{"id":7805,"date":"2026-08-11T20:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/?p=7805"},"modified":"2026-08-11T20:56:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:56:38","slug":"the-road-to-stellafane-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/2026\/08\/11\/the-road-to-stellafane-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Road to Stellafane – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last year, I had the great honour of being the keynote speaker at the 2025 Stellafane1<\/a><\/sup>https:\/\/stellafane.org\/<\/a><\/span> Convention of the Springfield Telescope Makers Association. I had such a good time at the convention, which is held over 2 days in the hills of Vermont, that I vowed this would become and annual pilgrimage for me. Today, I found myself on the road to Stellafane again, and I am elated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Springfield Telescope Makers Association hosts one of the oldest amateur astronomy events in North America: Stellafane. Roughly meaning \u201cShrine to the Stars\u201d, Stellafane dates back to 1926 and attracts hundreds of astronomers and makers – amateur and otherwise – each year. To be fair, \u201camateur\u201d is a bit of a frustrating term here. I have seen hand-crafted telescopes built by passionate \u201camateurs\u201d that would make the skills of most professional astronomers look inadequate. Stellafane attracts a lot of these folks to a beautiful, high dark site above Springfield, VT, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, I was privileged to be selected as the keynote speaker for the event. On the last night, the Saturday, of the convention, a person gives an outdoor lecture to hundreds of of people – young and old – under the stars. It is a transformative event, and last year I was also tranformed: into a person who wants to come to Stellafane every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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