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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Chicago Astronomer at AstroFest

September 7th/8th 2013

www.gadboisproductions.com/cas/

I have never been to an AstroFest event, but I think this year will change that.

Held at Starved Rock State Park, the event is free this year.

Some details:

AstroFest will open at Noon on Friday, September 6, 2013 and continue thru Noon on Sunday, September 8, 2013. You may register for both days or for one day, Friday or Saturday.

* Fee-free AstroFest at Starved Rock AstroFest is a FREE event (no registration fee), plus free camping for those willing to share views through their telescope with the general public, and/or do some type of outreach at the state park for the public (day or evening), and/or offer an astronomy or light pollution presentation that the public can listen to.

The free camping area for the astronomers is in the Youth/Group Campground. You can plan on setting up your scope next to your tent/camper. There are free showers (bring your own soap, towels, shampoo). The Youth/Group Campground does NOT have electrical hookup. There are adjoining campsites (walking distance) that can be reserved for a fee that does have electrical power. The Lodge on site has excellent brunches & other meals with indoor and outdoor seating areas. The lodge also has regular rooms and cabins (that book up rather quickly). However, most astronomers (but not all) usually just camp over in the AstroFest area of the Youth/ Group Campground. Children under 6 years must be supervised at all times

I would prefer a solo non-public session, but will not turn anyone away who comes up. I welcome other Chicago Astronomers who would like to participate and maybe have a joint session.

Let me know if interested and go to the link above for the registration form.

[RobbW]

What is this "joint session" you speak of?

[mojocvh]

ROFL guys

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Seems that we got Robb's attention.

So far....

The weather looks decent and it does look like we just may be loading the SUV with gear and head out. I have already registered Maria and I, but yet to start gathering all of the camping gear.

See some of you out there?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Astrofest 2013....

My first Astrofest was a nice one.

Maria and I loaded the SUV with gear and camping equipment and headed out toward the Starved Rock area where this year's Astrofest was located - in an open field and wide skies.

Arriving closer to the area, we were noticing showers in the area...

But looking to the west, it seemed to be clearing and hoped for decent skies.

Checking in, we met Audrey from the Chicago Astronomical Society...

...and settled in in our spot. We were one of the last arrivals, (most of the other Astronomers set-up the day before), and we were at the far end of the line of scopes...and this was fine with us...

I brought along the C11 and the CG-5 mount for some fun in darker skies...

Raw, the OTA weighs 29 lbs. There may be the day when I can't hoist it unto the saddle mount, but not today. The rails and handles I installed years ago do their job very well and why Celestron only includes a lame single handle at the rear of the cell is silly. The handholds make for secure and solid handling, even with gloves. All SCTs should have 'em.

We let it all settle while we went around to say hi with fellow astronomers and see the gear...

Above Mark and I spent some time together at my site discussing the C11 and the neat Sky-fi remote control via the iPad mini. We slewed from target to target, and the mount brought the target within the FOV nicely. Mark has a prized 1.25" Zeiss eyepiece and we observed a decent lookin' Neptune - blue disk and all in hazy skies. I missed out in the chance to peer through his uber long-high contrast Refractor, but hope he brings it out one evening for a Chicago Astronomer session soon.

(I did have a problem early on in the set-up, with the scope pointing some distance away from my desired target. At home, I did punch in the coordinates on the iPAd min and the Sky Safari Pro app, but the mount's hand controller thought I was still in Chicago. Picking out Marseilles from the list of Illinois locations, this corrected the latitude and from then on performed nicely throughout the rest of the available session.)

We meet more fellow Astronomers....

Ken had his very cool 15" Obsession set-up and we spent some solo time at our scopes - chatting about our experiences...

M57 was especially bright and clear in his scope.

Thanks Ken!

We had visitors from surrounding campgrounds come by our scopes and enjoyed sharing the views...

Sometime during the session, a couple of Chinese lanterns were set free from our site...

I target it with my butter cutter laser while it went on it's way.


I did not conduct a serious imaging session, but using Vega as a focus aid, (did not use the Bahtinov mask), I got some quick captures of M15...

and NCG 6229..

The skies deteriorated around midnight, with distant lighting that illuminated the sky and the threat of rain caused us to cover/put away our gear. Maria and I relaxed outside our tent for awhile and enjoyed the darkness, but soon we retired...

But, being nocturnal myself...I was not a bit sleepy and goofed around on the tablets, using my tethered Wi-fi...

But long into the night, I was still wide awake and enjoyed watching the stars through the screen roof of our tent...

...and watching the winter objects rise in the east...with Jupiter shining brightly.

I only slept about an hour and it was a restless one. I felt the heat of the rising Sun and it was time to pack our gear and head out..

While breaking down the tent, I saw couple of tents down from us, an unusual solar scope and made my way to it and met Bill...

Bill explains it's a classic Novak design and essentially a Newtonian folded into in a tube. He built the scope himself, including the solar filter. I don't recall all of the specs that Bill went into, but it provides a nice view of the solar disk.

Very cool.

Packed and ready to go, we decide that we will stop by the Starved Rock area and explore a bit before heading back to the city...

By the time we were 3/4s of the way home, I was dead tired and slept the remaining Sunday evening away in restful bliss.

We had a fun time at this year's Astrofest, meeting old friends and making new ones...and having some laughs.

Thanks to all involved who made my first Astrofest a good one...