Celestron Takes the Big Screen at NEAF 2013

It’s a strange tradition: every year, the amateur astronomy community converges on a community college gymnasium in Suffern, NY. It’s an unlikely locale for the annual North East Astronomy Form (NEAF), but after all these years, it feels like a home away from home for Team Celestron. This year, we were especially excited to attend NEAF as a major sponsor. 

Celestron was everywhere: our logo appeared on show fliers and posted signs, and our telescopes adorned the booths of Canon, Astronomers Without Borders, International Dark-Sky Association, and others. Best of all, the performing arts theater where NEAF’s keynote speakers appeared was renamed the Celestron Theater for the weekend! Why all the excitement? Team Celestron chose NEAF to unveil its yearlong marketing campaign, “Where Do You Celestron?” 

For the next year, we’re asking our friends and fans around the world to tell us the cool places they use Celestron products. What better way to launch the campaign than at the United States’ premier gathering of amateur astronomers?

We got the ball rolling by asking our own employees to tell us their stories. We heard from a dad who organized a star party at his son’s day care, an astroimager who creates stunning images with high-end Celestron gear, and an employee who uses Celestron microscopes to examine her fossil collection. At the end of the video, we pose the question to you: where do you Celestron?

Watch the video:

Meanwhile, at the Celestron booth, the team handed out fliers and wristbands, inviting show attendees to submit stories and photos of their stargazing experiences at WhereDoYouCelestron.com.

We were thrilled this year to have an Oscar-nominated filmmaker visit the Celestron booth. John Davis is the creator of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Ant Bully and other animated films. Since 2008, he’s also been an avid astroimager! John stopped by for a two-hour autograph session at the Celestron booth. But instead of signing movie posters, he signed custom astroimages from his portfolio. His beautiful “Orion Smile” image was the biggest draw. Check out all of John’s “best shots”.

John Davis meets a young fan at the Celestron booth.

Celestron also took the stage to discuss our exciting new products. Bryan Cogdell, Product Manager for Astronomy, spoke at NEAF and the North East Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC). He outlined Celestron’s newest astroimaging lineup and gave an in-depth talk at the NEAIC on the EdgeHD optical system. We came prepared with copies of our EdgeHD white paper and they were a popular freebie among imagers and serious visual observers.

Bryan Cogdell gives a product talk at NEAF 2013.

Thanks to everyone at the Rockland Astronomy Club for organizing another great year at NEAF and NEAIC!

With a jam-packed schedule of activities, NEAF went by in a flash. But we hope to keep the momentum—and the conversation—going over at WhereDoYouCelestron.com. See you there!

-Andrea Tabor
Online Marketing Coordinator