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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer Star Party on a beautiful warm Saturday night

28 August 2010

It's going to be a great sunny day and a better clear night.

A perfect excuse to set up a telescope or two and enjoy the skies tonight.

I will set up the C11 beast at 8:00 pm tonight by the Adler parking lot...

There are no concerts at either Soldier's Field or Northerly Island, so parking should be ok...but feed them meters!

I'll set up the C11 beast for some nice views....maybe even the C5 as well.

Moonrise is at 8:52 pm and Venus, Jupiter and Mars will be out...but Saturn is gone for the time being.

But.....

We will have TWO ISS passes this evening during our session, with the brightest and highest one being at 8:19 pm and an alt of 50 degrees at -2.1 mag.

If free or in the area, stop by, say hi and share the skies with us.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

UPDATE:

Although there are no concerts in the area.....I have discovered that there is a Bears game at Soldier's Field tonight....most likely limiting parking at the area...but public transportation is still viable.

I'm still going to set up as planned...and catch the over flow to the area. Those with telescopes and equipment are good for access parking.

Might do another one Sunday night for the inconvenience of parking tonight.

Sigh.

[atomant]

Hi Joe,

Would the crew be willing to relocate observing to darker skies tonight. Like say, Indy Dunes...

I say leave around 5pm, grab local bite, setup at 7pm at the beach parking lot.

I am yearning for darker skies.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Billy...!

Although it would be great night, too short of a notice for the crew, (many must side bar with the activity scheduler at home), and I need to do work on the brakes on the Van, (metal to metal grindings), ...so I'm out.

but...

The dunes would be a great event for a September jaunt, with clearer skies and it would make our one year anniversary of our last trip.

It will be an epic session.

Let's start planning this.

But for tonight......still a go at Chicago Astronomer site #1.

[Paulie pchris00]

Man I feel like I haven't joined you guys in forever, but I too have metal grinding on metal when braking. Hopefully getting it fixed tomorrow, but I LOVE the idea of the Dunes.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Chicago Astronomers push through a Chicago Bears Game

28 August 2010

I was well aware that a Bears game was nearby at the same time of our session, but took a chance in pushing ahead with our star party... despite the expected traffic congestion. My expected ETA was 7:30 pm, but did not arrive till a little after 8:00 pm.

I was delayed in arriving by about 45 minutes due to all the traffic, but joined Chicago Astronomers Linda & Alfred, John and Terry - already on site. A bit frazzled, but it was ok....(it was an experience, but we won't be doing this again anytime soon.... )

A ISS pass was on-hand early this evening and I arrived just in time to snag a couple of pics...

A flyover at -2.6 and alt of 49 degrees, it was a good observation of a orbiting tin can passing through Cassiopeia.

Five cars parked side-by-side off our observation site. A great perk with parking prohibited any where close by... ;D One can witness the bright stadium lighting at Soldier's Field for the game.

We had a good arsenal of scopes for this session...

Patrick brought along his 4.5" reflector and likes to keep it low to the ground as he is a sittin' astronomer.

John brought his Celestron 5" Nexstar, but near the end had some battery failure. Energize babe.

Dig John's huge "Keep your hands off the scope" placard!

Linda & Alfred brought the razor sharp Vixen refractor.

Terry set-up his 10" Meade. He had some minor set up problems, but will work them out before our next session.

And...I planted the C11 beast

We had Venus, Mars, Jupiter and the waning Moon to share with ourselves and visitors through out the evening...and close by at Navy Pier, Ye Olde tall sailing ships were docked...and celebrated by fireworks...

As usual, we had visitors stop by, chat with us and granted us pics of their visit...

Here I am with Norm, who read our article in the Tribune this past week and came down to join us. Norm is very interested and will join us in future sessions.

The Chicago Astronomer crew makes new friends all the time.

The Moon and Jupiter rose over the Adler and became our focal point for the remainder of the session. Just as well, as both targets are always crowd pleasers...

Jupiter provided good views, but no GRS or transits were observed this evening.

I got my two new 50Mw green laser pointers earlier in the day. I altered the beams to display a slightly wider beam than the standard narrow laser. (My old light saber died... ).

Although not the crowds I expected, we had many approach us and enjoyed the views...

While the other members of the crew were attending to visitors, I slewed toward the Moon for some imaging before we called it a night...

This was the first time I used the 2" eyepieces with the C11 for astrophotography and I dig the results. With the 40mm eyepiece, I am able to capture the entire lunar globe easy...something I could not with the 1.25" eyepieces factoring in the 2800mm focal length of the SCT.

These were all hand held with a lens adapter fitting over the rubber eye-cups in a loose fit. I will craft some better mating of the two soon. But one can tell the mis-collimation of the SCT of these full globe shots...as the top of the moon is just a bit out of focus from the rest. (I'll need some assistance in re-collimating the beast.)

With no Registax or other image builders, I'm satisfied with the results.

It was now well after the park closed and close to 1:00 am when when we finally left the observation site. We considered it a success, even with the hassle of the Bears game. We all had fun and a warm summer night among friends and sharing the skies together.

Our Chicago Astronomer crew for the session: Myself, two nice visitors, Terry, Alfred & Linda, Patrick and John.