NEAF 2014

NEAF was its usual fill of new equipment, interesting lectures and opportunities to talk one-on-one with manufacturers. DAS members explored many of the exhibits, covering a broad array of astronomy enthusiast gear as we inspected equipment up-close-and-personal. Show prices were attractive as evidenced by the number of attendees carrying large boxes to their cars. We were able to speak directly with Roland Christen of Astro-Physics about our 94mm Brandon-Vernonscope, spent time talking with Rob Teeter of Teeter Telescopes, plus Celestron representatives, and we were able to reconnect with Bob Summerfield of Astronomy To Go. We got the low-down from Scott Losmandy on his mounts' capabilities and obtained much information at the Classic Telescopes booth about our Unitron telescope. The Solar Party this year was brilliant as we went from scope to scope admiring a wide variety of perspectives of our nearest star.

Some highlights: Celestron's new 11-inch f/2.2 Astrograph with rare-earth glass for images free of false color, coma, and field curvature and the new NexStar Evolution Series with sturdier mounts built to handle up to the 9.25" SCT and with integtrated WiFi. A relatively new Dobsonian builder, New Moon Telescopes (NMT) out of Syracuse, displayed a wide variety of sizes but showcasing the 27" Gojira.  Sky-Watcher USA had a prototype of their 18" Ultra-light with cellular mirror.  So much to see and do, the time went by far too fast to cover everything. Oh well, I guess we'll have to go back next year.