Here’s a little photo blog from the “Rencontres du Ciel et de l’Espace” (RCE) show. The show took place from November 1st through 3rd at the Museum of Science and Industry in Paris and featured over 150 lectures (in French of course) over the three days with vendors spread over two floors. Daily attendance is in the neighborhood of 2,500 people, so it’s a busy show! I’m only sorry that these pictures don’t do the show justice. After all, I’m really there to speak with people, make recommendations, and demonstrate our equipment, not write a blog. 🙂
I arrived at my hotel quite exhausted at 7 am Parisian time. Thankfully my room was ready and I took a long nap while the Optique Unterlinden crew did the heavy lifting setting up most of the booth. Show set up was 2-to-10 pm. I arrived at 5 to finish arranging the eyepiece display cabinet and set up our eyepiece/Tele Vue-85/Kermitis as well as Tele Vue-60/FoneMate demonstrations. Also, Alvaro of AstronSCIENTIFIC had photo and visual configurations of Rotarions set up on an NP101is and Tele Vue-85.
Usually we’re being tossed out of the hall at 10 pm while still straightening up the Optique Unterlinden booth. This year we were finished at 8:30 and got to enjoy an extra-leisurely dinner — 29-hours of show lay ahead.
Fabrice wears a New York souvenir acquired during one of his NEAF visits.
Philippe enjoys his 2-4-mm Nagler Planetary Zoom so much he decided to add the 3-6-mm to his collection of Tele Vue eyepieces used with his 175mm refractor.
Philippe with 3-6-mm Nagler Planetary Zoom.
OU Tele Vue expert Vincent (right) talks Tele Vue in a language I don’t understand.
Jean-Marc and Claudine pick up a Paracorr and 8mm Ethos eyepiece to accompany her 13mm Ethos which she just loves on her 300mm (11.8″) f/5 Dob.
Alvaro (right) constantly in motion, just like his Rotarion accessory wheel.
Remy gets a Nagler
Valentine’s father, Nicolas, had me sign the box of his newly purchased Paracorr to her since he says she’s the one with better eyes. Good choice for his 500mm (20″) f/3.3!
I share in what has become a traditional toast at the end of the second day with our dealer from Toulouse, La Clef des Etoiles.
Beverage of choice is a very yummy sweet wine from their home region.
Atik, Takahashi, and Tele Vue share in Friday night’s big dinner hosted by Optique Unterlinden! The foie gras burgers were a hit…more precisely a burger with foie gras on top for additional artery clogging enjoyment. Twenty hours down, only nine more to go…but who’s counting?
The Optique Unterlinden booth during a quieter time, giving me a chance to sneak away.
YouTuber AstronoGeek (at right) with over 371k subscribers brought the crowds into the Optique Unterlinden booth. Apparently, he was quite a hit.Kermitis imaged through a Tele Vue-60, DeLite eyepiece and Fonemate. Kermitis is actually the name my father gave to the constellation of artificial stars created by the reflection of the lights in his eye!
It never gets old inviting people to look into the scope and there’s Kermitis staring back at them! Inevitably comes the “what are we looking at” question.
Where’s Kermitis?
Of course, kids are the most fun!
Till 2020, Paris.
So it was a quick and enjoyable trip to Paris and back for Kermitis and I, except for one little issue. I had to be at the airport early Sunday to catch my flight home. While it’s rough waking up at 4:30am after an exhausting show, the beautiful thing about flying at this time is there is no traffic to or in the airport. I breezed through ticketing and security was virtually empty. I took my laptop out of my carry-on as the pictogram informed me and placed my bag through the x-ray. Surprisingly, it was kicked aside for inspection. I have one of those travel cases with too many pockets and pouches to count and all are full with who knows what. The security officer proceeded to inspect each one and open any box or container found within. After removing my computer’s power supply and other assorted wires, they ran the bag through again and again it was kicked out! The culprit. Kermitis! I was too afraid to ask why.
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