"Del Johnson" delastro@{right star in Orion's belt}.sdsu.edu wrote in
message ...
I peeked in a Chris Schur's Sunday talk and only saw a handful of
attendees.
He normally draws a good crowd. The RTMC directors really need to address
this "come early, leave early" problem. Moving the merit awards to
Saturday
night was a step in the wrong direction.

Del Johnson

There have been frequent requests over a number of years to move the merit
awards to Saturday, mainly to allow people to look at the telescopes and use
them on Saturday night, and also to allow attendees to vote for the
Astronomer's Choice Award. Having the merit awards on Sunday night might
keep a few more people around, but then they wouldn't have the opportunity
to look at them since most of those scopes are packed up and gone by then. I
believe your opinion is in the minority. The major door prizes are presented
on Saturday by request of the donors (Meade, Celestron).

The "come early" problem was addressed this year by strict enforcement of
the Friday morning entry time. In previous years, unauthorized people would
come in on Thursday.

Chris' talk was at the same time as Wodaski's workshop in the annex, which
was filled to capacity.

Overall attendance was in the neighborhood of 1,600, which was in line with
what we expected, considering the upcoming transit of Venus, waxing gibbous
Moon, and increase in fees.