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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer and Chicago Park District Star Party

Calumet Park

Saturday 10 May 2014

Our third joint star party session of the 2014 observational season with the Chicago Park District will be in Chicago's far..far south side in Calumet Park - 9801 S. Avenue G

And....it is also National Astronomy Day,  where all astronomical institutions, organizations and clubs make special efforts to bring out telescopes and conduct presentations for the sky lovin' public.  

We will set up the C11 at 7:00 pm and welcome our guests and anticipating dusk, we will be chatting about all things astronomical. Jupiter, Mars and yes...I think even Saturn for this session....rising at 7:42 pm.  We will most likely set-up near the field house, but more details here in a short while.

If the weather will cooperate, Saturn will be at Opposition and at it's brightest for the year, bringing out details not normally displayed at other times - rings and planet at their best!

We have never been to Calumet Park and will be an adventure for all Chicago Astronomer fans.

Be there. 

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

UPDATE:

We are a solid go for tonight's Astronomy Day Observation Session in Calumet Park.

As an added bonus...we will enjoy a very bright Iridium Flare at 9:46 pm during our session.  We will set-up close to the field house area...look for the scopes.

Skies look nice and temps are comfortable...be there.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Successful Astronomy Day in Chicago's far south side

10 May 2014

Our joint Chicago Astronomer and Chicago Park District Star Party in Calumet Park was a great success - with great skies, tons of kids and three Astronomers to share the skies.

Arriving around 7pm, we set up in a clearing, near the lake...






We align our scopes and chat with our gathering visitors while our Park Coordinator Kathleen announces our event to families around the park...




The Moon was our first target of the session.  Chicago Astronomers Bill and Rich brought in nice wide fields, as I kicked up the magnification and toured craters for our guests...

Most of all of our visitors had never peered through a telescope or viewed planets first hand.  Our visitors expressed their gratitude on this opportunity to observe first hand...and for free.

Chicago Astronomers and the Chicago Park District never charge for Star Parties.....

Bill and Rich were busy all through this session, educating the public on what was observed and the details of the the objects, including celestial navigation and optical mechanics...

Every telescope station had eager lines waiting for a peek.  Soon enough, we slewed over to Mars, displaying a nice ice cap and terrestrial markings, Saturn with Titan and punching through the trees in our west...mighty Jupiter and his satellite system.  At times the kids were crowding the scopes, my fellow Co-worker Alexandra, who brings her family to Chicago Astronomer star parties, (her Sons really dig it), volunteered to assist in crowd control in keeping the kids from grabbing on to the equipment and providing room for the observers.  




Thanks Alex!!....

Atmospheric conditions this evening were much better this evening than last, bringing out good detail on all targets as the three Astronomers all slew among three planets and the Moon...

With Mars in conjunction with the Moon, it was a simple matter of just nudging the C11 back and forth, as people wanted to see the angry red planet...but I had to explain numerous times not to build their expectations high, as the disk will be quite small and not like what the magazines show.  

We talk astronomy and all things related as I try to photograph the session...along with Chicago Astronomer Support Crew member Maria...

We need more step ladders at these events where younger viewers are expected, as Rich needed it for his scope and I needed it especially for mine.  The Park Supervisor brought out some wooden step boxes for us and they helped.  The temps were comfortable and the skies remained clear for us, with Saturn rising over the eastern tree tops - bringing ooohs and aaahs for those who viewed her ring system.   With Saturn in direct opposition this evening, this was the brightest opportunity to catch the ringed planet.   With so many young guests grabbing at the scope, I had to keep the magnification low for this session.  Our guests also enjoyed the ambient space/classical sounds coming from my mounted soundbox.

New Chicago Astronomer fan Liz, brought her own Telescope to the session...




Sometimes....you gotta contort and bend and twist to get just the right angle...

The skies remained steady and we attend to the smaller thinned crowds around 9:30 pm...




Here, we attempt to punch through the trees and catch Jupiter for a interested couple....with good success.




Robert and I shared esoteric conversations about the cosmos as I pointed out interested spring objects in our urban sky.




We had a scheduled Iridium Flare to observe, but it didn't pan out...



It was listed as having a flare of -8.1, but all we saw was the satellite itself...but no flare.....   Not my fault kids.

We go back to now a more leisurely interaction with our guests...





Happy Astronomer Rich...




As we wrapped up our successful event, the clouds started to roll in...








Chicago Astronomers, Park District and fans on a great night out on Chicago's far south side and the urban sky cosmos.

Our next joint Chicago Astronomer & Chicago Park District event will be on.. 

Saturday, the 21st of June in Lincoln Park Grant Park for an All Solar event starting at 10:00 am.

Gonna be a good one....Details soon.....be there!

[Kathleen]

Thank you Joe for the best star party of 2014!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Kathleen...

It was a solid high energy Chicago Astronomer/Chicago Park District event.

Open skies, three planets and a nice Moon to share with our park guests. We had C.A. fans come from around the city to join us at this far south side location and everybody enjoyed themselves...as all fans of ours do.

Thank you for your interest and participation in this joint effort of our park events as our coordinator.

A lot more to do in the coming months.

[Paulie pchris00]

This would have been a good one for me to get to, but I had a scheduling conflict. I'll try to get to a C.A. star party soon. It's been way too long.