One of the greats of amateur astronomy passed away last October. Al Nagler who started his business, Televue, years ago and who made great advances in telescope eyepiece technology has been attending the Stellafane Convention for years and years. He won prizes for telescope design. He made his first telescope when he was a high school student in the Bronx. He went on to design complex optical systems used by NASA Apollo astronauts to train for lunar landings, among other things. He loved Stellafane and was here every year I was here, and I have been coming to Stellafane for 37 years. He was so generous - in order to raise money for Stellafane they have a raffle on the last night of the convention. Al would donate literally, bags of expensive telescope eyepiece sets. His son continues the tradition and he donated four bags of 5 eyepieces each, one valued at $2,500 and one at $3,500! So they did a presentation about Al Nagler's life and accomplishments, and then they had handed out tiny little battery powered electric candles, and we all turned ours on as a tribute to his passing. It was so moving.
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