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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Public Event at the Adler - 4th of February

Fellow Chicago Astronomers...

The next public activity will take place on the 4th of February from 6 pm to 10:00pm. We will again bring out the scopes, and if we are lucky...the skies will be clear. Let's see if we can catch Macholz and the regular winter targets.

This night will be a combo Far Out Friday and a AstroOvernight. The crowds should be good and I encourage Chicago Astronomers and all others in the Chicago area to stop on by and share observations and company.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Adler Planetarium Public Observational activity - 04 February 2005

The night held promise to stay somewhat clear, and considering the blanket of gloomy clouds over Chicago skies of recent, it was uplifting in that we were actually going to get to see Chicago stars.

We gatherd in the conference room for a pre-session dinner of pizza and conversation. It was going to be a busy night with hundreds attending this event. Familiar faces greeted me and met couple of staffers new to me.

Starting out about 6:30 pm, I was the first to reach the Telescope storage area and thought I would go with the 10" SCT. Steve assisted me in dragging out this beast and along with the roll about, we set up. Also brought into service that night by the other telescope operators were a 5" dob for the little kids manned by Steve, the 8" dob manned by John, a 6" dob manned by Don and a 6" newtonian , personal scope of Bill.

Bill has the best mount that I have ever seen, computerized with a go-to lcd color display pad. I wish I had taken a detailed pic of it, but here is a group shot with the scope:

Here are Telescope operators John, Steve and Bill posing as I ruin our night vision. Bill also utilized his green lazer, and with the haze in the air...worked very well.

We both targeted Saturn. Now, although the SCT that I was using gathered more light, the views throught Bill's 6" scope were very good and crisp, and actually thought them better than the 10". For a different view of Saturn, I placed various filters on eyepieces...yellow, a nebula filter, a narrowband filter. All brought out different aspects of the planet, but the yellow filter was the best for the night's activities. It darkened the banding and brightened up the image a bit.

Bill and I on the Telescope Terrace:

Since the terrace was now full of people and mirrored scopes, I wish I would have dragged out the 4" refractor for comparison, but perhaps next time. The temps were now sinking and the winds a bit more brisk, and I was starting to feel the chill, as were my fellow telescope operators. Luckily, I have the stretchy gloves in my side pocket for just such opportunities.

New Chicago Astronomer member Richard (RoverRich), stopped by to bid hello...

We did not have a change to chat much as the crowds were quite heavy at times, but it was nice for Rich to seek me out.

Different scopes now were targeting various objects, one was on the Orion Nebula, another on the Pleaides, and two on Saturn. From time to time were would just slew over to something else...I targeted Sirius and it looked like a blazing torch in the ep. The public enjoyed it as well. I also observed M42, but the haze washed it out a bit. I used the nebula filter, it brought out more detail, but also darkened the overall image. I attempted to target Macholz, but to no avail. With the heavy moisture in the air I couldn't even target it with binoculars. I don't think anyone saw it that night either.

I listened the other operators explain the sky to the visitors and enjoyed the enthusiastic manner in which they did. Details about what the Orion Nebula was, the tilt of Saturns rings and stories of the winter constellations were all about at the same time. Bill kept referring Saturn as the "CBS logo" . Indeed a good and fun crew to partner up with.

I had four people come up to me asking about their new telescopes that they received, and knew nothing about it. I recommended that they bring them along next FOF in March, and we can put the scopes through it's paces. Stories and accounts were exchanged about first time views, great dark skies and equipment comparisons.

It was now approachng 9:30 pm, and although people were still coming up to view, it was time to put all the scopes away. It was a pretty good night of showing the public the hazy skies thru the Great Chicago Nebula.

Respectfully submitted,

Joe Guzmán
Telescope Interpreter
Adler Planetarium

[jglover]

Chicago said:

Bill has the best mount that I have ever seen, computerized with a go-to lcd color display pad. I wish I had taken a detailed pic of it, but here is a group shot with the scope:

Looks a lot like a Vixen Sphinx mount......if so it si a very sweet mount with an excellent GOT )capability. And it should be as I think the mount alone runs about $2k!

[Richard]

Joe, nice to meet you in person, sorry I couldn't stay to chat, but my 4yr old son Andrew had a different agenda! He enjoyed the event as much as I if not more so. We'll see you next month. Rich