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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomers Celebrate the May 2010 Full Moonrise
27& 28 May 2010

Each month, (weather permitting), The Chicago Astronomers gather along the lakefront to observe the Full Moon Rise over lake Michigan.

Chicago Clear Sky clock shows a nice shade of blue - indicating some clear skies heading our way for the next two nights.

This month is the "Flower" Moon, but also called the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon. Take your pick.

May's Full Moon falls on Thursday, the 27th and will rise at 8:28 pm.

We will assemble Thursday evening just south of the Adler at 7:30/8:00 pm and set up our scopes and equipment...

There is some concern over clouds earlier in the day, but the forcasters states that it will clear up by evening. But, we have some fans who can make one day and not the other and would really like to join us.

Ergo....

I will conduct TWO sessions.

One tomorrow and a "Day After Full Moon Rise" session.

Friday's rise will be at 9:26 pm and I will set up scopes and equipment at 8:30pm on that day.

Friday seems to be the clearer of the two, but it's always a nice time looking up and talking astronomy with friends - and besides... some cloud cover near the horizon makes for great photo opportunities. Both sessions are open to the public and our fans are invited to join on either day.

(I have some tests to conduct during these sessions, as I have adapted a simple Webcam to serve as a astronomical capture device...and let's see how it works.)

If free or in the area, stop by, say hi and share the Moon with us.

[Paulie pchris00]

I'm really hoping for clear skies tonight since I don't have to cut out early for work. I'm tempted to join in again Friday night, but a 9:26 Moonrise... let's just say I'm awfully tempted, even though I probably shouldn't. Unless of course we're clouded out tonight.

[Centaur]

Below is my preview of tonight’s rising Full Moon above Antares in Scorpius as it will be seen from the Adler Planetarium at 20:41 CDT. From that location the Sun should set at 20:15, the Moon will rise at 20:27 and Antares at 20:41. As it rises the Moon will be at azimuth 123.9°, i.e. 33.9° to the right of due east. It’ll then drift to the right while rising. The rising Moon will be near its mean distance from Earth with an angular diameter of 31.0 arcminutes.

Enjoy the view from the lakefront; I’m looking forward to your pictures! I’ll be attempting a photo from Arlington Heights where sunset will be at 20:18, Moonrise at 20:30 at azimuth 124.1° and Antares rising at 20:43.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Curt,

I have never observed a star pop up from the horizon before and with Antares at a good magnitude, should be good.

I'll probably miss it, but let's try.

I appreciate the heads up!

Pics indeed coming soon.

[Centaur]

Here’s my photo of the Full Moon rising through clouds as seen from Arlington Heights, Illinois on 2010 MAY 27 at 20:44 CDT. That was 26 minutes after sunset and 14 minutes after moonrise with the Moon 1.5° above the horizon.

[patrickm]

May 27, 2010 21:09:10 GMT -6 Centaur said:

Here’s my photo of the Full Moon rising through clouds as seen from Arlington Heights, Illinois on 2010 MAY 27 at 20:44 CDT. That was 26 minutes after sunset and 14 minutes after moonrise with the Moon 1.5° above the horizon.

WOW WOW! What a fantastic photo, Curt! Thanks for that one. What an eye-opener!

My experience was less than, uh, stellar. Had to work late last night, and managed to rememer to take binocs and tripod to work for my own sidewalk astro. The time came and I grabbed our carpenter who had never seen the skies under magnification. Got tripod set up only to find that I'd left my bracket at home attached to our mini travel tripod. D'oh!!!!!!!

Packing the scope down there tonight and will give another crack at it with a much larger, captive audience.

Thanks again for sharing, Curt. The clouds were definitely a bonus multiplier!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Chicago Astronomers enjoy the May Full Moon Rise

A cool and crisp night was in store for us as we set up near the water front by the Adler Planetarium. Clouds were adding a nice interests in the east, but the west was clear...

While setting up, Fellow Telescope Facilitator Fred and his wife Joyce came by to join in and Joyce, made friends with two ducks that hung around us for awhile...

Ducks like Granola.

We usually set-up by the "Galaxy" structure and use the stones as makeshift tables and seats. Here Fellow Adler Telescope Facilitator Steve trounces through...

We also had Fellow Telescope Facilitator Linda join and..Chicago Astronomer Paulie and his girlfriend Hillary - all the way from Indiana. Paulie brought along his 4.5" Newt, 6" Dob and a small 60mm refractor to test out...

I brought along the C5, 70x15 Binocs and the Laptop...as I was going to try out the new webcam for this moonrise...

The evening was unfolding nicely and taking pics. Here Paulie grabs a wide shot of the crew...

And I take the crew shot for posterity...

(Joining us is my friend Julian and his girlfriend.)

This shot looks akin to Old Testament and I dig it...

I was testing out the webcam on distant sailboats with good success, in preparation to capture the Moon. With the low laying horizon hugging clouds, the 8:28 pm Moonrise would not be observed...and we scan for the Moon with binocs. Others spotting it first and I started the webcam to commence recording and taking stills at the same time..

Although missing the actual rise and expected atmospheric distortions, the clouds added a sense of mystery.

Time for pics...

A nice west vista was presented with Venus at the foot of Gemini...

But I was curious on what star was in conjunction with Venus..

Using Stellarium on the laptop, I discover it's "Mebsuta"

Antares was spotted below the Full Moon, as Chicago Astronomer Curt had informed us about:

With the cloud cover near the horizon, I missed the rise, but tried...

My friend Erin came by with her pups for these doggie action shots...

Steve, who brought his 4" Mak scope, also brought along his Celestron Skyscout", which is cool - guiding one to various targets vis GPS signals. There is an option to plug in a speaker, which I had handy this evening and had been wanted to hear for months..and here we listen to the soothing voice of a woman telling us about Vega...

Using my raw 50 Mw Chinese power laser, I aim high energy particles at the base of Steve...


Using long exposure settings, the gathered Moonlight creates a pseudo alien daylight-like look:

By 10:00 pm, our parking meters were running out and time to conclude the session. I'll be out again this evening for another session, as it looks to be another great clear & crisp night.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Chicago Astronomers enjoy a Second evening of observation -

I'm glad I arranged for two back to back nights of observation, as this was a nice fun time with friends.

I decided not to set-up by the lakefront this session, as we did last evening, but instead camp out at the Chicago Astronomer #1 site, as I was bringing the C11 and it's quite a beast to move far from the car.

Parking at my recognized site, I set up...and brought along Laika, my space dog...

I got there a bit early, and discovered that the early evening was a bit windy...

People looked on and asked what was up in the sky this evening. Not yet ready to share view, I tell them to return after it's dark and will show them celestial delights.

I brought along the Laptop again, to see how well this cheapo webcam would capture Saturn, (More on this later)...

Fellow Adler Telescope Facilitators John and Bill joined in on this easy going session and crisp evening...

Bill brought his 4" William's Optics Refractor & Binoviewers and John his Go-To 5" SCT.

Parking safely along side of me, we were ready for targeting...

Everybody likes Laika...

I met new friends this evening, including Elisa, Tommy and Richard...

Fellow Telescope Facilitator Jude stopped by for a bit and shared the event with us...

Long time fan and supporter of The Chicago Astronomer for many years, Shree came by to say hi and share some views with his family, who came in from India...

At practically all our sessions, we have Chicago Police stop by and talk astronomy while we share views...

As a former Chicago Police Instructor, we talk shop and never bothered to "move on".

After Laika gets tired of the new scene, she likes to lay in my Mount case...

This was not a serious observation session, but a friendly targeting one of Saturn and the raising Moon...

Sky conditions Moonside were not great, a bit hazy - which created a nice halo about the Moon...

It was now past 11:00 pm, and the police were chasing people out of the park...but not the Chicago Astronomers..

I attempted to do some webcam imaging, and had some limited success, but with people coming up, it was difficult to reserve the C11 just for imaging and not share views. So, experimentation with the cam will be put off for another private session soon.

But...

Here is a small clip of the less than impressive video of Saturn...

s46.photobucket.com/albums/f101/chicagoastronomer/Astronomical/Star%20Parties/10May28/?action=view¤t=Saturn1.flv

With that, we packed up our equipment and glad we got out on this very nice cool evening.

A lot of astronomy these past two evenings.... ;D

[patrickm]

Joe,
I see that you are still up. That makes me feel a tiny bit better. Is it kosher to publish an announcement on our new record store opening somewhere?just came from friends and family night which turned into Holy Sh1t It's Fraking Saturn Night, which turned into drinking and talking and looking at stars with our 62 yr old carpenter. What a night!
And I let the cops look at Saturn as well!
More to tomorrow. Looks like fun down there!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Patrick,

I think it's cool to post something about the record store opening.

Proboards, the host that runs this forum, doesn't allow blatant advertisement of services or products. TOS violation and such.

But, I think a mention on your activity would be deemed ok. Place it in the "Annoucement" board and I think you will be ok.

Saturn...to the bone...

[Paulie pchris00]

I have a long story, and 80 some pictures, so I'm just going to post the link to my blog story about Thursday evening. It was a blast, but it wound up a very long night for me.

pchris00pnc.blogspot.com/2010/05/potus-fowl-dogs-and-full-moon-fun.html

[RobbW]

Well, nothing exciting for me to report here. However, I just wanted to point out an observation I made and perhaps ask a question. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to Thursday or Friday's moonrise parties. But I was downtown on Saturday night when the Hawks won Game 1! I wasn't down there specifically for the hawks, but it was fun to be around all the exuberant fans. My wife, Amy, and I were DT celebrating her birthday. We had an excellent dinner at Roy's Ohana Hawaiian Fusion (highly recommended, great food and even better service). Then we saw "The 39 Steps" at the Bank of America Theater. OMG, freakin' hilarious show!!! I highly recommend everyone go see this if they are a fan of Monty Python-esque British comedy. It is an Alfred Hitchcock story with a gut-wrenchingly hysterical production. There are only four actors who portray around 150 characters. To die for!!!

Anyway, after the show, Amy and I walked backed to the Sheraton on the Chicago River, where we were staying for the night (at the Sheraton, not on the banks of the river!). During our walk, I looked up at the night sky as I frequently do when I'm out and about, no matter where I am. I remarked to Amy just how few stars I could see in the Downtown Chicago sky. Seriously, at that moment (which was somewhere around 10:30pm or so), I could only see two stars in the Chicago sky. One was directly above us to the East, and the other was behind us and slightly to our right, so somewhere in the southwestern sky. That was it! Two stars!

Joe, I'm sorry, but I can't believe that you guys make do with such a light-polluted sky that I can only see two stars (and they had to have been fairly bright to see them through the LP and haze of the evening). Jeez, I thought I had pretty bad LP out here in Elgin, but at least I can make out the whole constellation of Leo, Ursa Major and Minor, Gemini, Cassiopeia, etc. Seriously, I only saw two stars Saturday night, and it's not like it was overcast skies or anything. It was simply the light pollution from Downtown Chicago!

Joe, I'm going to have to invite you and other Chicago Astronomers out to my neck of the woods to get a slightly better view of the night skies. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's way better than what I saw downtown. Heck, it'd probably be fun to make a short road trip out this way. I'm always up for hosting good friends and good fun, especially if they bring along nice scopes!!!

[Paulie pchris00]

I apologize for not putting this up sooner, but it's going to be essentially a straight lift from my blog that I posted a link to above. That by itself was a lot of work, and posting again here doubles it, but I think the story and pics deserve a spot here as well.


I had been looking forward to Thursday’s full Moon observation outside Adler Planetarium with Astro Joe and the Chicago Astronomers, but I had no idea how great the night was going to turn out to be. I know, I know. Full Moon is the bane of astronomers, but these sessions are more about hanging out and having fun than serious astronomy. Besides, it’s always fun to see the big red Moon slowly rise out of Lake Michigan, so yeah, I was excited about the night.

I always try to leave early since the traffic on Chicago expressways is always unpredictable, but I was running later than I wanted to when I picked up Hillary and started our commute downtown. I decided to pay the outrageous tolls on the Indiana Toll Road/Chicago Skyway in order to save some time, and it paid off. We didn’t have to contend with traffic until we passed Sox Park on the Dan Ryan Expressway, just before the exit for Lake Shore Drive. From that point it was a traffic nightmare. Getting on the Stevenson Expressway for the short hop over to LSD, we noticed that Chicago Police had southbound Lake Shore Drive completely blocked. We also saw a Chicago Police helicopter heading south. That’s when I remembered that president Obama was coming home to Chicago for the holiday weekend.

Coming up to my usual exit on 18th Street, two Chicago squad cars had the road blocked. I asked the officers if it was possible to get down to the Planetarium, and they said no, everything was blocked for the next hour. Great. That would mean we wouldn’t get there until just a few minutes before Moonrise at the earliest.

I was about to text Joe about the situation, but the next road wasn’t blocked, so I was able to get to Solidarity Drive, the street the Adler sits at the end of. There was a Chicago PD car sitting in the right lane, but I slowly drove around, and he didn’t try to stop us. I stopped anyway. Coming from my left were helicopters! Marine One and the President! My camera was in my bookbag in the backseat, but I still had my phone in reach so I got pictures of the last two helicopters of the convoy.




Marine helicopter heading south.


We had parked in front of the Adler and were unloading gear when the helicopter convoy came by again, apparently on their way back to O’Hare Airport. It was exciting because I had a chance to get better pictures, but knowing that the First Family had already been dropped off, it made little sense to wave.











Of course I took some of my standard pictures around the Planetarium, which may get boring for readers, but they also capture the sky conditions, so I think are worth including.




Copernicus.




Clear western sky.






A strong breeze waving the flags.


Walking down to the usual full Moon set up spot by the spiral stones of America’s Courtyard, I saw we weren’t the first ones there. At first they looked liked rabbits sitting on the grass, but then I realized it was a pair of ducks sleeping with their heads tucked away. The male looked up as we approached, but must not have sensed danger because he went back to sleep. I figured they wouldn’t hang around long, though.






Best to let sleeping ducks lie, so I've heard.









Hillary.


Joe, Linda, Steve, Fred and his wife Joyce all showed up not too long after, and I wasn’t surprised to see the duckies walk off, but instead of leaving, they walked over to where everybody was gathered and begged for Joyce’s granola bar! How funny!








Ducks on the move.




Joyce had a yummy granola bar!




Everybody got a kick out of the hungry ducks.




Finally they'd had enough, and walked away.








Not only ducks, but plenty of geese nearby.


The ducks helped me lose track of time, but it didn’t matter much. There were clouds all along the eastern horizon. That didn’t stop Linda, Steve and I from scanning along the horizon looking for the Moon peeking over the lake.










Not the Moon, but a distant sailboat.




Joe with a cigar.




Backlit group shot. Joe got a nice picture of me trying to take this shot.



Finally I saw a pink glow in a cloud and rightly called out that I’d found the Moon. It became more obvious over the next few minutes.








My first look through the telescope.


















Somebody said the Moon was looking much like Jupiter. I had to agree!








The Moon had most of the attention, but...






...Venus was not to be ignored.


Before the entire disk was visible a family came over and asked if I could see all the way to Michigan. I told them Michigan was out of range, but let them have a look through the telescope at what I thought was U.S. Steel in Gary. Eventually they saw the Moon too, but I thought it was funny and cool that they showed so much interest in seeing my home state through the telescope.








They really wanted to see Indiana & Michigan, but were thrilled when the clouds over the Moon cleared.


I was trying to get some lunar shots when a guy riding a bike came up, curious as to the occasion. Doug stayed awhile, asking all sorts of questions, seeing the Moon, Saturn, and Venus. He even used his cell phone camera to get a better lunar image than mine!



Doug, getting a lunar image through the telescope. His was better than mine below.






Joe's friend Erin came later with her dogs. One is named Payton. The other I can't say. Obviously I didn't notice the cubbie leash. Yikes!




Joe, silhouetted by Moon glow. I love how the Moon beams shimmer across the Lake.




Hillary trying to keep warm.




Me, fascinated by the sight.




Steve & Linda, scanning with binoculars and Skyscout.




Again those pretty Moonbeams.




One last close up shot.








Parting shots of the city skyline.




Joe's laser dancing on the flag.


It was time to go home, and I was still excited about the night. It occurred to me later that my first star party at the Adler was last October, coinciding with President Obama hosting a White House star party. I met Joe that night, so I thought it was cool that the president once again had a connection to one of our sessions.




The Moon when I dropped off Hillary.






Two tired astronomers.


But... that wasn't the end of my full Moon night. I fell asleep when I got home, but woke up around 4 AM, and decided to finally see Jupiter with just one band visible. I really didn't want to get out of bed, but it was a good thing I did. Wanting to get an image of Jupiter, I discovered that my 10mm eyepiece had probably fallen out of my sweatshirt pocket near the Adler! Great...




My best image of Jupiter. I think it would have turned out better if I'd had my 10mm eyepiece.






A couple quick lunar images.


There was no doubt I knew I would find it if I drove back to the city. We were the last people out by the Lake, and if I hurried, I would be the first person back out. The light holiday weekend traffic helped, and sure enough, I found my eyepiece. I had put a quarter in the meter, and had only used a minute to find the eyepiece, so I walked around, enjoying the solar illumination coming over Lake Michigan.




One of my last views of the Moon for the night, just before getting on the Indiana Tollroad.




I took a similar shot Thursday evening, and the difference in lighting is striking.



Thursday's scene.





Now it's Sunbeams dancing on the Lake.








Ah, what a sight.


I couldn't appreciate the morning very long though. I wanted to beat the traffic before the craziness of holiday travel set in, and I desperately needed sleep.

Friday night's post-full Moon session was pretty much out of the question, but that was okay. I'd had quite an experience already!