Link To David Dunham’s “Occultation Innovations” Presentation for 2019
2019 IOTA Annual Meeting
The 2019 meeting of the International Occultation Timing Association will be held on September 21, 2019, at Camp Oakes, near Big Bear, California, USA. The meeting will be during the Riverside Telescope Makers’ Conference, which is now called the RTMC Astronomy Expo, at that site.
We have reserved the Bose Hall and the Annex meeting rooms for September 21st. We’ll have a brief business meeting and a few reports of recent occultation results, but much of our meeting time will consist of informal sessions to teach our techniques and our software, with opportunities for hands-on experience. The meeting will be of one day duration, probably from 9 AM to 5 PM Pacific Daylight Time, with a break for lunch. We are not planning to webcast the meeting this year.
The Riverside Astronomy Expo is one of the largest meetings of amateur astronomers in the world. The dates of the Expo are September 19th through the 22nd. Amateur telescope makers display their inventiveness and craftmanship, while many vendors of astronomy stuff have booths to showcase their products. There will be plenary lectures on each day, but the schedule of these has not yet been established. More information about the RTMC Astronomy Expo is available here: http://rtmcastronomyexpo.org . Note that there is a registration fee or entry fee to the Expo, but not to the IOTA meeting itself.
Many attendees to the Expo stay overnight and camp on the grounds of Camp Oakes. Astronomers will be observing the sky at night, so vehicles are proscribed from travel in and out while it’s dark.
Hotels are available nearby in Big Bear, and a helpful list is here:
http://www.bigbearinfo.com/LodgingGuide.pdf. There is inexpensive, dormitory, bunkbed lodging at the camp for those without camping gear who wish to stay at the camp. Meals with limited menu choices are available at the camp on a short order basis, for CASH ONLY. Should you wish to attend the Expo and stay at the dormitory, you can assure that space will be reserved for you by registering online. Onine registration is expected to begin on about May 20th, and will be closed on August 31st. Beginning on September 1st, you can only register on-site, and the price will be higher.
I look forward to hob-nobbing with many of you at this meeting. It will be good to see old friends and acquaintances again.
David Dunham has posted a list of occultations in the Southern California area near the time frame of the IOTA meeting: Sep/Oct Events.
Here is the timeline/agenda for the meeting: Agenda
Roger Venable
VP, IOTA