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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Urban Astronomy session - 01 August 2005

With the temps quite warm and humidity high, Kalvis , Bill and I joined up at the Urban 2 Chicago Astronomer site at around 8:30 pm., directly in the shadow of the Sears Tower.

Although the field lights were out, the transparency was quite poor, and I had a hell of a time trying to find things. Hell, I couldn't even find my favorite M57!...

Jupiter was good, as I noticed atmospheric disturbances just above the southern belt on the planet. I had never seen these in a scope, and in Bill's 10" dob, quite clear.

Here Bill does a Vanna, showcasing his scope.

I'm sure Bill will post in more detail what we targeted, but M13, Coathanger and M7 were observed. Bill just knew where to look and picked them up. I'm impressed.

Here Kalvis demonstrates his cool home made green laser set-up. I'm sure he will detail it for us, but quite ingenious. (Light beam added for kooky effects).

We used his 40mm eyepiece for wide low powered views, and the entire coathanger could be visualised in the fov.

We called it a night at 10:30 pm, but it was a pleasant get together, and I suggested we resume when the cold front blows all this heat and humidity away, and provide us with clear deep skies.

[atomant]

Hi Joe and Kalvis,

Wow, can you believe it's almost the end of August. I've been preoccupied with work the last couple of weeks.

From the city, you can always count on the planets to come through. That night was no exception. Armed with the 10in, we were able to see quite a bit of detail on Jupiter through the steady mucky skies.

With the ballpark lights out, I wanted to push myself to observe a childhood favorite, the open cluster M7. A naked eye object from dark skies, it was close to invisible through my 9x50 finder. Luckily, M7 is close to the "cat's eyes" or stinger stars of Scorpius. Finding the stinger with the scope, I scanned the area just left.

With Kalvis' green laser point finder, I was able to guide the short tube refractor to another favorite of mine, the Coathanger. It was sweet through Kalvis' 40mm eyepiece.

Hey, I hear this week might have a string of clear nights.
I'm game if anyone else is interested in C.A. Urban Site #2.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

With the cooler temps, brings clearer and deeper skies.

I'm in.

Let's see how it looks.

[Kalvis]

Whose game for meeting CAUS #2 tonight? I'ts a good one for me.

Kalvis

[atomant]

I'm game.

Satellite shows a wedge of sky tonight.
Always try to be an optimist.

See you around 8:30pm

[atomant]

That clear wedge of sky quickly closed up on us tonight.
Vast amount of high clouds stretched far and wide.
The Summer Triangle barely broke through.
We did catch Jupiter and Venus coming ever so closer together.
Kalvis also showed me reference material to the night sky: star charts from Skymaps.com and a book called Starwatch by Phil Harrington.

We decided to pull one last hope....La Luna.
After consulting with Arvind for moonrise times, we headed out to Adler.
Surely, the moon will conquer the clouds.

Kalvis was lucky to catch the moon last night, while witnessing the Cubs pummel the Braves.

At last, it was not meant to be. As Kalvis and I snaked up toward Adler with anticipation, we found the meters mugged with the "hostage bags". A traffic cop confirmed that $18 or $25 would get us a parking space.

I'm glad our government is always looking after the people. Only the well-to-do should enjoy the park.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

After a all night writing session, and reporting duties during the day, I literally went to bed at 4:00 pm and the world went away.

I missed calls from astronomers inquiring if I planned on doing a session this evening. Would have liked to, but from Bill's report...conditions weren't ideal anyway.

It amazes me on the utter ignorance and blatant extortion of the city and the Standard Parking people to squeeze out the a few more sheckles. Wednesdays and Saturdays, for the summer, are bad for visiting the Adler grounds. It's Navy Pier fireworks night then, and the less then "astronomically interested" elements come out from under their rocks and infest the area.

Hail to the Chicago Astronomers who push ahead!