Saturday 10 May 2003

A perspective by Chris Stewart

The second annual ScopeX telescope and astronomy exposition has now come and gone and begs the question, "What can one say about the day?" Well, there was a whole programme of lectures, as well as multitudinous telescope to inspect (these being of both home-made and commercial origins), friends to talk to, rocket launches, ATM demonstrations, never-ending questions to field from the public, etc. It was so full, that one person could not possibly hope to cover it all. Many of the participants found themselves so busy that they wished there had been time to catch a lecture, or even just walk about. Therefore, comment from other participants was solicited and follows my own. Hopefully it will give a flavour of the day, and encourage you to join in next year. But first,

Q: What were the main objectives of ScopeX?

A: To have a special day devoted to our hobby, in which we could…

• Promote astronomy in general and telescope making in particular to the public;
• Meet people who share our passion for these pursuits and promote friendship within this select community;
• Show off our handiwork and exchange ideas, knowledge and experience;
• Recruit new ASSA members.

In terms of these objectives, the first ScopeX succeeded to such an extent that we were encouraged to pursue our vision of an annual event. On balance, this year’s event was similarly successful. While nothing can recapture the "vibe" that the first example of any event engenders, lessons learned last year stood us in good stead. Of course, we are still "experimenting" and - although we did learn even more this time round - we would certainly welcome feedback from participants and visitors alike, in order to ensure the continuation, growth and success of ScopeX.

How do we know it was successful? Apart from the many favourable comments at the time, and the generally mellow atmosphere on the day, the Johannesburg Centre had a sizeable influx of new visitors to the following monthly meeting. Similarly, the Telescope Making Class was literally inundated with new arrivals the following week. If the level of enthusiasm of the newcomers to the class can be sustained, we can expect many new instruments to be on display next year.

So what was different this time? Some of the more readily identifiable things would be…

• The number of amateur telescope exhibitors grew from 27 to 43, which was excellent. Several of the exhibitors presented more than one item, and most brought friends and family too.
• On the other hand, at 900+ we had slightly fewer public visitors, this being largely attributable to clashes with other events.
• Participation from people outside the Johannesburg Centre increased notably. We were very pleased to have a greater presence from ASSA Pretoria. That exhibitors arrived from as far afield as Dundee and Durban, bodes very well for next year.
• A reward system for the exhibitors was introduced (more on this below).
• There were again 10 lectures, but with six professionals presenting talks compared to three last year. Feedback from attendees was very positive. However, we are still trying to work out a way for exhibitors to be in two places at the same time so that they too can attend all the lectures! It was a gruelling schedule for Dave Gordon, who did an excellent job as Master of Ceremonies.
• The Telescope Making Demonstration was a vast improvement on last year and Vince Nettmann did brilliantly: he had a nice display and managed his team of helpers very well. It was clearly popular with the public, who kept the team on their toes with endless streams of questions, many of which were answered by way of practical demonstrations.
• Commercial telescope exhibitors increased from one to four this year and a popular science commercial component was introduced; this gave a total of seven commercial exhibitors. The point is not to become a heavily commercialised venture, but rather to provide the public with a balanced mix of commercial and amateur-built astronomical equipment, as well as books and the like. This way, people can make comparisons, understand what is available or achievable and make informed decisions. Some commercial sponsorship is certainly necessary to make the venture economically possible.
• The Information Desk had more staff this year and thus coped better.
• Public viewing was encouraged, with a much larger presence later into the evening despite the colder temperatures that arrived as soon as the Sun approached the horison.
• Many more telescope sported Solar filters, these no doubt being largely due to the December 2002 eclipse but perhaps also the Mercury transit earlier that week. A number of sunspot groups, including one rather large one, were visible. Hopefully this will lead to an increase in Solar viewing.
• More people appear to be involved in electronic imaging, be it with dedicated CCD cameras, modified webcams, video cameras or straight digital cameras. Apart from static displays of previously obtained images, the crowd was enthralled by daytime live video of the Sun and Moon, and evening views of the Moon and Jupiter. This enabled several people to view through an instrument simultaneously, with details (e.g. the Straight Wall and Alpine Valley on the Moon) easily being identified and pointed out to them by knowledgeable individuals.
• The largest sized instrument this year was Tim Cooper’s 16-inch, for which this was the first excursion from his observatory in 11 years. It’s a monster that deservedly attracted considerable attention. Who will dare to top this next year?

The weather was again perfect – thank goodness. Whereas last year it was rainy the week before and cleared for the day, this time a cold front rolled in the next day, bringing cloud and low temperatures.

We appreciate the effort it took for people to bring their precious (and sometimes physically challenging) equipment, risk putting it in front of the public, and manning their stations for the day. Similarly, there were a large number of unsung heroes who helped behind the scenes with organising and running the day. For many, this was second time round. In order for this event to continue to survive, it is necessary to encourage exhibitors to return, preferably with new items. This is quite a commitment, which raises the question of how to induce them to do it again (and again…)? Our answer was to introduce a 2-part reward system. This added some flavour and professionalism to the day and came as a pleasant surprise to many. We hope that it will give the amateur telescope makers / gadgeteers as well as those embarking on observing or imaging programs the incentive and motivation to continue with projects old and new, spur them on to greater heights, and ensure growing numbers of exhibitors. So how did this work?

Firstly, the judges inspected the amateur-built exhibits. On the basis of our deliberations, we were pleased to be able to hand out some quite substantial "merit awards" such as eyepieces, tools and book vouchers, for which we had obtained sponsorship. These awards were based on quality of workmanship and execution, innovation, ambitiousness of the project and practicality of the finished result. Unfortunately we were only able to obtain eight prizes of sufficient worth to dish out. Certainly there were several more whom we considered deserving - a few of these we felt compelled to mention at the prize giving.

Secondly, there is the question of how to reward those who do not have the resources to excel at telescope making, or who took the trouble to bring equipment that they had bought? And what of the helpers? The presence and involvement of these participants is equally appreciated, but they cannot be "judged" or ranked in any way. Our solution was to have two "lucky draws", in which a number of prizes were randomly assigned. The one draw was for all exhibitors (except the winners of the merit awards), while the other draw was for the helpers. Again, we would have liked to give out more, but distributed the available items as fairly as possible.

Let’s do it again next year!