[SJAAboard] loaner program goals

[Rob Hawley (SJAA)]

First I want to thank the board for taking interest in the loaner program.
For years the program (ahem) lacked transparency.  The board was
sufficiently intimidated that it did not demand it.  Thankfully that era is
past



> To Lee

The loaner program has considerable costs to operate.  Thus even if we get a
number of excellent scopes via donation we may simply not be able to run a
program with all of them.  

Unfortunately most of the scopes we will likely get by donation will be cast
offs.  The (withdrawn) vote to accept a donation to the loaner program and
then sell it will insure that no new equipment is ever donated.

There is also a storage liability.  Remember our business model is that of a
library that expects all of its books to be overdue.  We focused on the >
10" scopes first since those contain the highest risk.

> To Mark

It is good to hear we now both agree that the LightBridge and Zeider scopes
should remain in the loaner program.  We also agree that we should not add
any additional scopes > 10".  I am not concerned we came to that conclusion
for different reasons.

> Why the 8" and not the 10"?

More personal history.

In spring 2003 I took my ST120 refractor on an observing trip to Arizona.
During that trip I learned of the new Costa Rica observing trip in Feb 04.
After doing some measurements I concluded that an 8" mirror was the largest
mirror that would fit in my carryon. I was skeptical I could use a Dob since
prior to the Arizona trip my star hopping experiences did not go well.  I
wanted the 8" to see if was worthwhile to build my own 8" travel scope.  

Under Gary's objectives that would be numbers 2 and 3.

> To Jim concerning SJAA notification of the loaner program

Thinking about this again I may have been too harsh on the club.  I joined
SJAA and purchased the SCT about the same time.  I was already jumping from
the bridge at the time I joined the club.  Being realistic that was a life
lesson the club could not help me with.

My comments remain in place about not getting any instruction in star
hopping.  I figured out how to do it using the club 8" and my own while
practicing for Costa Rica and the Messier Marathon.  Since I used to teach
using terrestrial maps it was not a challenge.


Rob Hawley