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President - Rich DeMidio |
Rich has been an NHAS member since 2000 and served as an officer - two years as secretary and a prior term as president. He has also been very active in public observing and focuses primarily on visual Astronomy with his Obsession 18-inch Dobsonian Reflector. Rich takes a lot of pride in old school observing utilizing maps and memorizing the sky. When not observing, he enjoys photography, wildlife, and fishing. When not involved in a hobby, Rich works for IBM as a Senior Managing Consultant. |
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Vice President - Mike Townsend |
Mike Townsend has been a member of NHAS since 1995. He has served 2 years as vice president and enjoys supporting the public outreach programs. Mike's main astronomy interests are visual observing of the planets and double stars. He is a very intense telescope junkie and likes to play with all types of telescopes. Other interests are recreational target shooting, running, reading, and spending time with his family. When not pursuing these interests, Mike works at the Manchester Firing Line Range. |
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Secretary - Paul Winalski |
Paul has been a NHAS member since 2004. An avid amateur astronomer as a teenager, he actively resumed the hobby in 2003. His main astronomical interests are public observing, deep-sky objects, and carbon stars. Paul's current telescopes are a 14" TScope reflector, 85mm TeleVue refractor, and a Coronado PST H-alpha scope. When not observing, Paul is a software engineer with Intel Corporation. |
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Treasurer - Ken Charles |
Ken has been an NHAS member since the spring of 2007. He got completely hooked after attending his first meeting and later that night getting a chance to see Saturn for the first time through another member’s telescope. He is currently the club treasurer, which is right up his alley, as his "other job" is Senior Controller for a construction, condo development and hotel management company. Ken is strictly a visual observer at this time, using his Celestron CPC1100 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope as much as the weather and time permits. Ken loves to attend skywatches, showing the many different objects in our vast universe to as many people as he can. |
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Board of Directors
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Chairman - John Bishop |
John got interested in astronomy when he bought a condo several years ago that came with a telescope. He likes unusual telescope designs and observes with an off-axis Newtonian from DGM Optics. John is a former NHAS vice-president. |
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2nd Year Director - John Rose |
John Rose has been an NHAS member since 2006 and has been interested in Astronomy as long as he can remember. His investment in astronomy resources really picked up with his first trip to Stellafane in 1992 and he has not missed one since. A bit of an equipment junkie, John has always bought something at the Stellafane swap tables. Fortunately he is approaching his equipment storage capacity, which tends to protect his finances. While he tends towards the planets, he is an observer of what ever catches his fancy when out. Other interests are Amateur Radio (call sign WW1Z), woodworking, the Boston & Maine Railroad and others for which he wishes he had more time. In his day job, John is a Senior "Debug" Electronics Technician for contract manufacturer EPE Corporation in Manchester, NH. |
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Junior Director - Gardner Gerry |
Gardner has been an NHAS member since 2003. He has been the Astrophotography Committee Chair since 2006, served two terms as club president and served on the NHAS Board of Directors. He is active with the Educational Outreach Committee and the Public Observing program and received the NHAS Public Observing Recognition Award for 2003. His current scope is a Takahashi FSQ-106N mounted on a Losmandy G11 Gemini mount. When not observing and/or photographing the night sky he is a Camera Repair Technician at Axsys/General Dynamics in Nashua, NH. |
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Committee Chairs
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Astrophotography - Gardner Gerry |
Gardner has been an NHAS member since 2003. He has been the Astrophotography Committee Chair since 2006, served two terms as club president and served on the NHAS Board of Directors. He is active with the Educational Outreach Committee and the Public Observing program and received the NHAS Public Observing Recognition Award for 2003. His current scope is a Takahashi FSQ-106N mounted on a Losmandy G11 Gemini mount. When not observing and/or photographing the night sky he is a Camera Repair Technician at Axsys/General Dynamics in Nashua, NH. |
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Amateur Telescope Making - Larry Lopez |
Larry has never completed grinding a mirror. He has managed to chip his own blank and chip a pitch lap made by John Dobson. He organized a group of mirror grinders in his barn one year and two out of the entire group managed to make mirrors, which Larry considers a complete success. You can rely on him to find the resources for any ATM endeavor and if you have a problem telescope he is all ears. |
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Educational Outreach - Matt Amar (co-chair) |
Matt has been a member of NHAS for more than 5 years. He has always enjoyed looking at the sky but got hopelessly addicted one Christmas night about ten years ago when he saw Saturn for the first time through a small telescope on a very shaky tripod (and it really has rings!). Since then he's gotten slightly better equipment and truly enjoys showing people not only this wonder but all of the other jewels of the night. |
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Educational Outreach - Rich Schueller (co-chair) |
Rich has been a member of NHAS since 2006 and the EOC co-chair since it was started in 2008. He is a dedicated astrophotographer and spends his nights searching for the perfect image. Unfortunately Rich lives in New England and at times resorts to putting an eyepiece in the telescope. When not imaging, Rich enjoys music playing guitar and piano, general photography, hiking, skiing, biking and was at one time an avid rock climber. When not pursuing his hobbies, Rich supports his astrophotography addiction working as a Physicist at a Massachusetts X-ray equipment manufacturer, where he has the destinction of being the last member of the Solar Physics Division. |
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Membership - Bill Steele |
Bill has been an NHAS member since 2006. He has been a interested in the night sky since living in Alaska as young Cub Scout and enjoys talking about constellation lore. He is active in public observing and visual astronomy with his Orion XT10 Dobsonian reflector. When not observing, he enjoys golf, bicycling and hiking. Bill works in the telecommunications industry as a Senior Solutions Architect. |
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Observatory Manager - Larry Lopez |
Larry has been an NHAS member since at least 1995 and was instrumental in the construction of both the club observatory and warming hut. In total, he has built four different observatories over the years. As caretaker of YFOS, he relies on people suggesting things to him so that he can subsequently volunteer them for maintaining the site. |
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Public Observing - Marc Stowbridge |
Marc has been the contact person for setting up a skywatch since 2006 and joined the club about 1999. Marc is active with the Educational Outreach Committee, particularly with the club’s Library Telescope Program. When not showing people "what’s up", Marc is a Clinical Social Worker in private practice. |
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Stellafane Coordinator - Joel Harris |
We're not sure if Joel is a covert CIA operative or in the Witness Protection Program. Whatever the true reason, we seem to be missing his bio. |
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Mailing List Manager - Larry Lopez |
Larry created the first formal NHAS email list in 1995 when he realized that the mailed notices of NHAS meetings were arriving in his mailbox one day after meeting. It has been running more or less smoothly ever since. |
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Webmaster - Mathew Marulla |
Matt has been an NHAS member since 2004 and served two terms as club president. In his "day job" (although it is frequently done at night) he is the Principal Systems Engineer for the SLOOH online observatory. When the New Hampshire weather permits, he images the skies with a Vixen VC200L Cassegrain and William Optics 80mm APO refractor, both on an AstroPhysics 900GTO mount. |
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