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.

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.