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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

It seemed to be a good night for some telescope time, so I hightailed to the lakefront to the spot and set up around 8:30 pm.

I attempted to get Saturn, but it was already out of sight, so I targeted Jupiter. Only two of it's moons were visible to me that night, both at the six o'clock position.

The two major bands on the Planet were seen, but this night was not a good transparent one. The image was a bit fuzzy, regardless of my focusing or eyepiece selection. I did notice the dreaded orange haze in the west and paid more attention to the visitors stopping by.

It was not a night for astronomy, but one of social discussion. I look forward to Friday-Saturday for views of the Crescent moon in the west and try to catch Saturn for the last time as an evening star. I'm gonna attempt to take some digital pics of the moon on those nights and see what happens.

[dewayne]

Sounds like a good night.
For me the social aspect of astronomy is as satisfying as bagging a new object.
The Peoria Astronomical Society has two observatories - one of which is open to the public. We are open to the public every clear Saturday nite, from May to October.
Lat week we were open until about Midnight. We had about 50 peiople show up. It's always a lot of fun to aswer people's questions, or admit we're stumped by one.

[NatureDevil]

A friend of mine at work, who is now in his 60's, told me about a time when he was in high school. The science department came up with the plans for an observatory, and the school did several fundraisers with all the other departments to fund the materials, and the shop class guys, including my friend, actually helped build it.

I thought that was pretty damn cool. I'll get the name of the school from him on Monday if I remember. I wish my schoolhad did something like that.

NatureDevil