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NEAF 2008 (April 26-27, 2008) was coming and again this year a group of us from Maine decided to travel to New York to take in the show. As is usually the case we departed on a Friday afternoon, spent the evening at a hotel near the site then got up early to spend the bulk of the day at the event. Once everyone£r looked around sufficiently and is satisfied (read spent & broke), we head north arriving home late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. This year our Southern Maine Astronomers club member Ron Thompson was able to attend so our group consisted of Rob Burgess, Ron, George (NMI) Whitney and yours truly. George and I have attended this event for the last six or seven years and Rob£r been along nearly as long. This is always a fun time for us and besides the amazing group of vendors and displays we see many people we£ue attended astronomy events with over the years creating a social and fun atmosphere. " Y: `, l$ u$ k' }4 n

0 h% a* N4 t2 A& A) w) j/ {! ?1 ewww.astroview.com.cnThanks to the outstanding efforts of the Rockland Astronomy Club the Northeast Astronomy Forum and Telescope Show has expanded to an international event. Vendors and people from all over attend the lectures, workshops and exhibits and in the last few years the event has expanded into the eastern portion of Advanced Imaging Conference. One of these days I£l going to plan on spending the three or four days required to attend the exhibits as well as the conference as it is clearly worthwhile. It simply doesn't get any better than this in amateur astronomy
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This year I decided to carry a camera to obtain an image group of the event. I£c recently received a new Canon model, the EOS 1Ds Mark III and although I£c tested it doing some bird photography, something I£ue been doing a great deal of lately, I haven£s had much opportunity to use it for general shooting. This was a sterling occasion so I packed what I£c need for this endeavor. A decision to employ a camera of this nature isn£s quite the same as carrying a simple ¡“oint and shoot?and you don£s drop it in your pocket between shots. I carried the Mark III on a shoulder strap and although it£r the largest camera of the four Canon bodies I own, this prevents the weight from becoming a significant issue. When in the field doing nature/bird imaging I always carry a handheld camera & lens in this fashion so it was second nature in practice. I had no desire to carry a flash unit so selected the Canon EF 24~70 F/2.8L lens for this event, quick enough for digital capture in lowlight conditions. Although I always shoot in RAW format this day I made an exception and photographed only in 8-bit jpeg as I didn£s plan on producing master prints from the exposures. So, without further digression, let's get on with this account...
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George on his way to the car as we prepare to depart. We£ue stayed at this Hilton Garden Inn in Nanuet for the last three years while attending NEAF. ÌìÎÄÂÛ̳,ÌìÎÄ,ÍûÔ¶¾µ,ÌìÎÄÍûÔ¶¾µ,apo,ed,televue,tv,tmb,¸ßÇÅ,ap,tec,ÍûÔ¶¾µÆÀ²â£¬ÍûÔ¶¾µ²âÆÀ,˫ͲÍûÔ¶¾µ£¬Ì춥£¬Ä¿¾µ£¬ÍûÔ¶¾µÅä¼þ£¬³àµÀÒÇ6 P9 b, d1 O3 W: `
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My traveling companions and fellow club members from Southern Maine Astronomers ?Rob Burgess, George Whitney & Ron Thompson, all astronomers and NEAF veterans.

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View on the floor ?not long after the doors opened people began to pour in to view the exhibits. This year TeleVue Optics didn£s sell any eyepiece blems or seconds. This appeared to curtail the early morning rush and line lengths somewhat but it got busy quickly. ÌìÎļÒÔ°»¶Ó­Äú£¡  y1 D! h; x2 w9 a( G

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One piece of equipment we all looked forward to viewing was the new 3600GTO mount from A-P ?¡ˆl Capitan? This is a beautiful and serious piece of architecture; displayed on the 3600GTO they had a carbon fiber 300mm Maksutov Cassegrain mounted as can be viewed here. Howard of A-P can be viewed in the background as the day commences.

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Rob inspecting the mount & instrument. I didn£s see him standing in line to place an order or reaching for his wallet though?
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9 Q4 f& z. t1 ~1 Swww.astroview.com.cnRob and Roland posing at the Astro-Physics booth. We had an opportunity to speak with Roland and Marge before it got too crazy... I'm certain they found it to be a busy day. If you£qe involved with amateur astronomy there£r a need to go into detail pursuant to the quality of Astro-Physics equipment and optics. Roland, Marge & staff are known the world over for exceptional products and outstanding service. We£qe always pleased to see new developments this innovative firm has to offer and NEAF is a great place to check these out.

8 _/ l. s9 L) k* U, K9 A& Owww.astroview.com.cnAn A-P 130 EDF on a Mach1 GTO mount. This was the second set up Astro-Physics had on the display floor.

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Takahashi America was represented again this year by Land, Sea & Sky ?Texas Nautical Repair out of Houston - it£r always a pleasure to see Art in New York. My good friend Steve Roffo displayed his Takahashi EM-500 mount and FRC-300 with his FSQ-106N and FS78 piggybacked and focuser/camera mounted. This assembly really draws folks in to visit their display... I was looking forward to talking to Steve in person after many telephone calls and emails to stay in touch. We share the same equipment in many respects, particularly with each of us owning an FRC-300, there aren't that many of these instruments in the United States, I also employ the other two Takahashi telescopes mentioned as well. I can never seem to convince Steve he needs a Astro-Physics 1200GTO mount though?Steve ably assisted Texas Nautical in their booth again this year and displayed some of his outstanding astronomy images. One of my first photographs of the morning, Steve and his system, can be viewed below:[localimg=1000,676]1[/localimg]

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Art & Steve in front of the display?Want to talk Takahashi equipment? There£r nobody more knowledgeable than Art in the United States as far as I know. I look forward to seeing both these guys whenever I have an opportunity and hope to do some imaging with Steve soon.
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* I& @# I, Z- g/ UI sometimes refer to Steve as ¡uuperman£r Pal? Laugh if you wish, but I£ue seen him mount his FRC-300 alone more than once. I£l certain I could do this as well but am far from comfortable with doing so as one mishap could get expensive quickly. # d, @$ n. A1 O+ |0 l

Little Robbie Burgess, George and Steve posing for the camera at the Texas Nautical booth. All of us have Takahashi equipment as well as Astro-Physics products. Both firms have simply outstanding optics & mounts
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Last but far from least of this group, this photograph includes Lisa, Steve£r ¡–ignificant other? This shot was taken in early afternoon after Lisa arrived. I indicated how pleased I was about her showing up stating it was about time they got some class in their exhibit? Lisa was kind enough to share some photos of their girls - yikes, they certainly are growing up.
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The next booth over from Takahashi was the Diffraction Limited display. Doug George and his associate were present and we talked with them for quite awhile about the version five release of Maxim DL expected next month. Being Maxim users, George, Rob and I were duly impressed with the upcoming changes and looking forward to the new release. If you£qe a user of Maxim DL you may wish to get on their website and check out the pending changes.
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$ Z4 ]1 B3 q5 ?% \+ C/ FÌìÎÄÍûÔ¶¾µÆ÷²ÄÆÀ²âºÍ½»Á÷ÂÛ̳As I was walking around the exhibits I came across a Mountain Instruments MI-250 GTO displayed on one of their MI-8P piers. I used one of these with great success before changing to the Astro-Physics 1200GTO because of the payload available for heavier instruments. I looked this mount over carefully to see the various changes since mine had been constructed and was impressed. I used my MI-250 mostly in the days of film imaging and found it to be outstanding with uncanny accuracy and tracking. My MI-250 GTO was so precise I never had to pull my 6X7cm camera to check centering on an object or make certain of the composition ?it always slewed to exactly where I£c planned the exposure. If you were/are a film imager you'll know what I'm talking about. I would recommend this mount and the exceptional service provided by Larry Myers to anyone. If you£qe seeking a new mount don£s overlook this firm! Give Larry a call and tell him I referred you... ÌìÎÄÍûÔ¶¾µÆ÷²ÄÆÀ²âºÍ½»Á÷ÂÛ̳% |# a! \5 T" n& {% P/ v& p; j; a  o/ q! T

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) a8 W3 Z% h* R4 z- s5 G0 a' sAs George indicated when we walked into the exhibit area, ¡—his is our candy store?.. He is correct and it£r always a pleasure to make the rounds and talk with people we see sometimes infrequently. Astronomy really does bring together an interesting and diverse group of individuals

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One new addition we noted this year was a display set up by the Astronomical League a non-profit federation of astronomical societies. I£c never talked with any of these folks in person and it was interesting to meet them and do so. Our club is a member of the league and we£qe familiar with their publications. We were interested in obtaining some of their observing information and indicated before the day was out we£c be back to prevent having to carry around even more stuff gathered during the day.
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Rob explained that he is a Solar System Ambassador from Maine and an active member of the Maine Space Consortium. He£kl be traveling to Arizona soon for an event with this group where John indicated he would be speaking, so they£kl be seeing each other in the immediate future.
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At right: John Goss, Carroll Iorg and Terry Mann of the Astronomical League with Rob Burgess

My longtime friend Warren Keller provided several lectures at the imaging conference this year. He recently relocated and I was pleased to see him as it£r been some time since we£ue done any field time together. I learned that Warren has an exceptional memory and we had a few laughs about some of the shared experiences we£ue had in various remote places seeking out dark sky conditions.
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