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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Garage Top Astronomy
Chicago Astronomer Observing Site #5
09 June 2007

Still enthusiastic about the prior night's mini session, Chicago Astronomer Bill and I decided to observe again and challenge urban astronomy. But this time at an entirely new location - which will be referred to Chicago Astronomer Observing site #5. With another concert going on near the Adler, avoiding the traffic mess was wise.

This new site is located on top of a new parking garage facility - 4 floors up. Wide open skies and the Sears tower practically on top of us, this new location will prove to be a nice addition to our ever growing list of urban observation sites. Bill always finds the most unique sites.

I arrived first and set up facing west, with Venus and Saturn waiting to be explored. A cool night and nary a cloud in the sky, let's see how good this site will be. No other cars around, but some of the city lights would certainly be an obstacle to contend with, but as we all know, urban astronomers mock light pollution.

I experimented with using a polarizer filter and it shows nicely here the boundary of the solar arc, transitioning from daylight to twilight, next to the Sears Tower.

Using only the 12x zoom on the Canon Powershot S3, one can practically peer in the windows of the 110 story Sears Tower from our vantage point!

Bill arrived, with fellow Adler Planetarium Telescope Operator Arvind. Before we get too involved with our session, I always get a group shot in. Venus is over my right shoulder and a blinking Fire Dept. communication tower shown adjacent to my trusty 1968 Chevelle.

While chatting, Bill pointed to something coming at us from the west, and didn't know what it was. We all turned around and there was something mysterious alright, and at first sight, I was rather taken aback. Our first UFO...alright!... ;D

It turned out to be a Sanyo blimp buzzing our immediate area. Using different exposure settings, I caught the blimp as it floated about. In the first two shots, the polarizer was used and again shows a nice solar arc...

Continuing from last nights session, I wanted to resume taking handheld astrophotos with the S3 thru Bill's 10" dob, but this time of Saturn.

Venus is displaying a nice quarter phase now at it's greatest elongation, and will share with us soon a good crescent.

Saturn is diving into the atmospheric muck sooner each night, and getting difficult to see clearly. I took shots first with my 4.5" Newtonian. Small, but one can observe some ring structure here. Next I moved on to the 10" Antares. Saturn was now brighter and bigger, but in a way, it was too good! I couldn't get a decent exposure regardless of camera setting.

Fellow Adler Telescope Operator joined us on the Garage roof and participated in our astronomical enjoyment. Here various pics reflecting astronomers bliss.

Urban astronomy can be a difficult task at times, with light and smoke pollution doing it's best to obscure celestial targets. A good example is here, with a southern breeze pushing smoke from a electric generating station across our western field of view, but does it deter hardy Chicago Astronomers? Not in the least...

In this shot, we catch both Saturn and Venus, getting closer with each night. On the 18th of June the two planets will be so close that in a low powered wide field eyepiece you will observe two planets at the same time...and have a crescent Moon laying in between them!... Incredible...let's hope for clear skies that night.

The four story high parking garage site proved to be worthy of return visits and continued use as the 5th Chicago Astronomer observing site. But we must find the sweet spot, where light is minimal and sky open. Next time.

We had good skies this evening, with our scopes and good friends to share it with, it reaffirms why astronomy is the noblest of the sciences.