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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Chicago Astronomers Set up for the first International Sidewalk Astronomy event
19 May 2007

The day was a warm one this early spring and clear skies were predicted...at least for the first half of our session.

I showed up first and set up by the South Lawn of the Adler Planetarium at 7:00 pm. Steve joined me soon after with his 6" Celestron SCT and we set up our instruments. I had my small radio hanging from my scope and listened to oldies while we organized our accessories and prepared for a good evening of looking up.

The dusk sky was ablaze and we could target the Crescent Moon in the bright background, but dark clouds were threatening our evening observational session in the far northern distance. But the Lake at our door step does mysterious things - pro and con - and perhaps would banish the overhead blanket.

All images were taken with my Canon Powershot S3. A great little camera that does a great job in various lighting conditions with good reproduction and versatility... ;D

Carmen joined us, but did not bring her scope along. Her 8" dob was just too bulky for transport, but there would be plenty of scopes for all and glad she came.

And shortly after Carmen, Linda and Alfred increased our team to five. Good having Alfred join us...

In my hand I have a set of MRE's (Meals ready to Eat). With it, is powdered Tang and an activated heating pad to warm up the MRE. Alfred is a U.S. Marine and presented Steve and I with these yummy meals. I will save it for hard times. ( I say, if all we got out of the Apollo project was Tang...it was well worth it!... )

Carmen and Linda, with their eagle-like eyes, spotted Venus along side of the crescent moon, but I couldn't see it right away - I never am the first to spot naked eye objects. Being nearsighted is quite ironic for an astronomer.

But with intense naked eye searching and the use of 10x50 binoculars, I finally spotted it, and managed to image the pair with the S3.

The sky was darkening nicely now and the conjunction was making an impressive and rare sky show. The "backward" configuation of the planet and satellite looks almost similar to the Turkish flag...

I wonder if the country was incorporated when the Moon and Venus were in a similar arrangement and used it for their symbol?

People walking by stopped by our telescopes, wondered what we were doing and eagerly wanted to take a peek. With my low powered 60mm finder scope, I was able to capture both Venus and the Moon in the same field of view and made a great visual paring in the eyepiece. I have my guests start out with the finder scope first and then graduate them to the higher power magnification in the main focuser. Some after viewing through the telescopes stayed around for quite a while and discussed optics, astronomy and other related topics.

Those distant clouds were not so distant now, and now evident that the blanket of water vapor was about to spoil the great conjunction that hung before us. But it did not deter us nor our visitors from observing. I enjoy sharing views with people, but appreciate those who have a great interest in astronomy and engage in conversation.

We also targeted the planet Saturn and it always thrills the first timers when first observed. As always, there is disbelief in what they are observing...asking if it's a slide or other trickery... I often put my finger to my lips and whisper "Shush, don't let it get around".

Saturn's satellite, Titan was easily visible and made a nice sharp target in our scopes. Steve had his motorized scope on Saturn, so I returned to the Venus/Moon conjunction to catch them peeking thru the "sucker holes" that this cloud cover was providing. I tried to find Mercury near the horizon, but failed. Steve used his motorized go-to scope to find Mercury hiding in the muck..shing reddish and showing phase.

John now joined the Chicago Astronomer crew and we were 6. He brought along his 10" Meade monster and set up along side. The thing about John is that the clouds came along with him... We need to have a talk.



And rounding off the crew was Kalvis, who made us now 7 strong. He brought along his 4" refractor on a cool mount. I don't remember all the details of his equipment, but perhaps he can chime in with that.

Now, we are all having a great time out, sharing views with our visitors, talking astronomy and answering questions on the mechanics of the cosmos. Energy was high and this is what star parties are all about. At times it was difficult to answer all questions without ignoring someone, but I did my best and handed out my business cards to those interested in further correspondence.

(Side note: I always wanted to coordinate a Tiki Star party, with Hawaiian shirts, tiki torches, surf guitar tunes and exotic drinks. Maybe this summer!... ;D )

We were getting peeks of the Moon/Venus brief sky marrage thru breaks in the clouds, knowing it will be ending soon, but the people kept coming. We made the best with the remaining time we had. When the clouds covered up celestial objects, I focused on the antenna array on top of the Sears tower which always impresses the folks.

Carmen takes a peek thru my reflector...

and John's reflector.

It's difficult to take shots while showing visitors the heavens, but I try to get them when I can. Here an interested pretty young woman takes a peek at Arcturus with the crew looking on.

I had one couple from Spain who were very interested in observing and understanding what they were looking at. I demonstrated that most astronomy is conducted in low powered viewing. In that nothing is free and the inverse formula of high powered magniication compared to low magnification is the dimming of an object in the eyepiece. Using the crescent Moon in this experiment, at low power, (10x), the Moon was bright, clear and the entire Moon visible in the eyepiece - along with venus, but at a much higher magnification (75x), the once bright Moon was now quite dimmer in the same scope, (4.5" reflector).

In between visitors we talked shop and had laughs.

I like Kalvis. He uses a Rigel Star finder and has the MacGuiver instinct to build things like I do. He showed me his lastest innovation for his Rigel. It's attached to a strap and velcroed at the end. In this manner, he can attach his Rigel to his three different scopes with ease. Here he shows us how it works, attaching it to my scope...

For kicks, I thought it would be cool to have two Rigels on one scope and here I can get the two Rigel targeting rings to work together...

I'll take the Rigel over the bulky and antiquated Telrad or red dot finders anytime!

It was now after 10:00 pm, the crowds were thinning out and the skies more cloudy. We started to pack away our equipment but of course, not before one last group shot of Team Seven...

I like the shadowy dark figures we make as the nocturnal creature that we are - and the skyline behind us - mocking our observing session with it's glaring lights. We even have our own little supernova illuminating our star party site - casting it's orangy glow into our tubes and ruining our night vision. But resilient as we are, we still capture the celestial targets to spite the light polluted Chicago skies. It's remarkable what still can be observed from our skies - nebulae, galaxies, planets, star clusters etc...

This was one fun star party and a good first International Sidewalk Astronomy event. I haven't had a relaxed and enjoyable star party like this one in a long time. Astronomy is often a solitude activity and often it's nice to spend quiet time alone with your telescope and the heavens, but it's good to share astronomy with good friends like John, Carmen, Linda & Alfred, Kalvis and Steve.

We need to have another one real soon!...