Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Mar 13, 2005 22:32:21 GMT -6
What a Great night to Kick off the 2005 Astronomical Season for the CAF...
I arrived at my usual spot by Corpernicus outside of the Adler Planetarium at 5:00 pm. Now, running on only two hours sleep, and spending the day tracking down and solving an electrical problem that stopped me cold on my '68 Chevelle, I was kinda exhausted. (That reminds me of a Confucian saying: Man who run behind Automobile...get exhausted!) Oh man...I need sleep.
Anyway, I set up my scope and as it was still quite light and sunny out, I focused on the crescent Moon. Quite nice and sharp. Searching for Mercury, but no luck yet. The temp was cold, but tolerable. I wore a sweater and stretchy gloves.
A short time later, Chicago Astronomer Richard pulled up in his Range Rover and started to set up along side. He has quite a cool scope, I don't know all of the details. but it's a 80mm Televue with a handsome wooden tripod.
I'm sure Richard will fill us all in the specifications of the scope.
Views through the tube are clean and sharp, with good contrast and the focuser is excellent...a Cray perhaps?
Chicago Astronomer Alan joined soon after, and joined us. Three Chicago Astronomers...no waiting.
From Left to Right, Joe, ALan and RichAlan regrettably left behind a vital piece of his equipment, so he did not set up his 100mm Apo. Next time Alan. Although I did manage to get Alan to show me the tube after the session. I really anticipate targeting objects through it soon!
Still searching for Mercury, we started to target various objects, the Moon, Saturn, Orion's Nebula in the meantime. People started to gather around us, asking what we were doing. We invited them to peer through our scopes, and they most eagerly did so. They were facinated with the objects we showed them, and Richard was most generous with his equipment with the group. He is quite knowlegable and knows his subjects.
On the left, Susan is looking through Richards cool stabilizer binoculars. The field of view is great and the contrast excellent. I, myself was impressed on how they actually do stabilize shaky hands and one gets a near rock steady image.
It was getting cold, real cold now, and my lack of sleep wasn't helping any, but I was having a hell of a good time sharing views and talking astronomy. To my great surprize, Chicago Astronomer Sarwat showed up on the scene, and now there were four, count 'em, four Chicago Astronomers as astronomical representatives to the city, and progessing amateur astronomy to the masses. Sarwat is a vast knowledge bank of astro facts, we were glad he was there.
With the crowds now gone, we decided at Alan's suggestion, that we move to the other side of the Planetarium, away from the intense street lighting. So, the four of us lugged our equipment over to the East of the Doan Observatory. It is here that the Doan acts as a light block and the sweet spot of darkness enveloped us nicely. Really, the only dark spot in the entire immediate area. From this vantage point, the entire eastern sky was open to us and waiting our exploration. Sarwat immediately started to point out potentional targets starting with Leo and the Beehive. So we slewed our scopes to the open cluster. Always a good sight, but in Richards scope, coupled with his 2" wide field eyepieces...quite cool indeed.
We spent some time orientating ourselves with a star map that Alan had handy. I brought out my new astronomical equipment addition to use for the first practical time. I recently bought this headlight with both white and red LED's.
We all have the obligatory red flashlights, but one hand is always occupied holding it, so it leaves us with the other hand to manipulate the maps and charts. Or we put it under our arms or hold the flashlight with our teeth. With this nerdy headlight both hands are now free to conduct efficient astronomy! Now I need a pocket protector and tape on my glasses to wrap up the image.
The red light is really cool, as it illuminates a large area and tilts to where you need it. The other Chicago Astronomers thought highly of it as well, and Alan is off to get one too. It's rather geeky I admit, but if it's just amongst us, it's ok. I got it a Target for about $12.00 or so. And the white light is is quite a beacon in the night. I am very happy with it.
It was now about 8:00 pm, and Richard had to leave. So we packed up all of our equipment, policed the area for run away eyepieces, and we were set.
This was a great start to our Chicago Astronomers Star Parties with old and new members to share the night of light polluted Chicago skies. We also met nice people who wanted to continue the astronomical relationship, and of course...I marketed the Chicago Astronomer Forum and passed out my cards. I hope to see them as future members. I thank Alan, Richard and Sarwat for joining me this fine evening!
This was the first extended observation session for me since early winter. I discovered that my scope was badly mis-collimated, as I did a quick alignment test, and found the secondary way off center. Too cold and tired to mess with it, but remarkably the views were still acceptable. Also my finder was out of alignment as well, and somewhere, someplace, the binoc eyepiece popped out sometime ago and whereabouts unknown. I improvised with a backup. Damn! And Mercury? We did eventually target it, but I was unimpressed. I did catch a cresent shape to it, but my views of the planet were better during the 2002 Planetary alignment. But it was cool nevertheless.
Now, if it were just a little bit warmer, and I get some more sleep for our next outing. Next time for sure! ;D
