RTMC 2001

by Mark Wagner

I returned yesterday from Friday and Saturday at RTMC. This was my first experience at the event. After catching up on several days of e-mail and business, I'll post a full report. For now I will say that the skies were decent, but not great, temps were hot during the day and comfortable at night. Dust was an occasional problem, but infrequent. The area around Big Bear is beautiful. The drive up from Lucerne Valley awesome. People I saw there who are known in the bay area:

William Phelps
Ken Lum
Doug Davis
Jeff Gortatowski
Ray and Brandon Gralak
Mimi Wagner
Paul Lefevre
Carter Roberts
Dave North
Akkana Peck
Joe Sunseri
Others who were brief smiles of acknowledgement unnamed in this report...

Vendors included:

Tele Vue (David Nagler and Steve White)
StellarVue (Vic Maris)
Discovery Telescope
JMI
Oceanside Photo & Telescope
Woodland Hills Camera
William Yang Optics (and Anacortes)
Meade
Celestron
TeleTrade (Don Rothman)
Telescope Warehouse (Bill Vorce)
Gary Russell Optics
Hands On Optics (Gary Hand)
Universal Astronomics
AstroSystems (Randy Cunningham)
TEC
Tony & Daphne Hallas
Coronado Filters
StarSplitter Telescope
Bill and Sally Fletcher
StarTek
Sky Tent
Meridan Control
Software Bisque
Equatorial Platforms
Astronomy To Go (with their 36" Dob)

There were good number more, but that's all I can recall.

Impressions to follow once I am unburied.