AIC 2008 wrapped up just over a week ago. It was a good conference, fairly different in content and organization than prior years. The core of the conference did not focus all that much on astrophotography, but rather on general space science, publishing, and 3-D rendering. I suppose it was good to get general theory rather than cookbook demonstrations as it has been in the past. From an astrophotography standpoint, the sessions on Friday were quite good. This balanced the more general content of Saturday and Sunday with smaller group sessions on tools and techniques.

As always, it was good to see friends from prior conferences and talk about imaging, observatories, and equipment. The vendor section was quite good, with more vendors than last year. I am now again interested in pursuing Hyperstar imaging given a very convincing discussion with the folks at Starizona. My current dream scope is a Planewake CDK 12.5. But the observatory comes first.

Here are some photos of the conference. This first is a shot of the main conference area.

AIC 2008 Meeting Room

Bud Guinn and Venkata model the 3-D glasses we were given for the 3-D rendering presentation.

Astro-Physics, Planewave Instruments, and ASA telescopes provided an impressive display.

The Chronos Mount is an intriguing product. It uses harmonic drives and is an equatorial mount that does not require a meridian flip.

I’m already looking forward to next year’s meeting. I would like to see some presentations on the math behind image processing.