Schedule of Events

Start at the pink table set up outside the Pavilion, at the bottom of the road past the Food Tent. Congrats, you have already found the first location! Pick up your passport and read the first clue. It's fun! And a great way to learn more about Stellafane, so stretch your legs and shake some sillies out. Don't despair, if you get tired you can take the bus for a bit.

Walk in Russell Porter's footsteps and start your Stellafane Convention with a little Stellafane lore and an easy hike to the summit of nearby Mount Ephraim. Stellafane members have been enjoying this hike for over one hundred years. A beautiful long-distance view of the McGregor Observatory and the Stellafane Convention, and a photo op at the summit next to the cairn monument are highlights of the trip. The round-trip distance is 4.3 miles, with an elevation gain of 671 feet. Dress for trail hiking with proper footwear and take precautions for ticks. If you need water and snacks for the hike they can be purchased from our food vendor. You can ask for the special Stellafane Hike Snack Bag. Meet your hike leader, Katie, at the Food Tent prior to 9:00am so the hike can start on time.

Middle School Age and Younger

Weather Permitting - The circa 1930 Cook Spectrohelioscope will be observing solar prominences and sunspots in hydrogen-alpha light. The Simoni Observatory is northwest of the Stellafane Clubhouse on Breezy Hill.

Weather Permitting - The 1930 Porter Turret Telescope is located just north of the clubhouse on Breezy Hill.

Intro & Grinding

Give mirror grinding a try!

See the individual timeslot entries on the full schedule for the topic(s) demonstrated.

Bus Stops: Pine Island (camping area), Food Tent, Pink Clubhouse

You know about stars, nebulae, and galaxies, but what about the rocks that tell our solar system’s early history? In this presentation, learn about meteorites, where they come from, what we have learned from these elusive space rocks, and how scientists study them. You can view different types of meteorites from the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum up close and even hold pieces of the Moon and Mars!

Making Dental Stone Tools

Making Pitch Laps

To illustrate the vast size of outer space, the Springfield Telescope Makers have constructed a scale model of the solar system, based on the Sun being 12 inches in diameter. The Solar System walk can be taken on your own at any time during the Convention. However, a guided walk is available Friday and Saturday when a docent will provide additional information about the “Solar System Walk” and each particular planet. The walk takes approximately ¾ of an hour if you walk all the way to the planet Neptune, with a total distance of 3,232 feet or a little over ½ of a mile.

Polishing & Figuring

Astroimagers are always striving to get that one great celestial image. But, why not expand our view and take two objects at the same time. Al Takeda will explore the realm of taking two different objects in the same field of view. He will show us some images of near and far objects and photos of pairings that may never happen again. Al will talk about how to frame the objects, and what equipment, and lenses to use. He will also describe each of the celestial targets. Al will demonstrate some of these imaging techniques in real time during the daytime from 3:00pm to 4:00pm on Friday only. The location will be next to the Breuning Observatory.

Are you interested in what's below your feet as well as what's up in the sky? If so, the land use hike is for you. We'll head out on a hike on the wooded roads of Stellafane East and talk about what happened on this land from about 1850 onward; who owned ti and what did they do here. The total length of the hike will probably only be about one mile, but the route is steep in places, and it will be over some rough, rocky ground. Hiking boots are recommended and be prepared for mosquitoes and ticks. If you need water and snacks for the hike they can be purchased from our food vendor. Meet your hike leader, George, at the Food Tent prior to 1:00pm so the hike can start on time.

Age 5-16 Drop in at any scheduled time to pick up your Clubhouse Treasure Hunt list from the Telescope Competition Registrar in the Clubhouse. Two lists will be available, one for ages 5-7 years old, and another for ages 8-16 years. Hunt in the Clubhouse for the items on the list at your own pace and return your completed Treasure Hunt list to the Telescope Competition Registrar for a small prize! Saturday Bonus - the Mechanical portion of the Telescope Competition will be occurring at the Clubhouse on Saturday at the same time! The judges will close the Clubhouse for deliberations during the Mechanical Competition, but it will most likely be open during the times scheduled for the Treasure Hunt.

Check out the Family & Youth Activities webpage to learn more.

All attendees with solar filters or projection set-ups are encouraged to share the Sun with other attendees

In around February this year, artificial intelligence "agents" made a huge leap forward in programming capabilities. Since then, after getting a subscription to Claude Pro, Charles very rapidly developed a half a dozen pet projects in computer programming. He will discuss the agentic leap, how to take advantage of it, plus some of his completed projects: (1) igram_finder, for speeding up data processing when using a Bath interferometer, (2) rewriting 15-year-old Arduino code to integrate a motorized focuser into his astrophotography software stack, (3) developing astrometry analysis code to measure the positions of stars with high proper motions, (4) guiding a complete rewrite and update of the venerable Plate Optimizer (PLOP) program for mirror cell design, and (5) "AP_Catalog", a web-based catalog of all my astrophotography images. He will focus on this and give a live demo to show what it can do and how it scratches his specific itches.

All Ages, no experience needed

Also open 9:00 am to Noon on Sunday

Mirror Testing with a Bath Interferometer - bring your own mirror up to 20 inches in diameter

Testing: Bring your own mirror