I'll be there

Wife, daughter, and I are packing up the SUV. So you all there!

Robb,

I am happy that you could join us last evening.

It was probably the best Chicago Astronomer star party ever...and can only get better!

The pics and story are coming up, and hope you took some as well.

Excelsior....!

There are star parties of the Chicago Astronomers and then...there are STAR PARTIES of the crew and fans.

Tuesday nights unscheduled star party was one of the great ones to remember, with many enjoying the scopes, cosmos and company.

I had arrived early around 7:30pm to set up at Chicago Astronomer Site #1 and met Terry from the Chicago Astronomical Society, who came out to join us, bringing his cool monster sized binoculars...



Tripod mounted, they are a great pair of binos... both eyes trained onto the sky, the Moon is quite a view in stereo.

With the new "Chicago Astronomer Mobile" on hand, (while the Chevelle is being repaired), I parked at my usual spot and started to unload the numerous pieces of equipment. It was a humid and hot evening and wasn't going to get better. The skies were "soupy" and a lot of hazy water vapor in the air. (By the end of the session, my t-shirt was soaked...but in a good way.) We will punch through as best we can and enjoy the brighter targets of the session.

Terry imaged me hoisting the 29lb OTA on to the Losmandy mount...



Seated firmly in it's mount, I always examine the set-up, making sure all clamps are tight and balance good...



The grab bars and control handles I added makes this procedure very easy and brings good control over the beast.



Chicago Astronomer Paulie was already on site and makes his way to a coveted parking spot...



...avoiding running over equipment and astronomers... #Thumbsup#



I wasn't ready yet with the C11, but Terry took the flow, offering views through his binoculars to the visitors who stopped by. Here you can see the Extended Dew Shield (EDS) on the C11, but now cut down minus 10 inches. It works well at this length and think I will keep it as is.



Chicago Astronomer Robb set up his 4" Galileo reflector and showed me his modification to polar align the mount. I hope he elaborates on the procedure, but he drilled a hole in the polar axis housing to slip in his green laser, displaying a beam toward Polaris...



Ingenious.

Then he mounts the drives and OTA in and is ready for tracking...



...but first, a rest.

Chicago Astronomer Steve arrived, bringing his 4" refractor and here, is checking out the C11...



This is the first time seeing the C11 after the modifications and inclusion of 2 inch eyepieces. He digs it.

The police arrive and are old friends of the Chicago Astronomer - remaining with us for a time, talking astronomy, sharing views...



Venus was starting to show now, and was our first target to share. It displayed a great "Half planet", 50% illuminated and made for an interesting object to explain inner planet mechanics with the visitors.



Chicago Astronomer Paulie & Hillary brought along the 6" Dob and a new 70mm refractor with tubular tripod legs - which delivered nice views...



I hope we get to see what Robb shot this evening...



Chicago Astronomer fan Heidi, (with a nice Saturn pin), arrives and joins the gathering assembly of members, groupies and the curious...



As the evening entered twilight, it my favorite time of the session, the skies fade into deep turquoise and the stars begin to reveal themselves to those in search of their light. We all search for the prize of the evening - Saturn...and finally is spotted first by someone... other than I.



Chicago Tribune reporter Colleen joined us for this session and interviewed the crew and participants for an upcoming story on urban astronomy by the Chicago Astronomers...



She stayed with us for hours, enjoying the sights and energy of the large crowd we had. It was great to have her present and I anticipate her write up on the Chicago Astronomer organization... ;D

Saturn was delivering very good views, despite the atmospheric haze and low altitude. With the 2 inch eyepieces on the C11, the extra light gathering abilities provided details missed before. Comments of how now, one can start to grasp the thickness of the ring plane - not just a simple line anymore. Banding on the planet was easily discerned and three satellite moons were observed. Saturn always impresses the masses, (me too), but now it is better than ever. And we always hear that..."It's fake!" "must be a sticker on the lens!"......

Too bad we will lose it in our evening skies soon, but will make a decent morning star come late winter.



It was now about 9:00 pm and the past full Moon was now dominating the east, some slew their scopes over to view it, but I remain on Saturn, as we will lose it in the muck soon and people still wanted to see it. The C11 tracked well this evening.

Throughout this session, I had my MP3 player on with a mix of classical and ethereal tunes/sounds. Many made comment how it makes the event better and appropriate. (I recall the days when I used to use cassette tapes and kept "flipping" them over every 30 minutes!... )



But, we targeted more objects throughout the evening, including M13 in Hercules, M57 in Lyrae and the Double-Double, also in Lyrae. The high atmospheric water vapor and haze made dim objects washed out and I have observed M57 much brighter and clearer than this evening.

Friends stop by to say hi and join in on the session on this hot and humid evening. I call the time exposures "Observatory Red"...
























People kept arriving, and we were busy at every minute of this session....



I tried to take as many pics as I could, but I was pulled in several directions for talk, operating the C11 and making sure things were ok. ( I don't carry my Mag light just to check for lost eyepieces...

This was a moved time exposure, but I think it looks cool...



This was also the first night I utilized these quite cool L.E.D book lights, to illuminate the equipment cases...



They worked exceptionally well, using only one of the duo lights at each station. And a great "failure" of the night, was that an area street light, normally a blazing glare in our scopes and eyes - affecting our night vision - was burned out....plunging the entire Chicago Astronomer observation area in darkness...sweet!... ;D

By 10:30, the crowds had thinned and this latest session of the Chicago Astronomers was almost over. Some of the crew remained to enjoy this night, satisfied on an exceptional star party - considered a vibrant success despite the less-than-optimal observing conditions. Great members and friends to guide the public through the cosmos, with positive attitudes and energy.

(This was the first open & public session I called since the auto accident of June 26th 2010, and I was nervous with underlying pinches of anxiety. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it or tolerate the constant attention a star party requires. But....it was not an issue and it all came back as it always was.

Cant' keep a good astronomer down.... )

As we were talking various subjects, long after the park closed down to the general public, Jupiter was spotted above the Planetarium, still in the muck, but I slew the C11 over and catch a nice detailed disk and four satellite moons. The police drive up now, approaching the C11 and cars parked ...and it can go either way - but when I saw them kill off their lights as they drove up, I knew we had another fan of the Chicago Astronomer and showed them Jupiter and the Moon - to their great delight. And with that.... we were left to ourselves while others were chased away from the lakefront.



We light victory cigars on another great night together.

Ain't urban astronomy fun?

Terry,

It's always very cool to have you join us and have fun while showing visitors the skies.

Usually, astronomy is a solo endeavor. Just a telescope between you and the heavens. But, it always a good to share what we get to experience with the general public, talk astronomy and make new friends.

But it's better when enthusiastic astronomers like yourself join in, share personal equipment and welcome our fans to Chicago skies.

Hope you can make more of our sessions.

Also....

Saturday is out.

There is a concert at Soldier Field, (Bon Jovi - heh), and the auto traffic restricted...ergo...

Sunday evening.

Details coming shortly.

But I would like to see your Meade in action!

Robb,

I spoke with Colleen yesterday, to wrap up some details and fact checking.

She will indeed let me know when the work will be published - sometime soon. I will then notify the crew. I will inquire on the pics at that time.

It should be a very nice piece on urban astronomy by the Chicago Astronomers...

Driving into the city on the Dan Ryan Expressway for Tuesday's epic star party, I remembered that the White Sox were playing at home when I saw the ballpark lights, and turned the game on the radio for the last few minutes of the drive. We parked on Solidarity Drive at a meter (two hours left on it!), and walked over to find Joe in the process of setting up. As we walked back to my car we heard, “boom boom, boom boom boom, boom boom,” and Hillary looked at me and asked, “What the heck was that?!?”

“The White Sox just hit a home run!” We high fived, and turned the game on while unloading. Paul Konerko connected for another home run, and a few seconds later we heard fireworks again. Oh yeah. It’s good to be a White Sox fan.




Hillary as a Planet Explorer astronaut.




The seagulls love sitting on the head of the Father of Modern Science.






Joe & Terry setting up before the rush.


I finally met Elgin Robb, though I didn’t really get a chance to talk to him much. We had a good crowd of astronomers and passersby well before dark. I saw Colleen interviewing Joe while we were waiting for the evening planets to appear. I talked with quite a few astronomers I’d never met, so many that I don’t remember all of their names. I’m terrible with names. Faces I remember, but not names. We talked to Joe and Adriane early on, and periodically throughout the night, and said hi to Gerry and Steve when they arrived.

There were clouds gathered to the west at dusk, and looked like they might crash our planet party, but they mostly broke up before the planets came out. Mercury was the only evening planet I didn’t see. No big loss there, except a chance to see the five naked eye planets in one night.










Clouds and haze in the west.


When the planets started appearing, the astronomers were kept busy showing them to the lucky visitors. With the haze in the west, I was only catching Saturn naked eye intermittently, and I don’t remember seeing Mars naked eye at all. That's a shame, because I really wanted to point out Mars closing in on Saturn, especially to Hillary. She's been seeing the evening planets starting to bunch up, and it would have been something cool to have our visitors watch for in the coming nights. I showed each of the planets in my telescopes at various times, though, with Saturn getting the bulk of the observing time on my Dob.




Just before things got really busy.


I had wanted to catch the Moon rise over Lake Michigan about 8:55, and as a matter of luck, I happened to check the time right at 8:55. I had a guy who had been viewing Saturn hanging around, so I told him that Hillary and I were heading over to the Moon rise spot, and he followed us. I took my new 60mm Meade refractor down to the galactic spiral stones for some quick lunar viewing.










Hillary viewing the red, quickly rising Moon.


The Moon had already risen above the horizon line, mostly obscured by the haze, looking like an eerie red glow over the Lake. It soon rose above the haze, and after a proper viewing, we walked back over to the assembled group. The orange Moon was just clearing the glass paned atrium of the Adler, and was getting a lot of attention from the visitors. I turned both of my telescopes to the Moon, and stood back as viewer after viewer checked out the evidence of our solar system’s violent early history.




Moon rising above the Adler Atrium.




I've forgotten their names now, but this family was one of many who enjoyed viewing our Moon.





Once interest in our celestial companion died down a little, I was ready for more of a challenge. Keeping the 60mm refractor aimed at the Moon, I found the Ring Nebula with my Dob. Hillary, Joe, and a few others were able to discern the ghostly image, but few others managed to see it.

Gerry came over to try imaging the lunar surface through the eyepiece on my Dobsonian, so I took off for a few minutes to see what the others were up to. Robb had M13, and it was looking better than my view of M57, but the sky conditions weren’t helping us show off the major deep sky attractions of the night. With the C11 and 2” eyepieces, Joe had the Ring looking better, but the smaller scopes couldn’t compete. I had a brief look at the Moon through Terry’s super-sized, tripod mounted binoculars. That’s the way to do lunar observing!






I couldn't resist taking some shots of the Moonlight shimmering on the water.


By 10:30 the crowd was starting to break up, and scopes were being packed away. I didn’t know Jupiter’s rise time, but it’s been up fairly early, so I started walking down towards the Lake every few minutes, to catch it as soon as it appeared. Like the Moon earlier, though, it was blocked out by the thick haze, and wasn’t spotted until it rose over the trees along the sidewalk. So much for being vigilant.




Hillary viewing Jupiter.


The lakefront park closes at 11PM, and two Chicago police officers drove up. It looked like our star party was officially over, but the cops didn’t seem to mind that we were lingering, and even enjoyed views of Jupiter and the waning gibbous Moon through Joe’s C11 Beast.

Tom proffered cigars, and were gladly accepted and enjoyed. There was more conversation of astronomy, serious issues of life, and just plain goofing off. We were the kings and queens of Chicago’s night, gathered in the Moonlight, under mighty Jupiter gaze. It was a great way to close out a legendary star party, and I’m sure that as the story gets retold over the years, the murky haze of Tuesday night will become crystal clear, with even a hint of the Milky Way overhead…

Yes, I can hear those stories now…




One last view of the city skyline.