Stellafane Vt ^hot^ -

As Russell Porter once wrote: "The stars are the same as they ever were. It is only our ability to see them that improves."

By [Your Name]

Because everyone here built their own scope, they know every flaw and virtue of their optics. They will gladly let you look through a 24-inch hand-ground Dobsonian for a view of the Ring Nebula that looks like a photograph. stellafane vt

This is —Latin for "Shrine to the Stars"—and for nearly a century, it has been the Vatican of amateur telescope making. The Birthplace of a Hobby To understand Stellafane, you have to go back to the 1920s. A young man named Russell W. Porter—an Arctic explorer, artist, and eccentric genius—settled in Springfield. Porter was obsessed with the stars, but he was frustrated. Telescopes were too expensive for the average person. As Russell Porter once wrote: "The stars are

Porter taught local machinists and clockmakers how to grind glass in their basements. The group, calling themselves the "Springfield Telescope Makers," needed a clubhouse. They chose a hilltop with a 360-degree view and built a small, quirky observatory out of concrete and scrounged materials. They dubbed the site "Stellafane." This is —Latin for "Shrine to the Stars"—and