Topic(s): Science
Tags: astronomy diyscience makebooks
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Maker Main Stage (Fiesta)
, Saturday 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Maker Shed Author Signing Area
, Saturday 3:45 PM - 4:15 PM (after his presentation on the Maker Main stage)
With the advent of inexpensive, high-power telescopes priced at under $250, amateur astronomy is now within the reach of anyone, and with the right binoculars, you can make this even cheaper. The author of the "Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders" explains how to get started on the cheap, and where to find hundreds of spectacular objects in the deep sky -- double and multiple stars as well as spectacular star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. You can find Robert in the Maker Shed, and he'll also be appearing on the Maker Main Stage as well as the Make Demo stage.
Web site: http://store.makezine.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=0596526857
Robert Thompson
Robert Bruce Thompson is a coauthor of Building the Perfect PC, Astronomy Hacks, and the Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders. Thompson built his first computer in 1976 from discrete chips. It had 256 bytes of memory, used toggle switches and LEDs for I/O, ran at less than 1MHz, and had no operating system. Since then, he has bought, built, upgraded, and repaired hundreds of PCs for himself, employers, customers, friends, and clients. Thompson reads mysteries and nonfiction for relaxation, but only on cloudy nights. He spends most clear, moonless nights outdoors with his 10-inch Dobsonian reflector telescope, hunting down faint fuzzies, and is currently designing a larger truss-tube Dobsonian (computerized, of course) that he plans to build.