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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

New Chicago Astronomer Observation Site
26 August 2007

After the intense monsoon rains we have been having for the past week, Sunday was clear, dry and beckoned for a night out of lunar and planetary observation.

I called fellow Chicago Astronomer Steve to join me by the Adler at 8:00 pm Sunday evening. Only problem was, when we arrived, there is a massive Hip-hop concert going on at the Northerly island stage and access to the Adler grounds were restricted. I even attempted to access the Old Meigs airport site we often utilize, but not to be this evening.

Undeterred from an evening of viewing, I scouted the area and parked in the Shedd Aquarium mini lot, just at the end of Solidarity Dr. leading to and away from the Adler. After Identifying myself to security, I was allowed to remain parked and Steve and I set up our telescopes.

This is a new location for us, and I wasn't too sure about the foot traffic we would encounter, but it was a great spot. We met a great many people who wanted a peek in our scopes...many from foreign lands. We had Russians, Polish and a young man from Holland. I met a very sage 23 year old who knew more about my 1968 Chevelle than I did, and we became fast friends.

We also had visitors from the Chicago Police Dept's Cycle detail stop by and make our acquaintances. (Sometimes I miss being a C.P.D instructor, but that was now a life time ago. If I would have remained, I would have been a Cycle Patrol officer.)

The Moon put on a good display, with good terminator viewing. I like to have my viewers look thru my 60mm finderscope first. It's a low powered-wide field view and the Moon is not too magnified with a 25mm eyepiece. Then I instruct them to view the target thru the main scope with a 10mm eyepiece. The higher magnification is dramatic and the viewer shifts back and forth between the two views for gasps of awe.

Steve had Jupiter focused in the 4" refractor. With good banding on the planet this evening and Io ducking around the limb, Steve's scopes provide very good views.

It was at first disappointing that we did not set up by our comfortable and regular observation site by the Adler, but this new site proved to be just as fun...and it was a nice evening sharing astronomical views.

I think I'll keep this new site on the Chicago Astronomer approved Observation locations.