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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Post Lecture Mini Chicago Astronomer Star Party

22 August 2012

There will be a neat and informative in-house guide/lecture for Adler Staff on the Museum's artifact collections. This is to better understand what other Departments at the Adler do, while we are manning telescopes and guiding our visitors through Chicago skies.

After which, Chicago Astronomer and fellow Adler Planetarium Telescope facilitator Bill and I will set-up telescopes and enjoy a great summer evening.

I assume that the lecture will be over at about 7:30 and we will be ready to share the skies at around 8:00 pm. We will have another good night with the Saturn, Mars, Spica and Crescent Moon conjunction.

We will set-up telescopes at our usual Chicago Astronomer Public Observation site - just west of the Adler Planetarium Building and remain till about 10:00 pm.

It will be a great warm and clear summer evening for all lovers of the night sky.

If free or in the area, stop by and say hi.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A pleasant last minute Mini session by the lakefront

22 August 2012

We had a very informative lecture/tour of our classic collections of planispheres, telescopes, orreys and books. Each piece has a story and will assist us in enlightening our museum visitors...(Many ye olde telescopes were obtained by their original owners as purely status symbols.)

But, after the schooling, Chicago Astronomer Bill and I set=up our scopes at our alpha site, just outside of the Adler and enjoyed sharing the urban skies with our guests on a warm summer evening.

Setting up at 8:00 pm, Bill brought his trusty 6" reflector and I, the C11 beast, ready to capture the nice conjunction of Saturn, Mars, Spica and the Moon....

I thought I would try out the Binoviewers on the 90mm refractor riding on top of the C11. They worked well...for me, bringing in great stereoscopic views of the lunar surface - but a reason I don't normally bring them out for public usage is that there is too much fidgeting with adjustments and focusing. I soon took it down.

Many want to capture what they see through our scopes, using high priced cameras and simple cell phones, with varying degrees of success.

Chicago Astronomer Steve and wife Margie stopped by for a bit and Chicago Astronomer fan Gary attended to our visitors nicely while he was with us...

And we bounce between the highlighted objects of the evening in our western sky...

Saturn was a nice treat early on in our session, bringing excitement to our fans, but as it sank closer to the horizon, I was losing clarity fast. I abandoned Saturn and slewed toward the Moon...

I kept the magnification low, but with our more interested guests, I kicked up the power. Here, using the newly acquired 40mm 2" Maxview II imaging eyepiece,
( astronomer.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Equipment&action=display&thread=3931 ). I like it's performance...

We talk cosmology, lunar features and explain orbital mechanics throughout the session...

We saw regular Chicago Astronomer fans and made some new ones...

I enjoy sharing views that are not normally available to the average sky lover, but I did have to yell at a few adults to keep their hands off of the focuser. One was even grabbing onto the counter weight shaft for leverage...! When some do this, knocking the scope off it's target, I let them look, and of course they see nothing and move on. After which I re-target the object for those waiting... and noticing what happened, are cautious and respectful of the instrument - and we continue.

After the western grouping sank below the horizon, Bill and I slewed to other points of interest and tested optics during the down time. I never imaged the Alberio system with the C11 and thought I would give it a try.,...

Decent.

The crowd thinned out again and I took the opportunity to image the E.T. Star Cluster that I like to show...

The weather was humid and the dew point started to coat our gear with moisture. I anticipated a moist session, had donned the dew shield whilst setting up. The evening before provided much better skies and transparency. The tablet once again was invaluable in demonstrating the early morning conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury, Saturn's ring structure and various lunar features...

It was nearing 11:00 pm and time to break down our site and pleasant session. Chicago Police Officer Armando, working the 001 lakefront beat, is a regular fan of the Chicago Astronomer and we discussed astronomy, religion, exo-life and a host of other topics long after everything was bagged away....

I did not arrive home till about 12:30 am...

Bill and I attended to 68 visitors in this last minute easy session...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Here is a nice email I received from a very nice man visiting from France and stopped by our observation session:

Hi Joe,

We are french and were visiting Chicago last August. What a beautiful city !!

We were very happy to meet you close to the Adler planetarium and to have a splendid look on the moon and Saturn.

As a remember, you took a picture (myself, my wife and my son)

Would you be so kind so as to send me this picture ?

Thank you so much
Best,

Jean-Claude BEAL - PARIS -

I sent him this link and glad he had a nice time...

[jtysonphotography]

Hello Joe,

We met at this Star Party back in August, It was great meeting you, I am actually the guy you have pictured in this post with the camera. I thought I would post you a picture I took that night but the forum isn't allowing me to, so here is a link. Could I use the picture you took of me taking this picture?

It was nice being back home in Chicago for a quick trip, i wish Denver had someone like you out here. Anyway, great work and keep it up!

Joel

joeltysonphotography.smugmug.com/photos/i-VHKv9T9/0/X3/i-VHKv9T9-X3.jpg

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Joel....!


Such nice words and great that you were able to stop by the Chicago Astronomer Star Party back in August.

Here is the pic that you took:

Great shot with a lot of detail.

And most certainly you can use the pic with you at the C11 beast.

If you take some astro pics...send them in and share with Chicago sky lovers.

Glad you had a good time...!