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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Short Chicago Astronomer Observation Session
16 June 2010

Clear skies mean the gathering of Chicago Astronomers and telescopes.

We will set up at Chicago Astronomer site #1 - off the Adler Planetarium's parking lot....

Venus, Mars and Saturn will be out this evening and we will throw in the Crescent Moon for no extra charge. I'll bring out the C11 and will be one of the last public sessions with it before I take it apart for some cleaning and modifications.

A high pressure system is over our heads and transparency promises to be good - I hope. Either way....it's clear. Then, later I will conduct a closed session to capture and image Comet McNaught after midnight at Chicago Astronomer observation site #2.

If free or in the area, stop by and share the views.

[RobbW]

Aw, shucks, Joe. my timing precludes me again! I'm currently trying to plan a surprise overnight stay in Downtown Chicago for Thursday night for me, my wife, and our daughter. I was going to check here to see if you were going to be at the Adler tomorrow night. Oh well, one of these days my timing will be spot on!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Robb,

But, I shall be at the Adler tomorrow, operating scopes for the visitors.

If you do come by, look for me outside on the South Terrace.

It'll be sweet!

[Paulie pchris00]

Adler After Dark Thursday night. I think there might be more storms, but Hillary and I may come out anyway. Not sure yet, and haven't talked to her about it.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Clouds, but still had a great time at this session -

The day started out well, with bright skies and the promise of a decent evening of observation, but even though the cloud cover was more than 70% with sucker holes, we still had a nice time together and even caught a few celestial objects. Due to the increasing cloud cover that I was observing from the west, I had sent out notices cancelling the session for our members, but I was obligated to show up for those I could not reach.

Glad I did.

Setting up at our usual spot, I was ready to share some views with friends. I also brought out the Digital Setting Circles for a trial run...

It's nice to have, but so archaic and clunky to use. Unfortunately, the clouds were preventing any decent try outs....

I also velcro'd the JMI Autofocuser to the OTA next to the primary focus knob and grasp handle - making usage very smooth.

Having it next to the grasp handle steadies the hand and one just uses a thunb with a light touch to micro focus now. Prior to this attachment, the control pad was dangling from it's power cord lead...and has crashed to the ground on a few times - with some repairable damage.

Large masses of clouds were floating in from the west, but every once in awhile, a nice open patch offered some good views of the Moon, Saturn & Venus.




I dig the colors in this shot, with Venus...



So, for a while...it was just me and the scope - which is cool. I feel that I need some decompress solo time to make sure things are working well..

People stopped , stared and asked what I was doing. As it was still bright out, I told them to come back in a half hour and I will show them the Moon and Saturn...with many smiles and anticipation.

Families, lovers and cyclists stopped by throughout the evening to share in the heavens with the Chicago Astronomer...

Here, regular session participant Kyle and his girlfriend Maria, (who is here from Ireland), enjoy a warm evening of story telling and astronomy...

Every Wednesday and Saturday evening, Chicago puts on a fireworks show from Navy Pier, and we took some time to enjoy the explosions...

Chicago Astronomer Bill arrived later and I handed the C11 to him, as he is the master DSO locator - finding us The Ring Nebula (M57) and the Hercules Globular Cluster (M13) in seconds. Sky conditions prevented any serious observations this session.

Good pal Gerry stopped by to join us and presented me with a Houston: NASA polo shirt and a Shuttle pin from his trip to Texas...

...and cigars....

Here are Gerry's pic series of the evening:




And around 11:30 pm, we closed up shop with a nice time together behind us. Gerry and I went out afterwards for a post-session nosh and more story telling...

Inner city urban astronomers take no gruff from nobody.