RTMC report

It's crazy. People are taking Friday off from work and then
running home Saturday night on a 3-day weekend. All because of the =
Friday
"feeding frenzies" of the past. This needs to be stopped.


Hi Del,

I've only been to RTMC once (last year) and i don't know what you mean =
by
a "feeding frenzy" on Friday. You mean to get the best deals at the swap
meet? Or are there special prizes on Friday? I didn't go this year =
because
i forgot to pre-register and the $25/day walk-in price just seemed too =
much.

-Florian

Several years ago the major vendors began to bring blemished merchandise and
sell it at very low prices on Friday. This invoke a mass stampede to get to
RTMC early on subsequent Fridays and was referred to as the "feeding
frenzy". There isn't as much of this anymore but the damage has been done,
both in regards to the 'come early, leave early' problem and also in regards
to materialism over astronomy and telescope building.

I like the gear as much as the next guy (a new ST-10 CCD is sitting on my
desk!), but the RTMC conference is definitely suffering badly on Sunday.

Del Johnson



"Florian" wrote in message
...
It's crazy. People are taking Friday off from work and then
running home Saturday night on a 3-day weekend. All because of the Friday
"feeding frenzies" of the past. This needs to be stopped.


Hi Del,

I've only been to RTMC once (last year) and i don't know what you mean by
a "feeding frenzy" on Friday. You mean to get the best deals at the swap
meet? Or are there special prizes on Friday? I didn't go this year because
i forgot to pre-register and the $25/day walk-in price just seemed too much.

-Florian

Del, thanks for the explanation.

-Florian

Alan French wrote:

"Del Johnson" delastro@{right star in Orion's belt}.sdsu.edu wrote in
message ...

2. I had a chance to view through Celestron's new 20-inch corrected
Dall-Kirlham cassegrain. [snip]


Are you sure? At NEAF I believe Celestron said the prototype they were
showing was only an 18", although the production model will be a 20".

Clear skies, Alan


This was a 20" unit.

All the years I've attended since 1978 When there was a moon in the sky Sunday
afternoons are alway's deserted. Next year new moon event will I'm sure draw
out more people and Sunday afternoon will be more crowded. Although I'd expect
Vendors and other attendees will be packing up on Sunday afternoon. Meade has
been notorious for packing up on Sunday and leaving by noon anyway's. as far as
the friday feeding frenzy is concerned that has been going on since 1986 and
1987 those were the worst years when people would mug you at the Celestron tent
if you had a Vixen SP mount in your hands.

I've maintained for years that RTMC should move from camp oakes to better
accomidations on the moutain. There are a number of 1st class resorts in the
area. So what its gonna cost more money. I love it when people complain about
the food at that camp. Hey when your 10 years old or if your stationed at Camp
Pendelton, Camp Oaks food is the Ritz :-)

The seeing is alway's bad your not very far from Onyx summit so there is
alway's going to be air flow in the region. There have been very few years when
the seeing was halfway's decent. Its simply the way the mountains in that part
of the San Bernadino's are. Want better seeing move further north along the
coast. I'd do the drive.

Clear Skies
Dwight L Bogan

"Alan French" wrote

Are you sure? At NEAF I believe Celestron said the prototype they were
showing was only an 18", although the production model will be a 20".

Hi Alan,

Although I didn't get a close look, the scope at RTMC was
structurally different from the one at NEAF. At NEAF, it was an open
Surrier truss with carbon fibre truss tubes, and at RTMC it was a
solid tube.

H.

Del Johnson wrote:
Let me make this simple and clear. People are rushing in early to RMTC
primarily to get a good deal on equipment, then they hope to win the big
14-inch Meade telescope, and then they go home. If you think that
everything was packed on Sunday then we must have gone to two different
conferences.

I think where the two of you aren't connecting, Del, is that your real
complaint isn't with RTMC: it's really about the materialism of the
people who attend. I'd submit that RTMC isn't really to blame for that,
and no matter what policies RTMC chooses they aren't going to change it
either...

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply have a physician remove your spleen

"Howie Glatter" wrote in message
om...
"Alan French" wrote

Are you sure? At NEAF I believe Celestron said the prototype they were
showing was only an 18", although the production model will be a 20".

Hi Alan,

Although I didn't get a close look, the scope at RTMC was
structurally different from the one at NEAF. At NEAF, it was an open
Surrier truss with carbon fibre truss tubes, and at RTMC it was a
solid tube.

Howie,

Thanks. Sounds like a different scope, and probably the 20" version.

Clear skies, Alan

Yes, and its always been like that. Anyone remember the feeding frenzies
of twenty years ago?

Greg Crinklaw wrote:
Del Johnson wrote:

Let me make this simple and clear. People are rushing in early to RMTC
primarily to get a good deal on equipment, then they hope to win the big
14-inch Meade telescope, and then they go home. If you think that
everything was packed on Sunday then we must have gone to two different
conferences.


I think where the two of you aren't connecting, Del, is that your real
complaint isn't with RTMC: it's really about the materialism of the
people who attend. I'd submit that RTMC isn't really to blame for that,
and no matter what policies RTMC chooses they aren't going to change it
either...

"Del Johnson" delastro@{right star in Orion's belt}.sdsu.edu wrote in
message ...
I saw a Harley-Davidson motorcycle rider with a T-shirt that read "If I
have
to explain it to you, then you will not understand." I am beginning to
feel the same way about this topic.

I've got a pretty thick skin after spending several years on Usenet so that
I personally don't take offense to statements such as this, but such
condescension is uncalled for.

Let me make this simple and clear. People are rushing in early to RMTC
primarily to get a good deal on equipment, then they hope to win the big
14-inch Meade telescope, and then they go home. If you think that
everything was packed on Sunday then we must have gone to two different
conferences.

People do rush in on Friday to buy equipment, but making them wait until
Saturday would merely postpone the feeding frenzy by one day. Without
equipment sales, then the place would be a ghost town on Friday as well,
reducing the RTMC to a even more of a one-day event.

I never said that everything was packed on Sunday, only that the annex
workshops were. As I indicated earlier, your claim that they were packed
only because there was nothing else going on is contradicted by your own
statement about all the activity on Saturday, when the annex was packed as
well.

Moving one of the major door prizes to Sunday might bump up attendance, but
that would merely be pandering to the very thing that you bemoan.

Your other proposals involve restrictions on access and activity: no entry
before Friday afternoon, and no vendor sales until Saturday. Even moving the
merit awards back to Sunday restricts people's opportunity to look at and
through those telescopes, which really is why the RTMC was created in the
first place, to promote amateur telescope making. The response to moving the
merit awards to Saturday has been overwhelmingly positive.

Greg is right in that changing policies to restrict access at the RTMC isn't
going to change the materialism present in the hobby.