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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer and Chicago Park District joint Star Party

Saturday 23 May 2015

The first joint astronomical observation session will be on Saturday, the 23rd of May 2015 at Smith Park - 2526 W Grand Ave.  We will arrive by 7:30 pm and guide skylovers till 10:00 pm.

We don't know exactly where we will set-up scopes, but look for the red lights, that will be us.  We will have the Moon, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn to share with our park visitors on a nice warm spring evening.

Be there, you know you want to.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

UPDATE:

There may be some clouds sliding in for this evening's Chicago Astronomer Star Party, but we are a sold go....unless it rains.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Fun time at Smith Park...



This was our first time at Smith park, located in Chicago's near Southwest side, the Chicago Astronomers set up scopes on a nice mostly clear evening.  We had participating this session, Chicago Astronomers Linda & Alfred, Tom, Maria and myself.  The weather was good and just a semi partly cloudy skies and decent temps...ready  for Jupiter, Venus Saturn and the Moon.

C.A. Linda brought her Vixen refractor...

And I with the C11 beast....

The Moon naturally was our first target of the night while we wait for the planets to manifest..

Sky conditions were not optimal and seeing not tack sharp, but we all still enjoyed the banding and satellites of Jupiter and the 1/2 phase of Venus....turbulent but still a thrill...

 

Tom had an accident with his mount at a Chicago Astronomer observation session, breaking off a pivot nub holding up a leg on the tripod platform.  I appreciate all members working C.A. star parties and repaired it.  



This was his first test of the repair and it worked solidly...

C.A. Linda was first to spot Saturn and slewed over while Tom and I trained our scopes on Jupiter and the Moon.  I loaded the C11 with a 26mm and a 2x Barlow...bringing in close viewings of lunar craters and the Jovian system...

The iPad mini tablet is great for demonstrating to our visitors what we are observing in the scopes, now on a sling, I can keep it on me and swing it upfront, leaving my hands free and keeping it close...

Our visitors inquire which apps I use and immediately download them to their phones.  And now, it seems that everyone desires to capture what they observed on their cell phone cameras.  The Moon is easily captured, but all other objects are difficult to grab an image with handheld phones...

Fellow co-worker Luis brought his kids tabletop Firstscope and obtained his first views of Saturn at this session....

Our fantastic park coordinator Kathleen works with the younger skylovers with charts, moon maps and binoculars...

This was a very enthusiastic crowd of skylovers, tons of questions, well behaved children and an experience that they will not soon forget.  The Park council would like us back soon...and often...  

At 10:00 pm, we still attended to park visitors who wished more time with the cosmos, but we called it at 10:45 pm with visitors still desiring to catch a peek...

Chicago Astronomer Crew and fans for this solid evening of urban astronomy...




On to the next joint Chicago Astronomer and Chicago Park District event on the 6th of June at Oz Park.

Details soon....