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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Park District and the Chicago Astronomer Joint Star Party

23 24 October 2012

(Scroll to the bottom for Updates, cancellations and Confirmations)

www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/events/stargazing-gompers-park/

The next joint Chicago Astronomer and Chicago Park District Public Star Party will be Tuesday, the 23rd of October 2012 at 7:00 pm till 9:00 pm - located at Gompers Park 4222 W Foster Ave in Chicago's Northwest side. (Roughly at Foster & Pulaski).

(When I was an instructor with the Police Dept, we used to use the LaBaugh Woods just next door for "War Game" practice. Fun times... )

I looking at the area just northeast of the parking lot to set-up scopes. Look for the blinking red lights of the Chicago Astronomer.

Weather is iffy now, but partly cloudy skies are called for the night - but if the weather degrades, we will reschedule for the next evening if possible.


We will have a nice near quarter Moon to share, as well as star clusters and possible Jupiter near the end of the session.

- Check this thread and the twitter/facebook/google+ feeds for updates and confirmations.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

UPDATE:

The Gompers Park Star Party has been pushed back one day - due to weather conditions.

It looks like the heavy blanket of clouds currently over the city may slide away in time for our public observation session:

Wednesday, the 24th of October 2012 at 7:00 pm.

Confirmation and updates Wednesday afternoon.

[patrickm]

Tomorrow's schedule is murky, but I'd like to make it. Hope it clears up for tomorrow regardless.

Will try to let you know tomorrow afternoon.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

UPDATE:


We are a solid GO for tonight's Star Party at Gompers park.

We will examine lunar features and enjoy other celestial objects for our park visitors.

I will arrive by 6:15 pm (traffic permitting), and ready for a fun evening of urban astronomy.

Be there.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A nice time at Gompers...

Postponing our Chicago Park District session at Gompers, on Chicago's far Northwest side, by one day - brought warm temps and hazy skies. But it still provided for decent lunar observation with our park visitors.

Chicago Astronomers Patrick & Barbara were on-site by the time I had arrived with Maria at 6:45 pm. Patrick and I scouted about the park for the best angles and picked a concrete spot in the middle of the park, which work well...

Patrick brought his 9.25 HD SCT, I my C11 beast and new participant Larry, brought his 6" SCT on a classic iron pier mount...

Here Larry and I look over what he got...

Already at the park, were eager visitors with their Children for some urban peeks at the Moon...

Atmospheric haze had prevented the crew form targeting other celestial object, but the Moon had plenty to share it's secrets for the entire evening....

The tablet provided good graphics in explaining what was in the eyepiece of the scopes...

...and here I share with a visitor the landing area of the Apollo 11 mission.

Maria also worked the tablet as well...

And the three scopes targeted the Moon with different eyepieces and FOVs...

Program Director for the Nature Oasis activities Matt and I take a pose...

And we continue...

Here, a little girls tries out the Moon for the first time in her first refractor telescope...

With assistance from me and guidance in usage, her Father is now anxious to obtain a better instrument for her daughters interest in the stars. We will be in contact soon.

Discussions about lunar geology, astronomy and all things space were heard at all scopes....

At about 8:45, New Chicago Astronomer member Marie arrived...

C.A. Steve arrived to join in and brought along various eyepiece goodies to try out on scopes...

Here, we try out a 4x barlow with a 17mm eyepiece, bringing in some pretty primo views of the lunar surface in the C11.

Larry brought up how it would be nice to use binoviewers. Bringing my pair out, we enjoy stereoscopic views of the Moon...

Larry also attached his long focal length camera lens with an eyepiece attachment...

As our visitors thinned out, we were trying out various equipment pieces on our scopes, as the support crew chatted..

Our Crew for tonight:

C.A. Patrick, Marie, C.A. Joe, C.A. Maria, Eva, C.A. Barbara, C.A. Steve and Larry.

We had a total of 25 visitors at this session on a wonderful warm fall evening in Chicago.

Next: Margate Park on the 30th of October.. #Thumbsup#

[headdunce]

Nice work! Wish I could have made it. And the Tele Vue eyepieces, eeshhh... must have been some nice eye candy.

[patrickm]

A relatively sparsely attended star party at a low traffic northwest side park full of beautiful trees. We had a few families with kids and a few other excited and curious people show up early. We decided to plant our scopes on a large pathway in the middle of the park hoping people would find us in the clearing.

The high clouds and soupy atmosphere ruled out all but the brightest objects. We spent a lot of time on the moon at magnifications low and crazy high, especially after Steve showed up with his bag of tricks & 9700x Barlow lens. That was interesting. I think at one point we had my 8mm through a 4x Powermate for 1172x magnification! Still couldn't see a flag or a cheese grater.

Most of the kids we had were just a little too young to really appreciate what we were seeing, but the parents definitely did, and you just never know what will stick with somebody only to appear later on.

We looked at Vega and the Double Double and were able to split the binaries at 8mm. Had no luck on Andromeda or M57 Ring Nebula. Could not make out Altair or Polaris. Did spend some time with M39 & the Double Cluster, though even that was not spectacular. Owl Cluster was only two stars.
Jupiter appeared over the trees after our guests had left, which left us to enjoy it amongst ourselves as we hopped between scopes and crazy set ups and finally started to pack up.

It was a fun night and I'm glad I made it out there. Also had a great talk with Barbara afterwards as we headed home. She is cool.

(See what happens when you point lasers at a camera? You get washed out and I can't fix it!)

Attachments:

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Oooh...

I dig the pic!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

New participant Larry sends in these pics....

The Chicago Astronomer....

Enjoyed Gompers. Will get out again when time permits.

My equipment:
1) Celestron 8" SCT (the classic); GEM head from old Starliner Newt, modified with longer pier tube.
2) Pentax (Takumar) 500mm f4.5 telephoto lens, modified to hold astro eyepieces, vintage wood camera tripod. The
telephoto works out to about a 4.5" refractor.

Regards.... Lawrence