a telescope so much for her public outreach stargazing programs in Hawaii. We were all very happy she won and glad to know that she'll put the telescope to good use! Congratulations to all the winners!

After AstroDay concluded, Yasmine and I met up with my island relatives, and we then took a road trip to visit some of the local attractions. No trip to the Big Island would be complete without visiting the Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii to learn more about Hawaii's connection to the stars. We also stopped by the famous Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts Visitors Center and sampled some tasty vanilla and chocolate macadamia nut ice cream. Lastly, we visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and took a long hike down Kilauea-Iki crater, walked through the Devastation Trail and the Thurston Lava Tube, and visited the Jaggar Museum overlooking Halemaumau crater. Unfortunately, time ran out for us on this trip to visit the Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station on Mauna Kea for some stargazing, but there will be another opportunity someday. It's the one of the few places I have already visited in my lifetime where I saw both Polaris and the Southern Cross at the same time on opposite ends of the sky! With its natural beauty and stark contrast between green rain forests, towering mountain tops, sandy beaches and volcanic deserts, the Big Island of Hawaii will always remain high on my list as a great vacation destination.

Celestron would like to say "Mahalo" (thank you in Hawaiian) to "Mr. AstroDay" Gary Fujihara, "DC in the Morning", the UH Institute for Astronomy, and to all the participants and tireless volunteers who made the commitment of "Bringing Astronomy to the People". May you all continue to reach out and spread the wonders of astronomy and the Aloha Spirit to everyone you come across.

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