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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Public Viewing at the Adler for the Conjuction - June 23rd...

The Adler Planetarium will conduct a public viewing session for the rare planetary conjuction of Mercury, Venus and Saturn on the steps of the Planetarium on Thursday, the 23rd of June.

The session will start at sundown and last until we lose the planets behind the Chicago skyline.

Of course, your Chicago Astronomer Administrator and Adler Telescope operator will be there to observe and share the event with all who come by for the event.

I invite all Chicago Astronomer area members to come on down, join in on the fun and share this rare occurance with me and fellow astronomers. I would also be very interested in the observations of our other worldwide members of the event.

Hope for clear skies!...

[jglover]

Hi Joe,

I might be able to make it down there Thursday. We are doing fire alarm testing in the federal building where I work but that does not start until 6:30pm. The testing will take two or three hours to complete....so if we get done in two hours, then the timing would be just about right for me to stop by Adler on the way home.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

John,

It will be great to see you again and join us in the conjunction!

See you then!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Conjunction Night at the Adler - 23 June 2005

The day was hot and sticky, and haze threatened good viewing of the event, but we are tough astronomers and short of cloud cover, we gathered and set up the scopes. Some brought their own scopes and equipment, and we had Chicago Astronomer members join in as well.

We set up along the south telescope terrace and along the lower walkway, which is a good idea, as it makes the scopes more visible to the public. I wanted to take a group shot of the crack astronomer team for this evenings session before we got started, as it's one of the largest gatherings of Adler telescope operators at one place at one time...

Pictured are: Randy, Bill, Ron, Kelli, Rajasi, Jude, Arnved, Don, Linda, Balu, Me, Matt, Patrick and his wife.

Patrick, (a new Chicago Astronomer member), joined in on the fun and brought his own equipment. Unfortunately, some vital pieces of equipment were left behind and put a damper on using his 8" SCT. Next time Pat! But he did use his smaller scopes...

Here Patrick, (left), explains the intricate details of his equipment. John, (right), another Chicago Astronomer member, stopped by too.

Here are John and I

John has too many scopes, as he has the astronomer malady real bad... ;D

The night was progressing along well. A nice breeze kept us cool and I was going from scope to scope, laughing with friends and taking shots.

Here our old friend and Chicago Astronomer member, Sarwat, (left), stopped by and stayed with us for the evening. He brought his high powered binoculars and worked with Bill's cool binocular setup. Bill brought along a mirrored binocular viewer, where one looks down onto a mirror to look up. Quite cool! Linda is peering through it in this shot.

Pictured are Balu and Don. Balu was manning the 8" SCT quite well with Don explaining some celestial mechanics.

*(A bit about Don. Recently, I ran out of my parking passes to the Adler...twice... and was in desperate need to obtain some. But the Adler office was closed in both occasions that I sought the passes out. Don came to my rescue both times and I owe my deepest gratitude to him and his generousity... )

Here our newer telescope trainees, Balu and Rajasi focus in on Venus.

Only one scope that I peered through caught Mercury, but odd that Saturn wasn't targeted at all this evening. It's too low to the horizon for any decent views anyway, as it only shows an oblong object. I elected not to man a scope this time, and went around talking to the public, assisting others in their needs, and taking pics.

Rajasi and I decided to catch the 20" SCT session going on in the rear of the Adler.

Here, we both are catching Jupiter, which showed good definition and banding.

I caught the red spot transiting in the upper right quad, and using a filter brought out more definition. It was quite warm in the observatory, but I always enjoy views through the massive scope.

Here Matt gives a boost to a visitor peering at the conjunction.

I have known Matt for some time now, and it's always good to see him. (It was Matt who first suggested that I join the Adler as a Volunteer Telescope Interpreter a few years back...The Adler may never forgive him!) He has this cool 10" Newt with Binocular viewing that's just great. Two eye observing is the way to go!

Another telescope trainee, Vladi, stopped by to view thru scopes. Here Vladi joins Jude in a skyline shot during the event.

At the end of the night's session, I had the last pic taken of the crack crew. Pictured from left to right: Arnved, Linda, John, Jude, Balu, Me, Rajasi, Matt, Bill and Adler Astronomer Larry.

After the Adler closed for the night, we stayed behind and commiserated for awhile, sharing stories, catching up on our lives and breaking down personal equipment. It was a nice time for the Adler crew, showing the public the conjunction event, and brought out some of our Chicago Astronomer membership.

*(Due the heat and rush of the day, I may have overlooked someone or misspelled a name or two. If you do find an error, please do chime in, correct this and post your own account of the session as well.)

We should have more of these... ;D