You go to these "get-togethers" in order to get together. Therefore the time available is not wasted in any foolish formalities but is almost wholly devoted to that which you swap doubtless wish to do, namely, to meet others who are interested in the hobby in which you are interested, to experiences having to do with it, to pick up new ideas and disseminate some of your own if you have any, and in general to keep track of what is going on in the world of telescope making, both amateur and professional.

At this year's meeting, one or two new telescopes were in evidence. These had been brought from afar, the majority of amateurs present having motored to the spot. One amateur, a woman by the way, brought along her mirror and by camping with her family in a tent pitched nearby in a grove, and thus prolonging the stay, she was able to perform the work under the supervision of others of greater experience. Porter, the leader, takes a great deal of interest in the efforts several of the ladies have made, possibly because it has been carelessly said that no woman could hope to make a telescope. None has, thus far, since the present telescope making campaign was begun by the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, but we have hopes. However, the conventions will hardly be likely to degenerate into a hen-party, and a man can still attend one of these gatherings in his second or third best suit, if his wife will let him.

There was the usual supper whose "piece of resistance" as someone unfeelingly termed it, was beans baked in the old bean hole. This is simply a hole dug in the earth and heated by means of a prolonged fire, the pot of beans being inserted afterward and cooked all night. One of the "Stellafane" group, Mr. Redfield, happens to be a bang-up good cook and, mirabile dictu, he actually likes to cook. He is therefore the hub around which the Springfield amateurs revolve at mealtime.

Fifty-six may not seem to some like a very impressive muster for a convention, yet when you consider that the total number to draw from, that is, the total number who have obtained copies of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN book "Amateur Telescope Making," is something like 3000, and that fully half of these live west of the Mississippi or in foreign lands, and further that most of the others had to cover several hundred miles in order to reach the spot in Vermont, the attendance of this number of enthusiasts may be taken to indicate that the hobby is one which takes strong hold of the amateur.

Astronomy is becoming the leading science as far as popular interest is concerned, doubtless because it opens up vistas of grandeur and magnitude which appeal to people of all classes sufficiently intelligent to wonder what (and why) this Universe is. It was recently found by actual analysis that newspaper editors throughout the nation now give more space to astronomy than to any other science; and newspaper editors know what the average person wants.

At the gathering there were no set speeches or formal deliberations, but one could see all day, all night long and during all the next day, the usual knots of enthusiastie amateurs gathered around this or that visitor, soaking up some wrinkle or other; whether an account of the new telescope Professor Ritchey is planning, or a simple demonstration of the use of monochromatic light in figuring a flat, as explained by Porter, or the discussion of the newly available eurves of the Sehwartzchild telescope as elucidated by Director B. W. St. Clair of the Standardizing Laboratory of the General Electrie Company, Lynn Works. There has been a great deal of mystery concerning these curves by means of which, coupled with other refinements of already existing methods, Professor Ritchey expects to obtain much greater results out of telescopes of the sizes at present in use, and even correspondingly more out of the larger instruments which he has planned. We hope to publish the details of these plans in some future issue.

But by all means the most epochal seientifie work of the whole convention was the drainage of a small pond in the woods near "Stellafane." It happened this way:

One of the less argumentative amateum attempted to sleep instead of staying awake all night to settle points in telescope making. A single mosquito, doubtless the incarnation of some evil spirit, prevented said sleep from taking place. This amateur, no sooner had day broken, secured a shovel and by herculean efforts dug a ditch that drained the pond which doubtless represented the old homestead of the mosquito. So, next year when you come to the get-together, you will find the bottom of the pond dusty and the last mosquito vanished from Vermont. Now will you come?- A. G. 1., Tel. Ed

The Society for Amateur Scientists (SAS) is a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to helping people enrich their lives by following their passion to take part in scientific adventures of all kinds.