Sky and Telescope - February 2018 - 65

L AURIE HESS WITH TELESCOPE: CLIFFORD HOLMES ARCHIVE; DOBSONIAN: BOB STEPHENS; CA MPSITE: S&T ARCHIVES

tion rooms, and two telescope ﬁelds for nighttime observing.
A back road, dubbed "Telescope Alley," became popular for
those with high-end equipment. Sky & Telescope at one point
called the swap meet held there the "biggest on Earth." The
conference eventually spread beyond telescope making itself
into all things astronomical.
In these early years, before the spread of regional star
parties, Riverside drew large crowds from across the western
United States, including enthusiasts from Arizona, Utah,
Nevada, and northern California. "Riverside" soon became
the "Riverside Telescope Makers Conference" (RTMC). In the
early 1990s, as attendance surpassed 2,000 people, the organizers changed the name once more, to "RTMC Astronomy
Expo" (RTMC-AE), to acknowledge that the meeting was
about much more than telescope making.
RTMC-AE organizers and attendees are preparing to
celebrate their 50th gathering over Memorial Day weekend
2018. The event still annually draws some 600 enthusiasts to
the dark skies. Yes, the internet, foreign manufacturing, and
all the competing interests (including the growth of regional
star parties) have taken the crush of attendance off national
star parties, including RTMC-AE. But Riverside is still a wonderful place to discover the latest equipment and techniques,
renew friendships, get the gossip, and have a good time.
Every major star party has its attraction. For telescope
makers, nothing can match Stellafane, its Pink Clubhouse,
and its Russell Porter heritage. For dark sky enthusiasts, it's
hard to beat the location of the Oregon or Texas star parties.
For outreach, the Grand Canyon Star Party is heaven. And
for frozen northern enthusiasts, the Winter Star Party offers
the steadiest seeing and a sunny refuge. RTMC-AE has a good

p RIDING IN STYLE John Dobson and his band of merrymakers, the
San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers, traveled to RTMC and other darksky sites in a repurposed school bus.

share of all that, too, but excels particularly in its presentation program, which has a long history of being in front of
trends in the amateur astronomy community. John Dobson
and the Sidewalk Astronomers started in San Francisco,
but it was only after he and his band of merry astronomers
infected the people at Riverside with their multi-colored,
ﬂoral-painted telescopes that the Dobsonian revolution really
took off in other places. Digital setting circles, too, were on

p STRAIGHT OUTTA THE HAIGHT John Dobson started bringing his large telescopes to
Riverside in 1970. It's too bad this photograph from 1972 isn't in color - that paint job must have
been spectacular. Dobson gave a presentation on "Grinding Large Off-axis Paraboloidal Mirrors"
to attendees of that year's Riverside.
t DESIGNER SCOPE Laurie Hess of the Santa Barbara Astronomy Club ground the mirror for
this reflector, which was on display at the first Riverside gathering in April 1969.
sk yandtelescope.com * FE B RUA RY 2 018

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Sky and Telescope - February 2018

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