I don't profess to be a great "people" imager, but I wanted to share some pictures of the great folks who are on the cutting-edge of present amateur CCD imaging as well as the professionals from industry and Government inspiring us with all their great technology.  I used a Cannon 350XT Digital Rebel to shoot these in automatic mode. These required, more often than not, work done in PS to normalize color, brightness, and contrast. I arrived at the meeting just as Rob Gendler was giving his talk at 9am, Saturday morning; aren't "red-eye" flight great!  There were plenty of snacks to be had as well as an (almost) limitless supply of various coffees and teas.  The vendors occupied about 1/3 of the meeting's floor space, towards the left-hand side of the room.  SBIG, Bisque, Don Goldman, DC3 Dreams, Oceanside Telescopes, RCOS, and the CCDWare folks had nice displays and were giving generous discounts to some of their products.   Don Goldmand was most helpful in receiving my photometric blue filter for modification despite all the people buzzing around him with questions.  RCOS (see picture, last row on the right above) displayed their custom made, Air-Force ordered 20" RCOS that has a 15º per second azimuth/altitude slewing rate for satellite launch monitoring.  If you want to know the cost of this baby, its simple.  Just multiple the aperture (in inches) by $10,000 and you get the cost..LoL!  The talks were very constructive, some being longer than others, but all-in-all nicely timed.  Dinner was served at about 7pm and was a delicious blend of chicken or roast beef, shish kabob'd vegetables, 4-6 different desserts and any alcohol you could partake or  afford.  I met quite a few people like Daniel Verschatse (Chile) and Johannes Schedler (Austria) who have done great CCD imaging outside the USA.  Many others from the United Kingdom, Australia, and one as far away as Norway were present.  SBIG was advertising there new 7 (50mm sized) filter holder for the STL type cameras.  Don Goldman had a neat little motorized off-axis guider for sale.  There was a Takahashi on display with a massive Finger Lakes filter wheel; 50mm filter holder I think.    By 12pm Sunday, the meeting was over and door prizes were handed out.  I was very fortunate to win the BIG one from RCOS in the form of a $1,500 credit for any RCOS product.  Tony Hallas made a surprise  visit to have lunch with East Coast CCD imagers like Rob Gendler and others; if I knew this, I would have planned to fly out 2 hours latter!  All in all Mr. Mandel and company did an excellent job at organizing and holding this meeting at such an accessible venue.  I look forwards to next years' AIC. 

Below each picture (with one exception) is their name with a direct link to the person's website or, if listed with a «-star, the person's portrait/biographical page on the Astrophotographers Portrait Page website that Mike Stecker hosts.  We have eighty-two (82) Astroimagers at the Astrophotographers Portrait Page and if you would like to join, the simple requirements can be seen here. We were able to get quite a few good AstroImagers from the AIC, but could always use more from these caliber of folks.  

Regarding the one (1) exceptions I mentioned,  If anyone knows Richard Fletcher's website/email, let me know so I can include his here.