The 2023 Stellafane Convention
Sean Walker Sky & Telescope
Several Sky & Telescope editors attended the 2023 Stellafane Convention over the weekend. This year was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Springfield Telescope Makers, and attendance was the highest it's been since well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was a full house on Breezy Hill on Saturday where we greeted attendees and saw telescope innovations created by amateurs over the past hundred years. Saturday evening featured talks with presenters in early 1920s fashion. Friday and Saturday evening produced clear skies with a welcome reprieve from the wildfire smoke that has choked the eastern US throughout the entire summer.
The Stellafane Convention is a gathering of amateur telescope makers. The Convention was started in 1926 to give amateur telescope makers an opportunity to gather to show off their creations and teach each other telescope-making and mirror-grinding techniques.
