Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jun 18, 2010 0:09:35 GMT -6
Adler After Dark
17 June 2010
17 June 2010
We had four scopes out for this edition of "Adler After Dark": a 8" dob, a PST H-Alpha and two 4" refractors.
Shown: Myself, Fred, Carmen & John, we were ready to show our visitors the heavens.
We did some solar viewing, in both white light aperture filtered and in H-Alpha narrow band. In white light, the Sun's disk was pretty sedate and with no sunspots, but in H-Alpha, a huge prominence was visible at 11:00 O'clock...
In between waves of crowds, I hand held the Canon Powershot S3 to the eyepiece and took some pics...
This solar prominence was bigger than Jupiter and one could discern movement of the solar activity with just a few moments in between shots....
As the skies darkened, Saturn and Mars pooped into view and along with Venus & the Moon - we had a nice full sky to share with our visitors.
Quite a few came up to me and said hello - as if they knew me.....and perhaps they did, as they follow the adventures of The Chicago Astronomer regularly.
Sweet....
Many asked when the next Chicago Astronomer observation session will be. "I dunno" I said. Three things must align for one to happen:
1 - Weather
2 - Time
3 - Motivation
And when all three come together...it's a sweet thing....
We remained on the South Terrance till after 10:00 pm, when security urged us to pack up. We could have gone all night, showing eager visitors the skies, talking astronomy and having a good time. And people dig my 50mW laser.....me too.
We store the scopes away and take a final pic of the evening with the telescope crew for the evening ...
Shown: Myself, John, Adler Astronomer Larry, Fred, Jude & Carmen.