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Hidden Hollow
2007
 
Ron Ravneberg
 Ron Ravneberg is an amateur astronomer, telescope maker and long-time member of the Columbus Astronomical Society. An amateur astronomer since the 1950s, he is a Past President of both the Seattle and Columbus astronomical societies.
Ron has owned and used a number of telescopes over the years, ranging from a 60mm department store refractor up through an 8” refractor and a 17.5” reflector. At present, he has settled into smaller instruments, and his largest today is a twin-truss 10” f/5 that he built in 2001. The two telescopes he uses most frequently, however, are a 3.5” Questar he’s had since 1978 and a 4.1” f/4.2 RFT he built in 2004. (Rumor has it that he will be bringing his latest scope to Hidden Hollow this year, a 4.5” f/15 refractor he built around a J.W. Fecker objective and other antique components.)
While he can't spell CCD, he does know into which end of the telescope you look, and spends his astro-time enjoying the quiet pleasures of the night sky – an experience he will share in a presentation entitled “The Music of the Night: A Grab & Go Approach to Quiet Astronomy.”
Today’s amateur astronomers are so often wrapped up in computers, imaging, wires, GoTo, huge aperture and other complexities of the hobby that they often bypass the quiet pleasures that can be found when one simply takes a small telescope follows Walt Whitman’s advice to look up in perfect silence at the stars.
We look forward to him joining us a Hidden Hollow!
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