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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Park District and Chicago Astronomer Star Party

16 May 2011

The third in our joint Park District/Chicago Astronomer Star Parties is a solid go for Monday, the 16th of May at 8:00 pm...


This time we will set up telescopes at: Union Park - 1501 W. Randolph St., Chicago, IL...

Postponed from last Wednesday the 11th due to weather, the forecast looks good for Monday....and probably the best of the week for astronomy...

It will be chilly though, dress for the night..

Saturn will be the highlight of the evening, but the close-to-full-Moon will also bring delight. Filters recommended.

I do not know exactly where in the park we will be setting up equipment yet, but it should be close to vehicle parking. Check here for updates and for confirmation on the session.

See then!


-------------------

NOTE: For those Chicago Astronomer members who intend to work this event, please PM me for updated instructions.

[patrickm]

As of now, I'm in.

[tomlee]

I'll be there though w/o a telescope but I'll bring my camera. That's for the party but if I can get a shot of the planet or the moon for a work flow practice I would love to. If anyone needs help with anything, please let me know.

[Paulie pchris00]

I told Hillary we would be in the vicinity of the U.C., but looking at the map now, I see that we walked right past this park when we went to the Blackhawks game in January, coming down from the CTA Green line at Ashland & Lake. Will be there as early as I can to scope it out, pardon the pun.

[patrickm]

Earlier the better for me to know set up location since I am slow on the draw. No Bulls game Monday. We also dodged Oprah on Tuesday at UC, so that's good.

This is the park where Pitchfork Music festival is. Green line stop very close.

[patrickm]

Clear Sky Chart looking very good for a change!

Attachments:

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Sun is peeking from under the Apocalyptic cloud mass now in the west and it's looks good for Monday...

It'll be good.

[patrickm]

Here's a prospective list of targetable objects tonight. List is in rough chronological order for visibility.
What did I forget? What should I take off?

List: 516 To See

Da Moon

Beehive Cluster - Messier 44
(Open Cluster in Cancer)

Saturn
(Planet in Virgo)

---------------------

Hercules Cluster - Messier 13
(Globular Cluster in Hercules)

Messier 92
(Globular Cluster in Hercules)

Owl Cluster - NGC 457
(Open Cluster in Cassiopeia)

Messier 5
(Globular Cluster in Serpens)

Double Cluster - NGC 869
(Open Cluster in Perseus)

Ghost of Jupiter Nebula - NGC 3242
(Planetary Nebula in Hydra)

Double Double - Epsilon2 Lyrae
(Double Star in Lyra)

Messier 10
(Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus)

Messier 39
(Open Cluster in Cygnus)

Ring Nebula - Messier 57
(Planetary Nebula in Lyra)

Coathanger - Collinder 399
(Open Cluster in Vulpecula)

[patrickm]

I am gonna shoot for 7:15.

Here's hoping the wind continues to die down as forecast.

[patrickm]

Satellite UARS visibility tonight. Brightest sat I see during our viewing.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Patrick,

Excellent.

Now, DSO's make geeky astronomers smile and giggle.

Not so much for the general public, as DSO astronomy is mostly shades of grey...and a disappointment. "Is that all?" is usually the result of a patch of light milions of light years away.

But, for the Chicago Astronomer visitor who appreciates and understands these things, showing them a Galaxy or faint star cluster is a great thing...for both.

Pick the three brightest or most dramatic DSO's you fel would impress. If anything, We will have you on Saturn, as your 9.25 delivers beautiful imaging. Paulie can concentrate on the Moon, and I'll pick up the slack where need be throughout the evening. With some basic facts about your target, (distance or why it's doing that), is always good.

I have some Astronomy magazine handouts as well for tonight, so we can use that as well.

It will be a fun clear evening.

[patrickm]

Everybody seemed to really enjoy the Draco Dwarf Galaxy (UGC 10822), especially the kids.

[patrickm]

Here's what happened in front of my scope this evening. I had a good time, especially with the little kids. I just need to get better at everything and the weather needs to shape the hell up.

5/16 Union Park

Moon
(Moon of Earth in Libra)

Saturn
(Planet in Virgo)

Beehive Cluster - Messier 44
(Open Cluster in Cancer)

Procyon - Alpha Canis Minoris
(Double Star in Canis Minor)

Hercules Cluster - Messier 13
(Globular Cluster in Hercules)

Messier 92
(Globular Cluster in Hercules)

Messier 5
(Globular Cluster in Serpens)

Porrima - Gamma Virginis
(Double Star in Virgo)

Ring Nebula - Messier 57
(Invisible Nebula in Lyra)

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A successful Park District/Chicago Astronomer Star Party

(But probably the coldest May session ever....)

Our first visit to the historical Union Park, on Chicago's near West side was a good one, meeting new and old friends and a new Chicago Astronomer.

I thought I would be the first on site at a little after 7:00 pm, but Chicago Astronomers Paulie, Hillary and Barbara and our Park District liaison Heather were already there. Paulie and Hillary were already doing some solar projection when i pulled up...with some pretty decent looking sunspots displayed. I scouted out the park for the best set-up site....but Paulie - with his astronomical eye - already found it and with easy street access to our vehicles. And we set up around him...

Chicago Astronomers Bill and Patrick arrived with scopes, getting their angles and setting up....

My C11 was sans the 60mm finder scope, as a mod to the OTA will take place after this session, installing 90mm guidescope and 60mm finder scope billet aluminum rings - crafted by a master. they will be installed before the next Chicago Astronomer session... ;D

The skies finally....were generous and provided a crystal clear view and soon, the near full Moon rose for enjoyment - with visitors arriving specifically for this session...

Let go back to Patrick and his mighty 9.25" Celestron SCT....

We'll be back...

Saturn was not yet popping out, so it was the Moon that we shared with the public, answering questions and explaining lunar phenomenon...

Near the horizon, I used low power first the 56mm Meade and then the 40mm Celestron on the C11, fitting the lunar sphere nicely in the FOV. I popped in a variable polarizer later on in the session to cut the glare and bring our contrast. Works beautifully.

Back to Patrick...

We'll be back....

Chicago Astronomer fan Larry, made his way from up north to join us and received copies of helpful handouts from Astronomy magazine, including a very cool lunar phase map booklet. I also handed out these to our visitors who had more than a passing interest...

We used the Moon guide to point out various lunar artifacts and highlights, matching views. Lunar ejecta was the most asked about feature this session....

And a couple of treats...

New Chicago Astronomer member Erik, (Midwest) and his wife stopped by to say hi...

He will be bringing his Dob to future Chicago Astronomer events and join the urban crew.

And....Young Mac and his Dad....

Our youngest Chicago Astronomer and bringing his dob...always great to have Mac join us. We are discussing the possible involvement of the Chicago Astronomer with Whitney Young Magnet School in the fall.

Chicago Astronomer fan Tom also stopped by with his camera and took some pics of the session...

We anticipate his images...

Back to Patrick...

Almost ready.

With Saturn now bright enough for targeting, it took center stage as the crew slewed over...

With the mighty 9.25" up and running, Patrick punched in DSO's for the visitors...

I didn't get the opportunity to view all of Patrick's DSO list, but did catch a couple of globular clusters in his neat Axiom eyepiece.

Good friend and Chicago Astronomer fan Gerry stopped to take some pics of the crew...

The evening kept on and we attended to more visitors and took the mandatory shots ...

The temps were colder than I expected, I'd say in the mid 40's, just this side of being uncomfortable, but I thought it was bracing. And...although clear, the observing conditions were not as prime as we thought, with Saturn a bit "softer "in scopes this evening. We broke the site at about 10:00 pm, but took our time, talked shop and reflected on a successful star party session...

Shout out to Support crew member Barbara, who guided our visitors and took pics of the gathering this evening...

There are ore pics coming our way after Gerry, Paulie and Tom process their images. This was a fun one...as most Chicago Astronomer activities are... ;D

The Chicago Astronomer crew for this session...

From left....

Myself, Joe, heather, Hillary, Mac, Paulie, Michael, Patrick, Bill, Larry, Barbara and the two blurs...Gerry and Tom.

[patrickm]

Pimped!!

I will note that I was set up long before there was actually anything to look at!

[midwest]

What a fun time that was. Stephanie, Ron, his wife Jenna and the girls had a great time! Thanks for welcoming us and making us feel at home with the group. It was a bit chilly and we would have stayed longer otherwise. We were somewhat prepared for the cold but another layer would have helped. Patrick, THANK YOU for the barlow. Anytime you need it back just say the word. Joe, great pics and thanks again for the great information, website and your work with the public. Looking forward to seeing all of you soon. It was very cool to see the different scope and eyepieces in action.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Erik,

I have been to some area star parties where I felt like an outsider, left alone and to myself - and when I tried to chat with some telescope operators, they felt the need to talk down to me, attempting to "dazzle" me with technicalities.

I just smile and nod and walk away. I had one clod actually yell at me for illuminating a pathway for a friend who was handicapped. Really, why bother opening it to the public?

My crew takes a different view, in that we are honored our visitors actually make time to come and join us, become "groupies" and enjoy spending time with the Chicago Astronomers. I personally enjoy showing visitors sights never before seen by them...and in the city to boot!

It's the attitude.

(I had to refuse participation with only a very scant few who didn't handle public star parties well...and that's okay. The Universe is big enough for everybody.)

We are here to have fun sharing the cosmos with our friends and hope you join us often and become a regular member of the crew.

Is that a barlow in your pocket or......

[patrickm]

Erik,
Glad you had fun. Next time warmer & more time to chat.

I don't need the Barlow back. It's a telescope warming present. You are welcome and glad it found a good home.

Joe:
1. Bah humbug.
2. Contact UofC Astro about doing additional neighborhood outreach during south side Astro in the Park & to get some UofC students out to see stuff??
3. IIT?

So early. So little sleep. So many thoughts.
p

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Patrick,

We have a friendly relationship with the U of C astro guys. The trips to the U of C Ryerson Observatory at the Hyde park campus are always fun and we should do another one soon.

[Paulie pchris00]

Despite the unseasonably cold temps, this might have been the most enjoyable star party since the big one late last July. I have a big smile on my face in every picture, and I think that tells the whole story.

Never knowing how the traffic will be coming from Indiana, I always try to leave early, and usually arrive early. On a sunny day like yesterday, it's no big deal, especially when I can do solar observations.

After walking around the park trying to find the best place to set up, it turned to be out right near I parked my car on Ashland. I almost killed some time by shagging fly balls, but by the time I had glove dug out of my trunk, the guys taking batting practice on the adjacent baseball field were packing up. That's was alright, because Joe and Patrick arrived, and Bill not long after them. We observed 6 sunpots on the solar disk, and were delighted when a descending plane crossed in front of the Sun just before wrapping up the solar session.






Patrick getting his first look at el Sol.


Moonrise was at 7:39, and sunset at 8:04. That left us with plenty of twilight while setting up telescopes and waiting for something to observe. Once the Moon was spotted over the skyline, it was down among the trees, and never really got very high. Good positioning of telescopes kept it in view, though, until Saturn stole the show.


<a href="http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii157/pchris00/2011-5-16%20Union%20Park/?action=view&current=DSCF0505.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii157/pchris00/2011-5-16%20Union%20Park/DSCF0505.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

























A faint Belt of Venus was visible just above the skyline.


I kept looking for Saturn, even with binoculars, but couldn't see any trace of it. One of the little girls attending was looking at a planetarium program on her Ipad, so I asked her where Saturn should be. She looked at pointed to te side of the tree. All of a sudden I could see it! A collaboration found it! Of course as soon as I took my eye off it to slew my Dob, I lost it temporarliy, but picked it up in the finder scope easy enough. Lesson: we are all partners in sharing andthe sky.

I stayed with Luna & Saturn most of the session, but also showed the double star Algeiba, and a few times went with Saturn at low power to catch the conjunction with Porrima.

I bounced around to different telescopes a few times, but mostly as the session was winding down. That's the time for hanging out and talking with friends, and is one of my favorites times during star parties, but by that time Hillary and I were both freezing, so I cut it shorter than Iwould have on a warmer night.








What a great time though, and thanks to everybody for stopping by.





----------------

(Paulie,

Great that we get a solar projection shot from you and the series throughout the night. I think it shows nicely the start of the session.

Slick Moon shot!

They seem a bit foggy. Others that I brought this up with, had fingerprints on the lens - especially on Camera phones....same here? )

[tomlee]

would someone please tell my how to upload photo here? Thanks!

Oh well! It's done, I hope, somewhere else:

(Please cut and paste url for slideshow)

picasaweb.google.com/tomlee1/May172011?authkey=Gv1sRgCPzNivGesdPfnwE#slideshow/5607864760189408370

or

picasaweb.google.com/tomlee1/May172011?authkey=Gv1sRgCPzNivGesdPfnwE#slideshow/5607864760189408370

Sorry!!

[patrickm]

Paulie,
NICE moon shot!

I too like the end of the night, but I like it when scopes are up and it's not quite so cold. My secret: TWO pairs of long johns, two pairs of socks (1 wool), and about 4 layers on top. Not cold!

Tom,
Pictures are a PITA here. You get 1 freebie with the photo button in the "Add Tags" toolbar. To do more than that, you need something like a Photobucket account. Photobucket is cool because it automatically spits out BBS IMG code that looks like this:
[_I_MG_]http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz265/pkmonaghan/9b98b15a.jpg[_/IMG]

The underscores are in the IMG tag to keep it from posting the picture. if you take that out, the photo will just show up.

Photobucket.com also spits out HTML as well, but that doesn't work here, far as I know. So the way I do it is just with a series of pasting in IMG codes for the photos by cutting and pasting into my post. There may be a faster way somebody can teach you, but that's how I've found to do it.

Great to see you last night. Want to hear most about your scope choices and decision process!

The astrophotography scope is was talking about is the Astro-Tech AT65EDQ

It won Cloudy Nights Reader's Choice 2011

Only $549! Damn! It is a straight astrograph (photog scope) though, so not really made for visual. Maybe you want one that will do both? This is now the full extent of my knowledge on these scopes, so seek further advice!
p

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I dig Tom's pics....




This one above is nice.

It shows the unbounded energy of kids at the session.







This is cool.

The raw power of the 50mW Green laser at the ready to signal the aliens.






The different perspectives of other photographers is always welcomed, as I'm often deep in conversation attending to visitors to capture all the scenes.

Thanks Tom, I hope you make it out often and help document our sessions...very cool....

[tomlee]

May 17, 2011 21:57:38 GMT -6 patrickm said:

Tom,
Pictures are a PITA here. You get 1 freebie with the photo button in the "Add Tags" toolbar. To do more than that, you need something like a Photobucket account. Photobucket is cool because it automatically spits out BBS IMG code that looks like this:
[_I_MG_]http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz265/pkmonaghan/9b98b15a.jpg[_/IMG]

The underscores are in the IMG tag to keep it from posting the picture. if you take that out, the photo will just show up.

Photobucket.com also spits out HTML as well, but that doesn't work here, far as I know. So the way I do it is just with a series of pasting in IMG codes for the photos by cutting and pasting into my post. There may be a faster way somebody can teach you, but that's how I've found to do it.

Great to see you last night. Want to hear most about your scope choices and decision process!

The astrophotography scope is was talking about is the Astro-Tech AT65EDQ

It won Cloudy Nights Reader's Choice 2011

Only $549! Damn! It is a straight astrograph (photog scope) though, so not really made for visual. Maybe you want one that will do both? This is now the full extent of my knowledge on these scopes, so seek further advice!
p

Thanks for the info, sound's good already, I will take a look for sure and keep you posted a bit too.

You are just joking about the two long john's, right?

[tomlee]

May 17, 2011 23:20:34 GMT -6 Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe said:

I dig Tom's pics....

...

This one above is nice.

It shows the unbounded energy of kids at the session.

...

This is cool.

The raw power of the 50mW Green laser at the ready to signal the aliens.

...


The different perspectives of other photographers is always welcomed, as I'm often deep in conversation attending to visitors to capture all the scenes.

Thanks Tom, I hope you make it out often and help document our sessions...very cool....

Joe,

Thanks for posting the pics for me, you shouldn't have!

It was about time for me to start getting familiarized with that newer camera of mine. I brought it last November but didn't get a chance to use it much (I am not sure where all the time went).

It's was a good refresh for me to do no flash in dim lit area with people hopping around and I was pretty surprised that the camera knows no darkness. When I can just operate it w/o looking for the buttons and dials ... and pair it with the tripod, like you guys, ... watch out!!

For sure, I will be around the sessions doing more of this plus AP, soon.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Tom,

Flash photography has it's place, but I find that time exposures make for much superior natural images. My crew has come to expect the poses...and stop in mid-conversation......and then continue when I'm done.

I like stopping down the flash to perhaps 1/4 power, use a second curtain exposure together with a 4 second total exposure. This way the subjects are softly illuminated and the background comes out nicely.

In time your nice camera will become part of you and will be a great benefit to the Chicago Astronomers in documenting the action.


Also.....

Patrick tried to get us to wear these...

But it didn't catch on.

Mainly because of the lack of the back door option.

[patrickm]

May 18, 2011 10:58:44 GMT -6 tomlee said:

You are just joking about the two long john's, right?

Nope. For once, I wasn't. Been cold at too many Cubs games! Viewing, being relatively sedentary, can be quite chilly. I just keep a lot of layers around and match as needed.

[patrickm]

Actually, it's something like this!

Attachments:

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Better... but it still ain't got no backdoor.

[atomant]

Thanks, Paulie!
Now I know what Belt of Venus is.