Hey! August 17, that's my birthday! I may have to celebrate with an outing with CA Joe!

Ill definitely be attending the the October event as it is in my old neighborhood.

Paulie,

No, they contacted me and dug the site and the outreach I do.

There are background checks, fingerprinting and evaluations.

After some talks, we did the successful Northerly Island event last October and they liked it and it was a "wait and see" situation if I was to be called back for the 2011 season.

I am pleased that my contract got renewed and offered the opportunity to share the skies citywide as their resident astronomer. And it would be great to have you join in. Details on this when the events gets closer.

Is this how Tycho Brahe started?

Paulie,

Find out when the Valpo Park Dist Board meetings are...and set up a scope outside.

All you need to do is catch the right persons eye.

I just checked the extended forecast, and it's not looking good for next week. Not just Tuesday, but the entire week.

But...

I checked Redshift earlier and saw that Uranus will be just above Mercury, so if skies are clear Tuesday, it could be a four planet night for any early observers. Mercury will keep climbing the rest of the week, and will be halfway between Jupiter and Uranus by the weekend.

Well, if you don't get to star party next Tuesday, that'll just give you more time to Mardi Gras party!!! Laissez le bon temps rouler!

The 8th of March Chicago Park District/Chicago Astronomer session has been re-scheduled for the following week - [b]the 15 of March[/b].

Due to paperwork issues, the Park Dist needed to push it back a bit. The date change is fine and perhaps the weather will be better...and warmer.

More details as they arrive.

The Ides of March is cool...

The First Chicago Park Dist - Chicago Astronomer joint session of 2011

16 March 2011

A great session to kick off the 2011 observation season!

I have not conducted a public star party since late fall of last year and it was good to flex the astronomical part of my shrinking brain...and it all comes back.

Setting up near the northern edge of Warren Park, we had a wide open field to seek out urban celestial targets. Coming from a western suburb, traffic was horrendous, but arrived before the set start time and all worked out nicely...with street parking within cart pulling distance. ( Ireally need some sort of caravan cart thing going for all the equipment... )

Bringing the C11 beast, it has survived the Chicago blizzard well and performed nicely...



And....

Chicago Astronomers Paulie and Bill joined in on the fun....



Paulie bringing his trusty 6" Dob and 4.5" reflector and Bill his ultra portable shorty 60mm refractor with wide field views.

The skies were not the best this night, high haze and thin clouds, but good enough for some Jupiter, Mercury, lunar and Orion Nebula viewing.

A good sized assembly of families joined us throughout the evening...



Our green lasers help out greatly in guiding visitors across the skies. It's unfortunate that the brain stems who have them as well will ruin it for the rest of us...



And so, we do what we love best and share the night skies with all those who desire...





And so, two jam packed hours went by in a flash, answering questions, discussing cosmology and telescopes...sometimes being pulled in two different directions, but all good. Difficult as it is, I try to assemble the group in no particular point in the session and grab a quick pic. We estimated about 75 visitors to this session. i do have a counter....but forgot it. Damn!

Next time.

I planned to pick out the Double Cluster, E.T. and other DSO's, but conditions were not prime for this. But what we did share was very much appreciated...and for most, the first time peeking through telescopes. Thanks to Chicago Astronomers Bill & Paulie for making the trip this far north and making a good session a better one.

As we started to pack up, I take our last pics...



A special shout out to Barbara,(second from left), new to our Chicago Astronomer Support Crew, who took charge of my camera and documented the evening, leaving me free to interact with visitors and friends. And to Heather from the Chicago Park District, (far right), who made this year long collaboration possible.

Urban astronomy is alive and well......kicking it off Chicago Astronomer style... ;D

Hi Robb...

Although it's essentially a Chicago Astronomer event, we are representing the Chicago Park District at these events and ergo certain guidelines to adhere to.

I would welcome you most certainly to these monthly CPD events, but we will need to discuss participation and prep ahead of time.

And...

You'll be sharing with us your Hypertune© project?

After some delays with details and weather, when I talked to Joe Wednesday afternoon, he said it was a solid go for, clear or clouds. When I left Valparaiso at 5 PM Wednesday, clouds had been gathering for an hour, and I really didn’t think we’d be doing any observing. I hadn’t seen Joe since October though, and figured it would be worth the drive just to hang out.




I'm throwing this pic in just because I can. Is this maybe a Sun pillar?
I also caught a sundog driving in on the Kennedy, but of course my camera was packed in my bag.


I arrived at Warren Park on Chicago’s far north side (LONG drive for me) just before 7 PM, when the event was supposed to start, and the Sun was just setting. Joe had arrived only a few minutes ahead of me, so we both had haul out our equipment and set up. Heather, our liaison from the parks department started drumming up people from around the park and directing them over to our telescopes. With the sky still aglow in twilight and a few lingering clouds, especially to the west, the Moon was really the only target at first.

Hillary wasn’t with me because she had to work, and I tried to run both my 4.5 go-to Newtonian and my 6” Dobsonian by myself. Before long we had quite a crowd waiting to see Luna, and I had questions coming from all directions. I did my best to keep up, using my Moon map to try to point out features. I hadn’t been paying attention to the clouds on the western horizon, but saw that Orion’s Belt was visible. I was about to show the Orion Nebula when I noticed that Joe had his C11 pointed very low to the west. I looked and there were Mercury and Jupiter hugging the trees along Western Avenue. They wouldn’t be available long, so I pointed out the pair with Joe’s green laser pointer.

I saw Bill, and he told me I was brave for trying to run two telescopes. I thought it be much easier with the go-to tracking Luna, but I saw that kids were using the hand controller and slewing the telescope off target. I thought I would outsmart them by removing the handset, but the CPU must be inside the unit. When I unplugged the controller, the telescope no longer knew what to do, and I had to turn it off, and start all over again. Sheesh. Anyway, it no damage was done, so I can’t complain.

Skies weren’t great, the haze never really let up even though the clouds more or less cleared. Still, between three astronomers and four telescopes we covered the best showpiece targets for the night. I was busy, busy, busy, from just after 7 PM until the crowd cleared out about 8:30. I struggled a little bit from lack of observing time this winter, and hadn’t done a public star party since October. I misidentified Jupiter and Mercury, but quickly corrected myself. The bright Moon and city lights weren’t doing me any favors, either.

It was good to be under the sky with my Chicago friends again, and when the crowds cleared out, we had a few minutes to catch up and talk about future observing sessions. I really could have used Hillary’s help, and I know she wanted to be there, but there will be plenty of times in the coming months for her to join us. I was worn out by the time I packed up to leave, but it was good to know that the public observing season was kicked off with a rather successful session for the Chicago Parks.








Urban astronomers after a successful start to the public observing season.

Cool man! Hope to be able to join you for some of these. Neat that they have them spread out over the city. We'll have to do another informal Sunken Gardens one though!
:-)

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