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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer Patrick's Neighborhood Star Party

13 September 2010

Chicago Astronomer Patrick organized a neighborhood star party at a local open area called " Sunken Gardens park", on the northwest side of Chicago....

I'll let Patrick provide the details of the session, but I had fun.

I arrived about 7:30 pm and targeted Jupiter, the "E.T" star cluster, The double at the bend of the Big Dippers handle and the Double Cluster this evening for the neighborhood crew. The 50Mw Raw Chinese Power Green Laser was well appreciated and now that it's calibrated to the C11 and her finder scopes, an indispensable location tool.

Paulie and Hillary made their drive from Indiana to join in - bringing the 6" dob, as there are not many warm weather nights left and always nice to see them. Patrick had his 4.5", slung low to the ground as he likes it.

I brought the C11 beast and attempted to find the best darkened spot in the little park, but I misjudged early on and had to relocate the heavy set-up with the help of two very nice people. I settled in the shade of a tree, blocking a street lamp, but it also blocked a clear view of Jupiter, streaming through leaves but still providing decent views.

The sky conditions deteriorated quickly after dark and we punched through as best we could, but I couldn't pick up M57 with all the haze. I didn't have the opportunity to take many shots, but the group ones are sweet.

I met some nice people, discussed astronomy and talked about doing a joint session with Ham Radio Operators and the Chicago Astronomers, in a satellite/meteor session. We can spot and point out satellites while the Ham crew tunes them in and we can listen in. This will also be great for the upcoming Leonids in November - and listen in on the diving space rocks as they ionize the air around them.

Very geeky cool....

The neighborhood crew went from scope to scope, enjoying the celestial targets and learning a bit about each one - as the little park was filled with high energy and chat.

Thanks Patrick for another observation site!

[patrickm]

Wow gang!

What a great night to be with Chicago Astronomers. I was overwhelmed that Paulie, Hillary (both from Valpo), and Joe (Pilsen), at much distance and inconvenience, packed up their scopes and headed way north, and only far north, respectively, to help out with my hastily arranged star party for the neighborhood.

The astro forecasts had been aces for this weeknight for the previous two days, and so it looked like it would be an outstanding night to check out the cosmos before a week of meteorological dodginess. I fired off the note to the neighborhood email tree, and because of the lateness, and the fact that it was a school night, set my expectations for attendance low. Boy was I wrong!

Joe's pictures are great, but I am kicking myself for not taking one about an hour earlier when the park was completely packed with parents, kids and dogs out enjoying the evening, each other, and the stars. There must have been at least fifteen enthusiastic kids there at one point, all as well behaved as anyone could hope.

The earliest were there to catch the fast setting crescent moon and the flyover of the International Space Station, that made a big, beautiful, bright arc over our heads at 17222 MPH, traveling the width of the sky from northwest to southeast while we all watched in awe. Paulie even managed to get his dob on it by manually tracking through his finder. I managed a quick peek through the eyepiece and saw the very clear outline of the solar panels before giving somebody else a try. Seeing that thing never gets old!

Because I had to move my scope four times, I struggled with alignment issues, including many ALIGNMENT FAILURE messages that I still don't understand. GoTo is great, except when it doesn't work, and what a horrible night for that problem to bite me in the butt! Even with that, a big group of kids stood patiently and entertained me with questions, answers, and stories, while we all expressed our frustration with my technological ineptitude. Way more fun than being crabby by yourself! Thankfully, Paulie's dob doesn't suffer from technological issues and he and Hillary were all over the place finding stuff. Eventually Joe showed up, and his large magnifier was a source of wonder for everybody as he got to work setting up. I was very thankful that they were all there!! Thanks gang!!

Jupiter was still stuck down in the trees, and the kids had requested to see the galaxy I promised in the email, so I finally got Andromeda to show up in the eyepiece. What none of us expected was the early wave of high, thin haze that started to move in, making faint fuzzies almost impossible, and even stuff like the mighty and bright Jupiter seem to be wearing an alpaca sweater. Booo!!!! Where did this come from?!?

Nonetheless, I did manage to corral the giant spiral in the center of my eyepiece and get the scope to track. I've never seen it so faint, even in the city. Probably 25 people got a peek at it, with only one or two not able to convince themselves that they'd seen it. I was very happy to have the SkyVoyager iPhone picture of it and others, to show everybody what they were seeing. We'll do better next time, gang!

After everybody had a crack at it, I slewed over to Jupiter, and we all had a peek at it in my scope so everybody could compare between mine, Joe's, and Paulie's. Even though high magnification was impossible, and the seeing was just terrible, that was still a bunch of fun for everybody. It's not every day that we all get to see a little mini solar system in front of our own eyes.

Joe and I both tried to track down M57, the Ring Nebula, and because of the haze, we both had ZERO luck. Yuck!

Finally I showed the kids the North Star, Paulie and Joe tracked the Double Cluster, a binary star, Joe the Owl/ET Cluster , and at around 10pm, we suddenly realized that the haze had changed. We were completely socked in by clouds that had absolutely NO BUSINESS BEING HERE! Where did they come from, we wondered? Even after I got home, when I looked at midnight, The Clear Sky Chart cleardarksky.com/c/Chicagokey.html was still dutifully showing outstanding skies, but outside my window was nothing but thick grey. The AccuWeather Astro Forcast for Chicago www.accuweather.com/us/il/chicago/60625/outdoor-astronomy.asp had for days shown Monday night to be a 10 out of 10 for stargazing. Lies! All lies! Lies! Lies! <sigh>

Frustration aside, it was still a great and wonderful night with friends, neighbors, dogs, and new young friends who completely inspired me to do this again as soon as we are able, and hopefully under much better skies. I will promise to be better prepared with my scope and its sometimes magic GoTo capabilities. I would do this again in a heartbeat, and I encouraged all of them and their neighbors to join me at Sunken Gardens or Horner whenever they see me out, and I will be happy to show them whatever is in my scope at the time.

Thanks also to Elizabeth for doing such an amazing job of getting the word out. Were were all positively overwhelmed at the last minute turnout, and thankful that parents gave their kids a little time off from Monday night homework to come and see what we could.

Lastly, anybody who thinks kids these days are all hyperactive beasts that can't sit still, check out Joe's photographs. We had to stand perfectly still longer than sitting for an old daguerreotype www.photohistory-sussex.co.uk/dagprocess.htm, and the kids did great. I think it was hardest for me! (Yes, I'm the blurry one!) Great job, compadritos!

[patrickm]

Next time I will turn one of the kids loose with a camera so we have more action shots! Can't wait to show them Orion Nebula, Pleiades, and that darned Jupiter much earlier in the night as it continues to rise. And the comet should be fun too when it finally shows its face.

So much to look forward to in the fall!

[Paulie pchris00]

First of all, thank you to Patrick and Julia for the hospitality before the star party. I wish we would have arrived a little earlier, but I'm glad we made it out before the crowds arrived. Second, I didn't drive way north; I drove WAY WEST and THEN way north! Lol!


I spent Monday morning writing, editing pictures, and posting them to my blog. The process can take awhile, and I didn’t finish until early afternoon. I planned on attending the Calumet Astronomical Society’s monthly meeting that night, so I needed to take a nap after finishing my blog post, but instead I browsed Facebook and the Chicago Astronomer boards. On Chicago Astronomer I noticed that Patrick was having a neighborhood star party at a small park just down the street from his house.



After seeing his post Monday afternoon, Hillary and I decided to join him, adding two more telescopes and a knowledgeable astronomer to the group. After arranging an observation at a dark site in Michigan earlier in the summer, I felt that I owed it to Patrick to help out. I checked out all the details online, confirmed them with Patrick via text message, and got ready to go.


Patrick and Julia invited us to come early and hang out with a beer (for me) and a glass of wine (for Hillary). Of course their dog Caine was happy to see Hillary again...




(Picture is from a Horner Park session in July)


...and one of their cats, Hahna, enjoyed sitting in my lap. I got a little bit lost on the way to their house (not so much lost as I didn’t choose the best route), so we didn’t have too much time to hang out before we had to head over to the park with the telescopes.


As soon as we were out about 7:30, kids, parents, and dogs started filling the small park, gather around our telescopes, and waiting to see what we could show them. The adults were getting to know each other, some meeting for the first time, and the kids were running around playing in between views. It was a cool thing to be a part of.


Joe came out shortly after we were set up, bringing his big C11 to entertain Patrick’s neighbors. There were a lot of trees around the perimeter of the park, and a couple bright street lights nearby, but we worked around them the best we could, but the trees completely blocked Venus, and took away the Moon well before it set. Still, most people were out early enough to catch the Moon.


The forecast had called for a great night for astronomy, but as the daylight faded, we noticed a haze developing, getting thicker as the night progressed. After we lost the Moon, with twilight still lingering, targets were difficult to come by, hampered even more by the haze. I turned to Albireo, which was a big hit, and through the magic of go-to technology, Patrick was showing the Andromeda Galaxy much earlier than I thought possible. I didn’t get a chance to see it, but even with go-to, I was impressed that he found it. Joe was showing the Owl Cluster near Cassiopeia (aka the E.T. Cluster), something I’d never seen, so I went to have a look.



We had a pretty good ISS flyover, and I let Hillary, and then one of the neighborhood kids get a good look at it in my Dob before we lost it behind the trees. There was no way I could let everybody see it, but I hope that gesture of good will didn’t go unnoticed by the parents. Hillary was keeping an eye on the telescopes, and playing with kids and dogs while I was busy explaining to the adults all about the Chicago Astronomers, and astronomy in general. I think they were impressed that I drove so far to help with their neighborhood star party, and Patrick told me I was slightly insane for coming out, but was glad I did. He would have thought I was flat out crazy if he’d known that I hadn’t slept at all.


Once Jupiter cleared the trees and houses in the east, it was the main attraction, although Joe and I each tried the Double Cluster. One of my favorites, the Double wasn’t looking very good through the haze and light pollution, so Jupiter again got all of the attention. Around 9 o’clock, the party started to break up, since it was a school night, and I had to leave by 9:30 to be at work by 11. Everyone was encouraged to stop and say hi, and see what was up in the sky if they saw Patrick observing in the neighborhood, and I think quite a few will take him up on that offer.


With the warm weather observing season quickly coming to a close, I think I made the right choice to skip the CAS meeting in favor of helping out a friend introduce himself to his neighbors, and introduce them to the wonders of the night sky. Everybody was so full of positive energy, and amazed what could be seen from their urban homes. Monday night’s sky conditions kind of sucked, but the people were great. Only a limited number of objects were observed in an hour and a half, but between the four Chicago Astronomers and our four telescopes present, this was the best star party I’ve had recently. Hopefully our efforts will lead to quite a few visits when Patrick is observing in the neighborhood, or at least no more interruptions from the authorities.