"The only things in my life that compatibly exists with this grand universe are the creative works of the human spirit."
- Ansel Adams
Today by God's kindness I am headed off to RTMC, the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference up near Big Bear Lake.
Unless something very important comes up, I attend this conference every year.
I absolutely love wandering around and "kicking the tires" of projects — telescopes of all imaginable and in some cases, never before imagined kinds, as well as support equipment like mounts, computers, cameras, lenses, etc.
There is a group of "good old boys" that I hang out with, and there are always new and interesting people to meet and talk with.
Imagine wandering around in the dark (no flashlights allowed, unless seriously dimmed with red filters) and shooting the breeze with amateur astronomers, opticians, and telescope builders whose combined expertise totals thousands of years?
Imagine lining up and then stepping up to the eyepiece of some lovingly built piece of almost magical equipment, and then seeing — with your own eyes! — some of the glorious wonders of the heavens made for our enjoyment by God's hand.
When you look through the eyepiece of even a rather large telescope — and we have been treated to scopes at RTMC with apertures of as much as 70 inches! — what you see won't ever quite match the glory of the full-color photographic images that you have by now seen from the Hubble telescope.
Even so, there is nothing that matches the thrill of seeing it for yourself! I invite you to come on out, if you are in the Southern California area. Or, if anywhere in the world, at least put RTMC on your bucket list!
Thanks for your time and attention.
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