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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

- Chicago Astronomer's Log -
24 may 2004

I decided to take the rare advantage of crystal clear skies to set up by my usual spot by the planetarium Friday evening at about 8:00 p.m. The air was cool and crisp, with a slight breeze coming from the lake.

It was still rather light out when I set up, with the only objects visible were Venus and the moon. I focused on the moon first, which was slightly more than half full. As the moon changes from night to night, it is my favorite object to observe. Even as a kid with my first 60mm refractor, it was the moon that got the most attention.

Starting out with a low power eyepiece, (7x), contrast was low when I started to observe it. So I attached a polarizer lens and it dramatically brought out high contrast and detail. The ridges, valleys and craters were displayed nicely and sharply with good shadowing. The tops of the mountains were easily visible peeking from the dark side. The air was stable enough to kick up the magnification all the way to a 4mm eyepiece which brought the crater floors and maria's in good detail.

Clavius is always a nice target in stark shadowing, as it sat near the terminator this evening. I always thought it looks like one of those tourist binocular viewers that you put a quater in.

Copernicus offered good viewing of it's walls and rays. I was able to really zoom in on it this evening.

This is a great shot of Corpernicus close up from the Lunar Orbiter of the 1960's.

(Stock photos of lunar features)...


Slewed the scope to Venus before it sank behind the city skyline. A beautiful slender crescent presented itself before me. A bit wavy from her proximity to the horizon, it still allowed me to use moderate magnification to view.

This is how Venus appeared in the eyepiece

Jupiter beckoned for some of my time, so I aimed it up and caught the King of the planets with four moons lined up in a neat row to one side. Higher magnification brought out the banding nicely. (With reflectors, I find that targets up at zenith are difficult to aim at, the tripod legs get in the way, the focuser is way up high, and sometimes out of reach for shorter observers.)

I almost forgot about Saturn during this session. Getting low in the west, I picked it up first in binoculars to confirm it's location. A bit dimmer then usual, Saturn still offered good views of the ring system, glowing in a yellowish tint.

I attempted to locate Comet LINEAR, but without success. Lights and trees were in my way. I would hate to let it go without a glimpse of it. Another night.

All through my observation, I had a world traveler join me from Austria. He is spending two years traveling the world, and in all his travels, he had never peeked thru a telescope. The views of the aforementioned targets were a treat for him and his traveling companion. She took some digipics of us, and will send them to me soon. I shall post the images when I get them. I also met a father with his two kids wanting to view as well. He has a reflector purchased at a discount store, but never really used it. He shall contact me via email to join the group and learn more about amateur astronomy.

*I am starting to get some aberration and degradation of image on the upper right side of the field of view. It's time for the pain staking collimation procedure. Not my favorite activity.

I closed up shop around 10:00 pm, as it was now getting too cold, and young recent High School graduates were congregating by the planetarium, full of youth, energy and booze.



Joe
[glow=blue,2,300]Chicago Astronomer[/glow]