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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer Star Party #2
21 January 2006

Bill, Linda and Arvind laugh at freezing temps

Chicago Astronomer Bill once again took the intitiative and put out word that the Clear sky clock showed promise for a good night of observing. I couldn't participate this time, but CA members Linda, Arvind and Adler Telescope Scope Operator Fred and his wife joined in. The skies didn't look good from where I was at and...it was cold.

Considering Bill's new sophisticated Scope, I had wished I was there, but I'm sure the scope/laptop combo will be making more appearances at our gatherings. Bill has the coolist toys!

(I have moved the original posts of Bill and Arvind here from their original locations.)

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From Arvind - (AstroCohort):

We had a good viewing session on Jan 21 - outside Adler. Bill had initiated it and Linda and I (arvind) joined .

We had the best equipment available. A laptop to control the scope, 5" TAK (its a must see) , Go-to mount, william optics refractor and of course the Naggler 7mm eyepiece.(looking at equipment worth more than 10 grand)

I arrived at 7:20pm and we all left at about 11:20 pm. Weathered the cold - thanks to Linda for handwarmers.

Clouds were unforgiving for a long time - but it cleared up at 9 pm or so.. we got fantastic views of Saturn, Orion nebula . could not really align the scope to be able to control using the laptop - as we could not see Polaris. We could have got it accurately aligned at 9:30 pm - but we were cold ... so did the old fashioned way and many many thanks to Bill and Linda - got the best views of the year !!!

check the pics at
pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/astrocohort/album?.dir=/bafc&.src=ph&.tok=ph13cSEBJyrZR8vU


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From Bill (Atomant):
After finally convincing the folks at the post office that Bill is the same as William, my new toy was released from custody.

Combined with clear skies, albeit late, I was able to observe with my new 8in Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain scope.

Here is a quick shot of saturn using a 3MP camera. Seeing was average.

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Way to go you brave souls. I hope to make the next call and marvel at the new scope... Please do check out Arvinds photos of the event.

Quite cool.