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[Centaur]

The Arlington Heights (Illinois) Memorial Library will be hosting a free Astronomy Night on Friday, October 15, 2010 from 7:00 to 9:30 pm CDT. The event will begin with a NASA presentation on Exoplanets in the second floor Hendrickson Room, and conclude with an outdoor star party hosted by the Northwest Suburban Astronomy Club.

This second largest public library in Chicagoland is located at 500 N. Dunton Ave. in Arlington Heights on the south side of Euclid Ave. Parking under the library or to its south or west is free. The library is about three blocks due north of the Arlington Heights (Not Arlington Park) Metra train station on the Union Pacific Northwest Line.

I’ll be there. Reservations are not required. Hope to see you. Please reply to this thread if you plan to come. See the map below.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Curt,

Let's see if I can gather the Chicago Astronomer crew for a jaunt to Arlington Heights and enjoy this event, meet fellow astronomers and finally.....grab a pic with you!

It will be epic!

[patrickm]

Awwww RAT FARTS!!! I will be out of town that weekend as well!! My chance to meet the legendary Centaur, stolen by familial obligations!

Beware mustachioed men with funny south side accents and endless rolls of digital film!!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Beware mustachioed men with funny south side accents and endless rolls of digital film!!

Heh...I gots an accent?

I also go to the Jewels and the Aldis.

[patrickm]

Oct 2, 2010 6:10:34 GMT -6 Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe said:

Heh...I gots an accent?

Not that much honestly, but the pacing felt better with one more thing on the list, so that's what you got! Facts always take a back seat to (attempts at) humor.

[Paulie pchris00]

And don't forget we meet up near Soldiers Field.

If there is one subset of astronomy that really interests me, it is the search for exoplanets, and of course, the possibility of life on those worlds. I will almost certainly be attending.

I have no means for observing exoplanets by any of the detection methods, but I've been thinking about showing Formalhaut at my sidewalk sessions lately. It wouldn't be much to look at, but I think it would be cool to point out that Hubble ST directly imaged two exoplanets in the star system, and is one of only two star systems (that I know of) to have exoplanets directly imaged. (Somebody please correct me if I have my facts wrong; I'll double check myself later). At any rate, it would be a nice star to point out after the presentation.

[Centaur]

Oct 1, 2010 23:29:35 GMT -6 Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe said:

Curt,

Let's see if I can gather the Chicago Astronomer crew for a jaunt to Arlington Heights and enjoy this event, meet fellow astronomers and finally.....grab a pic with you!

It will be epic!

That would be great, Joe!

[Centaur]

If the free library parking lot is full for Astronomy Night, immediately to the west of the library is a village parking lot that is free after noon.

[Centaur]

A large crowd is expected, so early arrival is suggested if you want good seats for the free NASA lecture. To clarify, free library parking is available under the building or to its south. The village parking lot immediately to the west is free during afternoons and evenings. The Metra train is highly recommended for those coming from Chicago.

[Paulie pchris00]

i like that you've created a graph for the Galilean Moons next Friday night. Now no Chicago Astronomer can say, I'm not sure which moon is which..."

[Centaur]

Oct 10, 2010 21:18:57 GMT -6 Paulie pchris00 said:

i like that you've created a graph for the Galilean Moons next Friday night. Now no Chicago Astronomer can say, I'm not sure which moon is which..."

Indeed, Paulie, the idea was to make us appear to the crowd that we’re almost as brilliant as Jupiter himself! Here's more:

During the Astronomy Night Star Party all four Galilean satellites will appear to the east of Jupiter. Outward from Jupiter they will appear in the order Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. Of course Ganymede is actually further from Jupiter than Europa, but Ganymede will be closer to us and from our perspective slightly to the west and south of Europa. Europa will be at its greatest eastern elongation from Jupiter, while the other three satellites will all be closer to us than Jupiter.

I’ve created a graphic illustrating the relative positions of these five celestial bodies on 2010 OCT 15 at 21:00 CDT. It can be seen at www.CurtRenz.com/astronomical then going to the page for Superior Planets.

Io and its shadow will be transiting Jupiter a little later that evening. Below is my timetable.

21:45:37 CDT Io begins partial transit
21:49:17 CDT Io begins total transit
22:23:18 CDT Io’s shadow begins partial transit
22:26:58 CDT Io’s shadow begins total transit
23:59:55 CDT Io ends total transit
00:03:36 CDT Io ends partial transit
00:35:43 CDT Io’s shadow ends total transit
00:41:12 CDT Io’s shadow ends partial transit

[Centaur]

I’ve created an hourly ephemeris for Comet 103P/Hartley during the evening of 2010 OCT 15 for the Astronomy Night Star Party. Included are equatorial coordinates for the current date and J2000.0. Also included are atmospheric refraction corrected horizontal coordinates for those with alt-az mounts. The ephemeris is available at the bottom of the following webpage: www.curtrenz.com/astronomical

[Centaur]

It was really great meeting Paulie and Hillary at the event tonight! After the fine exoplanets presentation by Jim Kovac, the nice couple thrilled the crowd with views of Jupiter through their telescope that they had lugged all the way from Valpo. I thought maybe I saw Joe sleeping in the back row of the lecture hall. We assumed he didn’t want to be disturbed, so we looked past him as we moved outside to the star party.

[patrickm]

I think Joe is at Adler tonight. Doesn't
sound like his MO.

I'll bet he fergot...

Sorry I couldn't make it.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Oh man....

I did a lot of roof work this day and my back was not in the mood for a drive.

Sorry I missed it and double sorry I didn't get to meet Curt...but Paulie & Hillary represented well...and always at the ready for some public sharing of skies with their equipment.

I wanna see the Curt pic.

[Paulie pchris00]

Until I can post a proper summation, here is the picture everybody wants to see. It was a great crowd, I heard 250 people at the telescopes, and they had to turn many away from the lecture.

Attachments:

[patrickm]

The man! The legend!

[Paulie pchris00]

I was ready for a long drive to Arlington Heights last Friday, and even with an hour stuck on the Kennedy, it was longer than I expected. I wrote down directions form Google Maps before I left, but I forgot them at home! Doh! Oh well, even just writing them down had the way stuck in my brain, since it was almost entirely highways.

I was impressed with the size of the library: it's at least as big as the Valpo, Portage, and Chesterton libraries combined! We found the lecture hall, and it was nearly empty. Not long after we sat down, a man came in and started talking with NASA lecturer Jim Kovac. I was pretty sure, but I had to go over and ask. Chicago Astronomer Curt present and accounted for!




Centaur and pchris00! I'm so proud!


Curt came and sat with Hillary and me while waiting for the presentation. We talked a little astronomy, but mostly old-time Chicago baseball. Just before the presentation began, the room filled, and empty seats became valued real estate.

I was impressed with the exoplanet presentation, and I actually learned a few things. It may have been somewhat advanced for somebody with no background knowledge of exoplanet discoveries. I tried to keep Hillary in the loop when I thought Jim was talking about things she might not understand, or what I found particularly interesting.

Hillary and I cut out a little early so I could find the astronomers outside and get set up before the rest of the crowd came down. There were about a half dozen telescopes set up, mostly pointed at Jupiter and the Moon. At least two dozen people were already waiting for viewing. I found out later that once the lecture hall was full, organizers sent everybody else outside to the astronomers.

I took up a spot at the end of telescope row, nearest to the library, and subsequently the first stop for most of the people who had attended the lecture. I tried showing the star Fomalhaut first, because it is an easy to find star with a known exoplanet. Curt suggested showing Jupiter or the Moon, and of course he was right. Fomalhaut wasn't getting the "oh wow" reaction that I love to hear. Chalk up my bad decision to being to much of an exoplanet geek.

Thanks to Curt's graphic of the Galilean Moons, I could tell the visitors which moons were which. Few asked, but I was ready for those who did. There was quite a line for about half an hour. By the time everybody had gone down the line of telescopes and were about to head home, I turned my telescope to Uranus, and offered views of the distant ice giant. Other than the laughs at my pronunciation of "Uranus" (which didn't at all sound dirty), the seventh planet was quite a hit. The last few visitors to leave were treated to the Andromeda Galaxy, too. Even under a street light, our neighbor galaxy was well admired by viewers.







A few of the local astronomers introduced themselves, and thanked us for coming all the way from Valparaiso. They even invited us out for pizza, but I wanted to join Joe down at the Adler, so I graciously declined.

It was a nice outing, with an interesting presentation, good weather for viewing, and nice folks out with their telescopes. The Arlington Heights library should be commended for having an astronomy night, and involving their local astronomy club. An estimated 250 people learned about new discoveries, and got well acquainted with our solar system and beyond.