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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomers Celebrate the Full Moon Rise
24 August 2010

Our monthly observation of the Full Rise over Lake Michigan will be on Tuesday, the 24th of August 2010 at 7:21 pm.

We will assemble just south of the Adler Planetarium at 7:00 pm, by the "Galaxyhenge" stone blocks...

Both Soldier's Field and Northerly Island are clear of concerts and activities - Parking should be clear along the drive.

This August Moon is called the "Sturgeon Moon " or "Grain Moon" . I'll bring the C11 in the new foldable porta-cart and take some pics.

If free, stop by and say hi and join the crew...enjoying one of the last warm weather Full Moon rises.

[Paulie pchris00]

Hopefully we will be there, mostly depending on if I can get my brakes fixed, and do it without breaking the bank. I think they just need new pads, so it should be a "go flight."

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Moon Rise bash is a solid Go for Tuesday.

Nice.

[patrickm]

Maybe I will make it after all. No money for poker, and this is free!

we'll see. If not, have fun.
p

[Centaur]

Sorry I couldn't make the party. I hope those of you there had success!

Here’s my shot of tonight’s Full Moon rising through haze, clouds and trees. It was taken from Arlington Heights, Illinois on 2010 AUG 24 at 19:51 CDT. That was 29 minutes after moonrise and 12 minutes after sunset.

www.curtrenz.com/FM 1008.jpg[/img]

[patrickm]

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Chicago Astronomers enjoy a nice full Moonrise....

I decided to lug around the C11 for this Full Moon Rise session, not that I needed it, (the C5 would have worked well), but it looks cooler.... I also utilized my neat roll about/foldable four wheeled carry cart that carries everything I need for remote observation sites.

Whilst setting up, Kalvis...who I haven't seen in ages.....came a walkin' towards the observation site...carrying his 6" Dob along with a Cradle & Base kit....

I hope he chimes in here and explains the details on this handsome kit, but it has nice smooth action and the contact pads look and feel like little Lifesavers...Spearmint.

We started to assemble a crew before the scheduled Moonrise. Beatrice, who also I haven't seen since last year and brought her family along with her to share the evening's event with us...

Good pal Gerry stopped by to share in laughs and take pics...

We were all chatting and carrying on while searching for the Moon to rise from the muck...and I was the first to spot it...straight east and in front of us...

Chicago Astronomer Linda joined in and shared the rise with us....

I started out with a 1.25" 25mm eyepiece, as I intended to take some images through the C11, but the crew and visitors were busy taking peeks at the Moon...so I swapped out the eyepiece for a 40mm 2 inch one, to encompass the whole of the Moon in the field of view.

Much better.

We discuss things astronomical and related subjects while enjoying and sharing the Moon through our scopes...

We had visitors, curious on what we were doing, come up and share in the Moonrise with us throughout the evening.

Gerry brought along his space ambiance tunes and took many pics. I/he will post them when he processes them.

My friend Shree, who has been following the Chicago Astronomer for years...ever since I met him when I used to set up my modest 4.5" Meade Reflector by the Copernicus statue. It is always great to see him and his growing family. Here is a cool pic of him, holding one of his twin sons while peeking through the C11...

Kalvis had to leave, but not after making a great addition to the Chicago astronomer crew. I watch and listen, and he explains astro stuff well and the public likes him. Cool. Let's hope he joins us for more sessions...

This was not one of the better Full Moonrises, as haze and clouds occluded part of the views...but the following are some captures....

This next one is cool.

With a 15 second exposure, 400 ISO and tungsten white balance, the nuances of the Moonbeams shining through the clouds can be observed - which was not seen naked eye...

And this next one, with the f-stop down to 7.2, brings a starlike effect to the Moon....

New friend Sandy, stopped by on her bike to see what we were doing and stayed with the crew for awhile, talking astronomy and having laughs with Gerry and I...

This was a nice gathering and lunar observation on a warm summer night....seeing old friends and making a few new ones. I didn't have a chance to take any images through the scope, instead all lunar pics were just with the Canon Powershot S3.

A successful session...

[RobbW]

Great, Joe! Sorry I missed out on this one. I hope to make another session in the near future. And, who knows, there may be a new addition to our cache of equipment by then. We'll see!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Gerry's Pics...

I have picked out favorites from my pal's Gerry's shoot of the Full Moon session....

(They saved as "Gifs" for some reason and somewhat mottled...sorry Gerry.)

The better quality & clearer images can be found here:

www.flickr.com/photos/gxydis/sets/72157624802745756/with/4925296171/


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Thanks Gerry...!

I enjoy the pics from others with a different perspective and sometimes I'm too busy attending to the visitors and equipment to stop and take a shot. We get to see the great Foldable Telescope cart that carries all my equipment in your pics.

Cool.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I missed three very cool panoramic shots by Gerry....

Very nice.

Usually, one gets the boundary between frames, as the lighting changes from the different angles...but these are practically seamless.

Original pics here:

www.flickr.com/photos/gxydis/4927888142/in/set-72157608738826483/

Kudos man!.....

[atomant]

Nice dob setup there, Kalvis!
It has definitely been a while.

Time for me to head out and do outreach with you guys.

[Kalvis]

Bill: Recognize the OTA? It's the Orion 6" f/8 reflector I bought from you years ago.

Joe: Thanks for the enjoyable session. It was good to be back observing with you. As promised, here are some details of the mount. This is a Dyna-Dob kit which I purchased from Keith Wichman a couple of years ago. It's his design of a Dobsonian mount optimized for use with a Criterion RV-6 Dynascope. Though my reflector is not this exact model, it is the same size and rough dimensions of an RV-6. Just recently finished gluing it together, then sanding and giving it a couple of coats of clear acrylic. I love the simplicity and portability. I plan on switching-out the furniture pads with Teflon pads after a while as well as adding a carrying handle to the optical tube. Other future upgrades would be adding a 360 degree azimuth scale. I've already made a cut-out that can't be seen in the pictures, but would make the viewing the scale a snap. Instead of adding a printed 90 degree altitude scale at the ends of the cradle assembly, I will probably opt for attaching a digital level directly to the optical tube. Nice to see that Sears offers an inexpensive but accurate $35 digital torpedo level which is considerably less than the $100+ models of the past.

Clear skies,

Kalvis