Stellafane Vt [better] May 2026

As Russell Porter once wrote: "The stars are the same as they ever were. It is only our ability to see them that improves."

So, he did what any tinkerer would do: He built his own.

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Because everyone here built their own scope, they know every flaw and virtue of their optics. They will gladly let you look through a 24-inch hand-ground Dobsonian for a view of the Ring Nebula that looks like a photograph.

At Stellafane, Vermont, that ability is still handmade. Check the official Stellafane website for exact dates, as the convention sells out camping spots months in advance. And remember: The best telescope is the one you build yourself.

Porter taught local machinists and clockmakers how to grind glass in their basements. The group, calling themselves the "Springfield Telescope Makers," needed a clubhouse. They chose a hilltop with a 360-degree view and built a small, quirky observatory out of concrete and scrounged materials. They dubbed the site "Stellafane."

This is —Latin for "Shrine to the Stars"—and for nearly a century, it has been the Vatican of amateur telescope making. The Birthplace of a Hobby To understand Stellafane, you have to go back to the 1920s. A young man named Russell W. Porter—an Arctic explorer, artist, and eccentric genius—settled in Springfield. Porter was obsessed with the stars, but he was frustrated. Telescopes were too expensive for the average person.

On a remote, windswept hilltop in the Green Mountains of Vermont, just outside the tiny village of Springfield, a strange ritual takes place every summer. As the sun dips below the treeline, hundreds of homemade telescopes turn skyward. There are no massive government grants here, no billion-dollar mirrors. Just passion, ingenuity, and the Milky Way spilling across a pitch-black sky.