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[patrickm]

There's a lot of cool stuff popping into view now, and it's been a while since I set up in Sunken Gardens and invited friends and neighbors. If the weather forecast is accurate, we should have a nice window tomorrow evening before the Saturday storms roll in. I will get there at 6:30 to set up, and I would love it if any of you wanted to join me

I am on the mend, and hope that by tomorrow I'll have a little bit of my peppiness back. Being this close to home is a good insurance policy for me though if I start feeling rotten.

My ambitious list of potential targets in rough chronological order:
Polaris
16/17 Dra
NGC 6341
M13
M92
Vega
M57
Double Double
M39
Albireo
NGC 6826
M27
M31
NGC 7662
NGC 869
M33
Owl Cluster
Pleiades
Jupiter
Starfish Cluster
Pinwheel Cluster
M37
M35
Hyades
Crab Nebula

I'll post here tomorrow afternoon. Would love to see anybody who wants to come out and enjoy the evening. Usually get a decent turn out from friends and neighbors.

Attachments:

[patrickm]

The lake-induced clouds are moving out just to the northwest just as forecast. As Joe likes to say, we are a solid go for tonight's astronomy at Sunken Gardens Park in Chicago's north side Ravenswood neighborhood. Come out. Bring a scope. Bring binocs. Bring kids. Bring long underwear.

I'll start setting up about 6:30 and hoping some other scopes and better brains join in.

See you tonight!

NP: Robin Trower "Bridge of Sighs"

Attachments:

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Patrick...

Have you started attaching a camera to your scope?

[patrickm]

I have a few times, yeah. Not recently though. Haven't been doing enough visual observing to justify camera time. Last time Scott came out to Sunken Gardens, we did plenty. He may be coming tonight.

Unless I really have my chops, I feel like I need to limit the number of moving parts that I can screw up, lose, or use to knock my scope out of alignment.

You thinking about coming out??? :-)

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Patrick,

The Chicago Astronomical Society is having a workshop tonight at the Adler on Telescope usage.

I'm gonna set-up a scope and enjoy the company.

[patrickm]

Snob. ;-)

[scottmason]

I'll be there! With a pair of binocs and my setup!

[scottmason]

What fun! I'm so glad I have someone in my neighborhood as knowledgable and friendly as Patrick.
I spent most of the evening fumbling with my telescope optics: First, re-aligning my finder scope. Imagine putting your telescope case in the washing machine, then taking it out and trying to do alignment stars. That's pretty much the situation I was in.
Also, my scope is smaller than my mounting rings so I have a few sheets of cork to pad the gap. The OTA kept coming loose from the cork, rendering my alignment useless once the whole scope shifted from it's rings. What a pain in the ass.
However, I eventually got sub frames of the ring nebula and Andromeda. I'll post those once I get them stacked properly.
I feel bad that I wasn't engaging people like Patrick was but I had these issues to deal with. It was nice to meet Paulie though and I'm glad I came.

[patrickm]

We had a really great night, or at least I did. I got to the park about five minutes later than I wanted to, and Scott turned up about 6:45 with his scope and camera in tow. Paulie also came all the way from Indiana on the train and got to the park in the nick of time, just as a horde of kids and parents turned up.

One family had brought their telescope in the car, but were hesitant to set it up. With the only working scope for the moment, I wasn't going to be much help with them getting it set up, but I quickly volunteered Paulie, who graciously accepted the task. I'm not sure how it all went, but I did overhear Paulie saying that they needed a much lower power eyepiece to get started properly. Trying to crank high power is probably the most common newbie mistake. I know I made it for months until I got down to my first CA star party. Low/medium power is where it's at, man!

Anyway, a little after 7pm, I was just starting to get my scope aligned when I heard the unmistakable chatter of kids approaching from behind. I never did get my mount aligned, but I did manage a quick and dirty cope three star alignment that was good enough to drop objects into the field of view, but did require me to keep adjusting the views as objects drifted out of the field over time. A quick "All Star" alignment would have saved me a lot of time in the long run, but I never stopped to do it once things slowed down just a bit.

We had many repeat customers from previous Sunken Gardens star parties, and several asked where the men from Adler where, especially the man with the "really big telescope." All I could do was sigh and agree that we missed these strange, knowledgable men.

Luckily for us, Paulie was able to fill the role of Guy Who Knows Stuff without Looking It Up, so his presence was a great blessing. Paulie's enthusiasm is contagious and damn if kids and their parents don't ask hard questions–usually good questions, but hard ones.

I feel like an idiot that I didn't get any photos, but I was just too busy to even think about it. Maybe Scott took a few? Guess we'll see. Wish I'd just thought to say something or grabbed my own SLR, which sat unused the entire night.

One fantastic family got there early and stayed until Jupiter was at least up into the trees so we could all take a peek before they left. They were cold and tired, but the kids wanted to stay, and I think so did mom. That was awesome! Here again, I think Paulie's energy was particularly contagious. We were all amazed when Paulie ran off when I pointed out which moons were which so that he could guess on his own. I learned a lot by pressing him on whatever knowledge he had that would allow him to make educated guesses about these four tiny, distant dots of light. Maybe he'll share his parlor trick with us here.

By about 10:15, the last stragglers left and Scott followed shortly after. I know he was getting some good shots of Andromeda and some clusters, but he had to get sleep before a long day of work on Saturday. It was really good to see him and I felt badly that I couldn't help out with his scope more. Not sure I have much to offer, but I didn't even get to lend much moral support.

Around 11:20, the street light in the park turned itself on for some reason, but thankfully, it was in the west, and Jupiter was coming up in the east, so it didn't affect us too much. Paulie and I kept biding our time as Jupiter rose higher and higher, and waves of high clouds started rolling in. We targeted open clusters and planetary nebulae between switching to Jupiter views. We watched the Great Red Spot, which ain't red at all right now, transit across the face, and Paulie pointed out stuff in the equatorial bands I couldn't really make out yet. I will need some time with Jupiter when it's closer to zenith so I can get a good picture in my brain of what's going on up there with it. I hope that will happen soon.

Paulie stuck around until about midnight, when he had to leave to catch a train back home. We took one last look at Jupiter, our best of the night since it had risen quite a bit since 9:30. The bands were much sharper. The GRS was about half way through it's transit. The moons had moved around quite a bit relative to each other. It was a nice view, but it had grown cold and time was up.

My optimistic viewing list didn't turn out to get that optimistic at all. We saw a LOT of objects in our time:

Hercules Cluster M 13
M 97
Vega a Lyr
Ring Nebula M 57
Double Double e1 Lyr
M 39
Blinking Planetary Nebula NGC 6826
Dumbbell Nebula/Apple Core Nebula M 27
Andromeda Galaxy M 31
Blue Snowball Nebula NGC 7662
Double Cluster h Persei
Pinwheel Galaxy M 33 NO LUCK
Pleiades M 45
Jupiter
Starfish Cluster M 38
Pinwheel Cluster M 36
M 37
M 35
Hyades
Crab Nebula M 1 Tried twice with various filters. No luck!
Little Dumbbell Nebula M 76 First time to see this!

I hope to get back out there with the neighborhood one more time this season so we can share views of Jupiter and Orion with everyone. Here's hoping we get that chance.

Huge thanks to Scott and Paulie!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

"and several asked where the men from Adler where, especially the man with the "really big telescope."

Heh....

Excellent session Patrick.

Paulie always make a good observation event better.

[Paulie pchris00]

You guys are far too generous.

Glad I came out, even if it meant spending over three hours on trains.

The guy with the small refractor had it mounted on a rather flimsy camera tripod. I have the same tripod because it's ultra portable, but the only thing I use it for is my small digital camera. I should have suggested that he pick up a sturdier tripod. I think that would make his observing easier and more enjoyable. If you get a chance, Patrick, please pass that information along.

As for the newbie mistake of trying to use a high power eyepiece right away, it shouldn't even be a problem. Taking advantage of the cloudy skies during the New Scope Curse should allow a new telescope owner to read through the owner's manual, not to mention beginner's observing book or online forums. I know I didn't make that mistake as a beginner, but I don't remember if it was pure luck, or if I'd read enough to know what I was doing. I do remember reading my owner's manual before ever using my Dob, and I'm sure magnification is covered in it somewhere.

It was nice to meet Scott, but I felt like I didn't talk to him all that much. Not that I could help him out much, as I know next to nothing about AP.

As for being "The Guy Who Knows Stuff without Looking It Up," I only know much of anything because I've read it somewhere. I can speak somewhat authoritatively about the Moon and Jupiter from my own observations, but everything else comes from somebody else's knowledge written down somewhere. I've contributed nothing to the science, but have a decent memory of the things I've read. And reread.

There is no "parlor trick" to determining the Galilean Moons. The best trick is observing often. Think about this for a minute. At public star parties when we point out the planets among the stars, we're often asked, "How do you know that?" Each of the naked eye planets has had its own identity since ancient times, long before Galileo or anybody else could see their individual details. Even naked eye, each planet has its own characteristics that make it identifiable to anybody paying attention. The Galilean Moons are similar to the planets in that respect. Let's look at the characteristics of each moon that can help in identifying it.

Io- Never strays more than about 4 diameters of Jupiter on either side of the disk. It has to appear close to Jupiter. With an orbital period of about 42 hours, it is the most likely to be missing when only three moons are visible. Careful observing reveals its swift motion in an hour or less.

Europa- The smallest of the Galilean Moons, yet I think it's the second brightest, due to its icy surface. Doesn't show the same swift motion as Io, yet can also be observed in about an hour.

Ganymede- The largest moon in the solar system. Much like our Moon, Ganymede has low reflectivity. However, it's large size reflects the most overall light, making it appear brightest. Its orbital motion can be observed, but much more slowly than the inner moons.

Callisto- When it's out there, it's way out there. We see the plane of the Galilean Moons orbits at a slight angle, making them appear slightly to the south when they are on the near side of Jupiter in their orbits, and slightly to the north when they are around the far side of Jupiter. Either because Callisto's orbital plane is more inclined than the other moons, or its far distance from Jupiter exaggerates the plane of the orbit, Callisto appears to pass above or below Jupiter when it's near the planet's disk. In other words, it either appears so far away from Jupiter that all the other moons can be ruled out, or it is obviously out of line with the other moons.

That said, how many did I get right Friday? One? Callisto? Careful, repeated observation is the best way to know for sure which Moon is which, without using a program or app.

I missed M13, M97, and the Double Double. M13 I could afford to miss, but I enjoyed explaining the awesomeness of globular clusters while everybody saw the greatest of awesome globs. I wish I'd seen the Double Double, though, and didn't even know I could have seen M97. The Little Dumbbell, M76, was a challenge, but one that we eventually triumphed at. Just as I was about to give up on it, I caught what seemed to be the slightest hint of a variation on the background sky. Using an Ultra Block filter, that spot revealed itself to be the Little Dumbbell. The only other time I've seen it was last march during our Messier Marathon, and according to my notes, it was a challenge even in a much darker sky.

Finally, I had my camera in my pocket all night. Not that it would have done much good. It's had a habit lately of shutting off in the cold, even when the batteries are fully charged. And it doesn't take pictures worth looking at in the dark. Not that it was all that dark, but enough so that I wouldn't have got anything worth sharing. I suppose when the light in the park came on I could have got a few pics, but it was getting about time for me to catch a train back home.

I have gotten spoiled by the dark sky and 16" telescope at Conway, but sometimes it's nice to get out to the city and help show that even in an urban sky, the universe reveals many if its mysteries to those who look. And it's great to be among friends and friendly people. Better than freezing by myself in a darker sky.

[scottmason]

Ok, I finally got around to stacking & editing these. The two images I have from the night are nowhere near a "recap" of all the awesome sights that were observed on Friday! I wish I could have seen more and interacted with everyone. I feel like I was on edge the whole time until I got a decent exposure from my camera..Then I finally relaxed and talked to people a bit.

I've been teaching myself stacking with the program Nebulosity. I'm finally starting to see just how important it is to stack in order to reduce noise!


First is the ring nebula. It was so small in the FOV when I first shot it, I had to zoom in to confirm it was there! Here's the result of 9 of those shots stacked.




I applied a "Neon Glow" filter in Photoshop to see what it would look like:



Towards the end of the night I was shooting away at Andromeda, this time with my camera mounted directly to my CG-5 and my zoom lens on. I haven't gotten a good result stacking those files yet, I think because there isn't enough data to work with. I'll try again next time I'm in a darker spot. For now, I combined 3 of the images into HDR and then burned here in there in Photoshop to get rid of some of the haziness.





Here is the same image with a filter applied to smooth it out:



And lastly, I took the RAW files from the Sunken Gardens meet-up in March earlier this year and stacked them.





I'm headed to North Carolina this weekend. Hopefully I can do some AP out there, under the dark mountain sky.

[patrickm]

Nice work, Scott! Shooting just about anything but clusters in the city is a pretty rough order, but these are pretty interesting.

I understand your frustration with set up. Believe me.

Enjoy NC & let us know how it goes!
p

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Don't let anyone tell you that one cannot do astrophotography from the inner city.

It's all here under light polluted skies...just got to tease it out.

Good Job Scott!

[scottmason]

Thanks guys!
And I saw that post you made about LP filters, Joe. I bet I would benefit from one of those.
Right now I'm enjoying the spot a block from my house that's under construction. They ripped all the streetlights out and I can see to magnitude 6 from there!

[Paulie pchris00]

Oct 19, 2012 17:28:18 GMT -6 Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe said:

Don't let anyone tell you that one cannot do astrophotography from the inner city.

It's all here under light polluted skies...just got to tease it out.

Good Job Scott!

Agreed. It's all still there. Tougher to find, see, and image, but nothing goes away just because all the lights are on. I wish this myth would go away, though. How many would be astronomers have been turned off by this myth?

Kudos to all who punch through the urban haze to see the cosmos.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Really, I'm getting pretty tired of the opinion, (that you can't see anything), as a statement of fact.

At Chicago Astronomer gatherings, we have people who come up and say things like "Too bad you can't see anything from the city" or "I had a telescope, but gave it away when I moved to the city" or when a couple comes up to the the scopes, he smartly says to her " You won't see much"....and after her squealing with delight on the views....the dude gets miffed...but still takes a peek.

Now, granted...we would all enjoy much better views and deeper space objects under dark skies, but all the major celestial targets are within reach of the urban Astronomer - even with modest equipment.

I hear that larger apertures just exacerbates that light pollution...even from Astronomers. I don't buy it. Larger tubes mean higher magnifications and detail. If the thinking were correct, all one would need is a 8" scope in the city.

Keep punching through the muck, use the filters, flock your scopes and shield your aperture. You'll do just fine.

But, Chicago Astronomers know this already.

[patrickm]

The myth is grounded in individual observation. You look up. You see five stars. You move on. However tiresome, this myth will never go away. The more outreach we do, the more it may be blunted, but let's be honest. We are reaching hundreds out of millions. We should still keep reaching out to the millions, but I feel better when I focus on the fun and knowledge I can help bring to the people I can and do reach than the unreachable and misinformed masses. Too depressing.