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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Solar Observation at the Doane
29 March 2008

I, along with fellow Adler Telescope Operators Fred and Santiago, opened the Doane Observatory for some public Solar viewing on a rather brisk Saturday afternoon.

The sun was out, but the skies had high cirrus clouds that threatened a good clear session, but they were thin enough to punch thru and catch sunspots, prominences and facula.

Although quite cold, we attended to many visitors curious and excited to view the surface of the sun and talk astronomy.

I attached my trusty Canon S3 to the Coronado Solar telescope and managed to capture some solar artifacts. Above is a nice sunspot and facula in H-Alpha wavelength. In the last one is a classic textbook sunspot. One can clearly observe the magnetic field surrounding the sunspot. In the white light 6" refractor telescope attached to the main scope, the sunspot was viewed as a classic beautiful sunspot. About two or three Earths could easily fit in that Sunspot.

Above, I was able to capture a nice prominences of the solar limb.

Here Santiago & Fred take views and make adjustments to the tracking of the scope.

I also had the great pleasure to have to have two of my Yelper friends come by to view the sun at my invitation....

John C stopped by to say hi and at first I did not recognize him, as I was on top of the ladder taking pics. But it was great to finally meet up with John and had a good time talking for a short bit and glad he enjoyed himself.

Mike W also made his way to the Adler this cold afternoon as well and spent a good amount of time peering thru the scopes, discussing astronomy and just having a good time together.

Great to see Yelp buddies come down and allow me to share my enjoyment with them. when the weather gets warmer, I expect more to come out. Thanks Mike and John!

We closed up shop at 3:00 pm and since the three of us were out there since 12:00 pm, we were plenty cold but satisfied on a good solid solar session on a early spring day.